Second Interim Report: Some Reflections on the Trial Phase at the Special Court for Sierra Leone

Special Report

Special Court for Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone

English

This report is the second in a series of interim analysis reports issued as part of a permanent international monitoring programme at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown. The international monitoring team comprises recent graduates, academics and lawyers who monitor the trials and conduct research on behalf of The War Crimes Studies Center for The University of California, Berkeley. The first of the analysis reports was issued by Sara Kendall and Michelle Staggs in April 2005. The international monitoring team also issues weekly monitoring reports, giving readers an overview of the proceedings at trial. At present, Alison Thompson is writing weekly reports covering the CDF and RUF trials underway in Trial Chamber I. Trial Chamber II has currently adjourned proceedings in the AFRC trial. However, the decision regarding the “Motions for Judgment of Acquittal” in the AFRC trial is being handed down on 31 March 2006.

The purpose of this second interim analysis report is to provide the reader with a snapshot of the trials currently underway at the Special Court, a short synopsis of some of the issues raised during the last year in the Court’s history and a brief overview of the Court’s current hopes for its legacy and the progress it is making in moving towards it. The report engages in an analysis and critique of the proceedings at the Court and in this sense, does not adopt the more neutral reportage-style of the weekly reports. As such, the reader should bear in mind that, unlike the weekly reports, the critique of both the trials and the approaches adopted by the Chambers in this report includes the opinions of the author. The reader is therefore encouraged to review this report in light of the weekly reports referred to in the footnotes, as well as the court’s own website, should she wish to attain a broader, more objective understanding of the issues canvassed herein.

The report is divided into three sections, which comprise a review of some of the more significant decisions relating to the proceedings in each of the two Trial Chambers and a brief review of the cases (in the first two sections) as well as a discussion of the Court’s current hopes for its legacy and the progress it is making in moving towards it (in the third section). As a result, the report looks both retrospectively and prospectively.