Reparations – 2009
2009
The chief of the Human Rights Section of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Lone (UNIPSIL) said, at the official launch of the reparations program by the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA), that the lack of political will result in implementation delays.1
The National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA), which was running the reparations program, lacked funding to run the program. Of the US$14 million required for 2009-10, NaCSA had less than US $3.5 million for the program. The bulk of the funding for 2009 came from the UN Peacebuilding Fund. Reparations to victims came in the form of housing, skills training, health care, education and agricultural assistance, as well as symbolic activities such as reburials, memorials and remembrance ceremonies.2 Up to 100,000 Sierra Leoneans, among them amputees and other war-wounded, victims of sexual violence, war widows and children who were eligible for post-war reparations, had yet to receive any compensation.3