President Salva Kiir has submitted to South Sudan’s national assembly the declaration of emergency for approval. The parliament is expected to sit Monday to consider the matter.
Kiir on 1 January declared a state of emergency in two states, Jonglei and Unity, giving him extraordinary powers to suspend certain constitutional protections afforded to citizens under the Bill of Rights.
According to the country’s transitional constitution, Article 187 (3), the president’s emergency powers do not extend to infringing on the rights to life, protection from torture, and the right to fair trial or litigation, but they do allow him to suspend other parts of the Bill of Rights.
A separate provision of the same article (187.2) requires the president to submit the declaration to the National Legislature within fifteen days of the issuance of the declaration. “When the National Legislature is not in session, an emergency session shall be convened,” says the constitution.
Joy Kwaje, chairperson of the Information and Culture Committee in the national parliament, told Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday that the parliament was today recalled from recess in order to approve the declaration.
According to Kwaje, the Office of the President submitted a letter to the Speaker of the Parliament on 11 January seeking approval of declaration. She noted this means that they have met the deadline of 15 days required by the constitution.
The chairperson added that she expects the parliament to be back in session on Monday and the matter would not take long to handle. She acknowledged that many MPs were missing, in most cases because they had gone for leave.
File photo: National Parliament of South Sudan in session (Gurtong)