Enlivening Transitional Justice within the African Union's Agenda of Silencing the Guns: Looking Beyond 2020

The African Union (AU) declared 2020 the year of "Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa's Development." The motivation for this theme was to provide impetus for activities to advance the 2013 Solemn Declaration to realise a conflict-free Africa by 2020. This policy paper argues that the AU and its member states must maintain fidelity to the noble objectives of the Solemn Declaration and utilise the extended 10-year period for the AU Master Roadmap on Practical Steps to Silence the Guns by the Year 2020 to ensure that actionable programmes which further peace, security and justice are achieved. A lot of normative progress has been achieved in the last decade, as the 2019 adoption of the AU Transitional Justice Policy indicates, yet the persistent challenge lies in the effective implementation of these instruments at the regional, national and local levels.