The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has joined 102 other NGOs in a letter urging the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to maintain its calls for accountability in South Sudan amid the country’s ongoing and widespread human rights abuses.
The letter notes that the National Security Service (NSS) intelligence agency has been responsible for attacks on human rights defenders and journalists, including editor Emmanuel Monychol Akop, who has been in their custody since November 2024.
“South Sudanese authorities have failed to fully implement a 2018 peace agreement, signed following years of civil war, and have postponed general elections—the first since South Sudan’s 2011 independence,” reads the letter.
The letter also identifies other abuses, including extrajudicial killings, egregious violations of women’s and girls’ rights, and the persistence of localized conflict and intercommunal violence.
It urges the UNHRC to adopt a strong resolution addressing human rights in South Sudan during its upcoming session from February 24 to April 4.
CPJ’s mandate to collect and preserve evidence of, and clarify responsibility for, alleged gross violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes in South Sudan expires in April.