7 August 2023
How do Africa’s youth feel about key transitional justice priorities such as violent masculinities and mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS)?
Impunity Watch and the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) are pleased to launch our latest policy briefs on these topics:
- Youth perspectives on gender and masculinities in Burundi, the DRC, Mali and South Sudan: Promoting effective transitional justice policies in Africa
EnglishFrench - The role of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in transitional justice: Perspectives from African youth in DRC, Mali, Burundi and South Sudan
EnglishFrench
This is part of our multi-annual strategy to connect youth voices to transitional justice policymaking at the African Union (AU).
On 16-17 August 2023, join us online on Zoom (14:00–15:30 CEST/ GMT +2) to hear from the youth themselves.
We’ll present the research findings from the youth participants and discuss their policy recommendations–bringing their perspectives to the attention of policymakers.
Background: Why focus on masculinities and MHPSS
Wars, conflicts and crises, giving rise to international crimes and gross human rights violations, often leave individual and collective trauma in their wake. Such traumas tend to compound already existing structures of inequality and marginalisation, which can also produce serious obstacles to mental health and emotional wellbeing.
There is increasing international awareness of the need to integrate mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) as a core component of transitional justice (TJ) to safeguard against recurrence of conflicts and gross human rights violations. Yet, youth perspectives on trauma and the psychosocial impacts of conflict often go undiscussed.
In addition, the African Union’s Transitional Justice Policy (AUTJP) calls for transitional justice (TJ) mechanisms that not only deliver justice, but also transform fundamental gender biases in societies. Whereas gender considerations are a staple of most TJ discussions on the continent, masculinities as a cause and consequence of violence is a relatively novel concept. For truly gender transformative TJ policies, the youth perspective on gender norms must again be taken into account.
Impunity Watch and CSVR conducted research in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mali, and South Sudan on three key subjects: youth participation, masculinities, and MHPSS. A total of 360 young people participated in focus group discussions and 36 youth experts joined individual interviews across the four countries. A first policy brief on youth inclusion in transitional justice policymaking was launched via a virtual event in February 2022.