As part of efforts to enhance community awareness of accountability mechanisms and achieving stability, the Abductees’ Mothers Association and SAM for Rights and Liberties, in partnership with the DT Institute, organized a specialized human rights awareness session in the city of Aden entitled:
“Transitional Justice: Awareness for Sustainable Peace in Yemen.”
The session was held within the activities of the Transitional Justice Ambassadors Forum, under the project “Supporting Peace in Yemen through Accountability, Reconciliation, and Knowledge Sharing (SPARK).”
Core Objectives to Empower Local Actors
The session aimed to raise the capacity and awareness of participants, including lawyers, media professionals, and university students, regarding the concepts of transitional justice, and to train them on how to play a pivotal role in advocating for victims’ causes and strengthening societal accountability, in order to ensure a transition from conflict to lasting peace.
Session Themes: From Justice to Reconciliation
During the session, facilitator Laila Al-Shabibi presented the conceptual framework of transitional justice, emphasizing that it is not a tool for revenge, but rather an integrated system of judicial and non-judicial measures aimed at uncovering the truth and determining the fate of victims and the forcibly disappeared, ensuring accountability through the prosecution of those responsible for grave violations, providing reparations and compensating victims materially and morally while restoring their dignity, and reforming institutions to prevent the recurrence of violations and to protect human rights in the future.
Community Engagement and Specialized Roles
The session featured in-depth discussions on the relationship between justice and democratic transition, away from narrow concepts of political power-sharing. It also highlighted the gender perspective and the essential role of women in justice processes and the systematic documentation of violations.
As part of the interactive component, participants were divided into three specialized working groups, legal, media, and academic, which concluded by presenting practical proposals covering the legal track, the media track, and the academic/student track.
The session concluded by emphasizing that achieving peace in Yemen is contingent upon delivering justice to victims and building strong societal trust. Participants commended the efforts of the organizing bodies for shedding light on these sensitive issues at this critical time.
