AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

Technical Assistance to the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Following a brutal 11-year civil war, the Parliamant of Sierra Leone called for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to create "an impartial, historical record of the conflict", "address impunity; respond to the needs of victims; promote healing and reconciliation; and prevent a repetition of the violations and abuses suffered" (http://www.sierra-leone.org/trcataglance.html).

Jana Asher, Senior Program Associate for the Science and Human Rights Program, assisted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission via a data analysis process for the thousands of statements which had been given to them in the course of their work. In collaboration with staff of the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) of the Benetech Initiative, Ms. Asher coauthored the Statistical Appendix to the Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Sierra Leone. More importantly, Jana Asher and Richard Conibere, then a HRDAG consultant, worked together with the Commission to incorporate the statistical findings into the main findings of the report. Patrick Ball of HRDAG also provided some assistance to the Commission.

The dataset and data dictionary for the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission statements are available at the HRDAG website.