Database of Victims and Survivors of Political Violence in Lesotho

Explanatory Note

Lesotho Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (LCN) and the Strategic Institute for Research and Dialogue (SIRD)

18 August 2025

Definition of terms

Victims:

Individuals or groups who have directly suffered harm as a result of political violence or human rights violations. This harm may be physical, psychological, social, or economic in nature. Victims include those who were killed, tortured, exiled, arbitrarily arrested, or otherwise deprived of their fundamental rights.

Survivors:

Individuals or groups who endured political violence or human rights violations and lived through the experience. Unlike victims who may have been killed, survivors carry forward their experiences, often with lasting psychological, social, or economic impacts.

Perpetrators:

State or non-state actors who directly or indirectly committed, facilitated, or ordered acts of political violence or human rights violations. This includes political leaders, members of security forces, armed groups, and other individuals who engaged in killings, torture, arbitrary detention, forced disappearances, or other abuses.

Political Violence:

The use of force, coercion, or intimidation by individuals, groups, or the state with the aim of achieving political objectives. It is violence that is motivated by, directed toward, or justified in terms of political goals, such as gaining, maintaining, or challenging power, authority, resources, or legitimacy.

Human Right Violations:

Human rights violations are acts, omissions, or policies that deny, ignore, or abuse the basic rights and freedoms that every individual is entitled to under international, continental, regional, and/or national human rights law.

1. Introduction

The Lesotho Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (LCN) and the Strategic Institute for Research and Dialogue are jointly implementing a project under the theme “Popularising the African Union Transitional Justice Policy (AUTJP) and Documenting Victims of Political Violence in Lesotho”. This project is part of a continental programme under the umbrella of the Initiative for Transitional Justice in Africa (ITJA)- a consortium comprising International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) and Africa Transitional Justice Legacy Fund (ATJLF). It is being implemented in eight (8) African countries, namely Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Niger, Lesotho, South Sudan and Zimbabwe. The project is administered by the Africa Transitional Justice Legacy Fund (ATJLF) based in Accra, Ghana. It is funded by the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU).  

The implementation of the Lesotho transitional justice project began in July 2024 and is to be completed in September 2025. It responds to Lesotho’s long history of political instability and recurrent violence and human rights violation, which have undermined peace, democracy, and social cohesion. Its overall purpose is to foster a culture of peace, reconciliation, accountability, and justice in Lesotho. Its specific objectives are two, namely:

1. Popularisation the AUTJP among stakeholders through consultations and dialogues, and,
2. Research and development of a comprehensive database of victims and survivors of political violence.

Essentially, the project provides both a policy framework foundation and a reference evidence base for transitional justice policy design in Lesotho.

This explanatory note serves to provide an overview of the database, outlining its rationale, intended audience, and practical utility as a tool for policy, advocacy, and research. It introduces the Lesotho TJ project in this introduction section. It then introduces the database in the section immediately below. The third section explains the methodology used in compiling the database and highlight its limitations. The fourth section illustrates the practical utility of the database. The fifth and final section concludes with reflections on the broader significance of the database for transitional justice in Lesotho.

2. Introduction to the Database

The Database of Victims and Survivors of Political Violence in Lesotho is one of the key outputs of the LCN–SIRD transitional justice project in Lesotho. It is designed as a living record of human rights violations committed during the country’s conflict-ridden political history (1966 to 2025). The database serves as baseline evidence that violations occurred and remain unredressed, making a strong case for the adoption of a National Transitional Justice Policy. It also serves as a starting point for the gathering of personalised data and a repository of the victims and survivors of human rights violations and political violence. Each record captures essential information, as summarised in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Key Components of the Database

3. Approach and Methodology

The general approach employed for the development of the database was two-pronged: (a) periodization approach and (b) exploratory approach. Periodisation as an approach refers to the method of dividing history, events, or processes into distinct chronological phases or periods in order to make them easier to study, analyze, and understand. It is commonly used in history, political science, conflict studies, and social sciences. At its core, periodisation is about breaking down complex developments into manageable timeframes that highlight changes, continuities, and turning points. Table 2 below sums up the periodisation used for the database covering 1966-2025.

Table 2: Phases of Political Violence in Lesotho

An exploratory approach is a way of studying a topic, problem, or phenomenon when little is known about it, with the goal of gaining preliminary insights, generating ideas, and identifying patterns rather than producing final or conclusive answers. It is especially common in research, policy analysis, and problem-solving when the issue is complex, poorly understood, or under-researched. The development of the database was guided by an exploratory approach. This approach served as a basic fact-finding mission to uncover the nature and extent of unaddressed political violations. This approach was adopted for practical and ethical reasons: resources and time were limited, and professional psychosocial services were not readily available to protect survivors from re-traumatisation.

Data collection techniques used included archival research and key informant interviews. Archival research is a research method that involves the systematic study and analysis of existing records, documents, and other primary sources preserved in archives, libraries, databases, or other repositories. Researchers use it to investigate past events, ideas, institutions, and practices by working with original evidence rather than generating new data.

Archival research involved consulting historical records, published literature, and media reports to compile a preliminary list of cases that remained unresolved or insufficiently addressed. This was followed by purposive sampling to identify informants with direct knowledge of past violations. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted, allowing participants to narrate their experiences openly and in their own words, thereby providing detailed and context-rich accounts.

To widen coverage, the team employed snowball sampling, in which initial participants referred researchers to other survivors, relatives, or witnesses. The snowballing research technique (also called snowball sampling in research methodology) is a method used to identify and recruit study participants or sources through referrals from initial contacts. The idea is that one person (or source) leads you to another, who then leads you to another, and so on—like a snowball growing as it rolls.

This method proved useful in accessing individuals who might otherwise have remained unknown or reluctant to participate, thereby expanding the reach of the database while maintaining credible links to established cases.

Finally, the information gathered was organised according to the six phases of political violence outlined in Table 2 above and organized in accordance with Table 1 above. A filtering mechanism was applied to exclude records that could not be substantiated, especially those that appeared isolated from the broader historical context. This ensured that the database remained credible while reflecting its exploratory and evolving character.

4. Limitations of the Database

While valuable, the database is not without challenges. These are summarised in Table 3 below.

Table 3: Limitations and Mitigation Measures

5. How to Use the Database

The database is meant as a policy and advocacy tool to support truth-seeking, accountability, redress and healing processes. Table 4 shows how different stakeholders can use it.

Table 4: Practical Use of the Database

6. Conclusion

The establishment of this database marks an essential step in Lesotho’s pursuit of justice, accountability, redress, reconciliation, institutional reform and national healing. By systematically documenting victims and survivors of political violence across six historical periods, the initiative demonstrates the persistence of unredressed human rights violations and their lasting impact on the country’s democratic and social fabric. As such, the database provides a credible evidence base that can inform national dialogue, policymaking, and the design of a contextually grounded Transitional Justice (TJ) framework.

While the database remains exploratory and non-exhaustive, its value lies in laying the foundation for a repository of victims and survivors. With the support of government institutions, civil society, and the international community, this database can serve as both a moral and practical resource in Lesotho’s journey toward sustainable peace. It calls for continued investment in victim-centred processes, ethical documentation, and institutional accountability, ensuring that past violations are not forgotten but instead serve as lessons for building a just and reconciled society.