On 29 January 2009 Proscovia Svärd visited ACCORD House as part of ACCORD’s partnership with the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI). Ms Svärd was in South Africa to attend a conference in Johannesburg.
While at ACCORD Ms Svärd delivered a seminar entitled “Recording the Past, Toward Truth and Reconciliation in Sierra Leone”. Her presentation focused on her research of the Sierra Leonean Truth and Reconciliation process. She highlighted the importance of public access to and ownership of the historical record of a conflict, and its attendant human rights abuses and war crimes, for reconciliation processes. She also discussed the relationship between public knowledge, ownership and engagement with the legal and political process in relation to post-conflict government legitimacy and accountability.
Ms. Svärd is Project Co-ordinator for a Nordic Documentation Project on the Liberation Struggles of Southern Africa (www.liberationafrica.se) and a Research Administrator for the Nordic Africa Institute’s Research Programme on Post-Conflict Transition, the State and Civil Society. NAI is in a tripartite partnership with ACCORD and UPPSALA University and will contribute towards the development a resource to help plan for and establish ACCORD’s Documentation Centre at the envisaged Africa Peace Centre.
