15/07/2026
Attorney General Calls for Honest Implementation of TRC Recommendations
Conference Room, Ministry of Defence, Tower Hill, Freetown – Tuesday, 14 July 2026– Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Alpha Sesay Esq., has called on government institutions, civil society, and development partners to renew their commitment to fully implementing the recommendations of Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), stressing that the country's peace and democratic future depend on confronting the past with honesty and action.
Delivering the keynote address at the Review Meeting on the Implementation of the TRC Recommendations, the Attorney General departed from a traditional government speech by sharing his own personal experience as a survivor of Sierra Leone's civil war. "I want to begin not as the Attorney General, but as a Sierra Leonean," he said, recalling how he was internally displaced during the conflict, lost loved ones, and later dedicated his legal career to human rights, transitional justice, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
He described the TRC not as a historical exercise but as a deeply personal process that shaped his professional journey and his understanding of justice. "The question of whether those recommendations are being implemented is not, for me, an administrative question," he stated.
Reflecting on the Commission's work, the Attorney General said the TRC's landmark report, Witness to Truth, documented painful realities about the civil war while offering practical recommendations on reparations, institutional reform, governance, justice, and the protection of women and children. While acknowledging significant achievements since the end of the conflict—including the establishment of the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone, legislative reforms, and accountability efforts through the Special Court—Sesay admitted that implementation has been uneven.
He noted that critical recommendations, particularly those relating to reparations for victims and reforms of governance institutions, remain incomplete more than two decades after the war ended. "The reparations programme has never been fully resourced or operationalised at the scale the report envisioned," he observed, adding that many institutions responsible for implementing the recommendations have failed to provide adequate information for monitoring progress.
As the Government's principal legal adviser, Mr. Sesay reaffirmed the Ministry of Justice's commitment to accelerating implementation of legislative reforms arising from the TRC report.
He announced that the Office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice will conduct a comprehensive review of all legislative recommendations contained in the TRC Report and publicly report on their implementation status as part of the national review process.
He further pledged that his Office would work closely with the Independent Commission for Peace and National Cohesion ICPNC -SL in fulfilling its statutory responsibility to monitor implementation of the TRC recommendations.
Linking the TRC process with the ongoing constitutional review, Mr. Sesay argued that both initiatives pursue the same objective: addressing the governance failures, exclusion, impunity, and institutional weaknesses that contributed to Sierra Leone's civil war. "The new Constitution we are building must respond to those findings," he declared. "The TRC's recommendations are not historical footnotes. They are a blueprint."
In a strong appeal to participants, the Attorney General challenged institutions to embrace three guiding principles.
First, he urged honesty in reporting progress, warning against exaggerating achievements or concealing existing gaps.
Second, he called for specific, measurable, and time-bound commitments rather than broad declarations of support.
Third, he encouraged institutions to remain fully engaged in the implementation process, emphasizing that absence from accountability efforts undermines national reconciliation.
Concluding his address, Alpha Sesay Esq., returned to the voices of victims whose testimonies formed the foundation of the TRC's work. "We owe them more than good intentions. We owe them action," he said, stressing that Sierra Leone also owes future generations institutions that have genuinely learned from the country's painful history.
Referencing the title of the Commission's final report, he ended with a powerful message: "The TRC called its final report Witness to Truth. Let this meeting, and the updated report it produces, be witness to action."
