Community-based restorative justice in peacebuilding: A case Study of Liberia’s Palava Hut pilot project

This study is about the Palava Hut pilot project, a community-based truth telling program that arose from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia’s main findings and recommen-dations (2013). In line with the Strategic Roadmap for National Healing Peacebuilding and Rec-onciliation. The technique of Palava Hut is that within a local discussion place, people go to find solutions to wrongs that have been committed within the community. This traditional style of conflict mitigation and resolution (practiced among three ethnic groups in Liberia) has been adapted since 2013 for national purposes for reconciliation and peacebuilding. Looking at project documents and other official and unpublished materials, such as evaluation reports and newspa-pers the aim was to critically analyse the Palava Hut pilot project. Through a focused case study, this research analyses whether the Palava Hut approach was the best alternative for reconciliation. What other approaches have been proposed? Did it meet people’s need for peace and restorative justice? How did issues of gender justice affect the participation of victims within the Palava Hut pilot project? And who seem to be the ‘winners’? How was the concept of gender incorporated within the conceptualization of the Palava Hut pilot project and how have the concept of gender affected the roles and participation of women within the Palava Hut pilot project? The study concludes that some key elements missing from the Palava Hut pilot project include accountability, gender inclusion, and the engagement of stakeholders in identifying alternative justice needs, obli-gations and genuine truth-telling.