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Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone establishes Truth and Reconciliation Commission

United Nations human rights experts helped draft the statute for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up by the Parliament of Sierra Leone to document the country's human rights history, a UN spokesman said today.
The Commission, established by the parliament on Tuesday, will be composed of three international commissioners and four national commissioners who will create an "impartial historical record of violations and abuses of human rights and humanitarian law" and promote reconciliation to prevent further abuses.

Called for by the Lomé Peace Agreement, the Commission would cover the period from the beginning of the conflict in 1991 to the signing of last year's Lomé accord.

The human rights experts, who were provided by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, helped draft the statute of the Commission.