Human Rights Watch said in a report released today that national courts in South Sudan are not now able to end the reigning ‘era of injustice’ and that either a hybrid court or the International Criminal Court should be involved in trying war criminals.
Human Rights Watch says that national courts have major deficiencies and cannot ensure credible, fair trials of abusive commanders and other perpetrators.
On the other hand, “Hybrid mechanisms – which involve varying degrees of participation by international and domestic judges and staff – have important advantages,” reads the report.
The reports points out that the hybrid court model has been used in other countries in Europe, Africa and Asia including Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chad and Cambodia.
The involvement of foreign judges in the hybrid mechanism would help to “insulate the process from political pressure” as well as help protect witnesses, prosecutors and judges from intimidation, according to Human Rights Watch.
The rights group says the civil war has seen “widespread acts of cruelty,” “extraordinary levels of destruction,” “gruesome massacres” and other acts of “shocking brutality.”
“The unaddressed abuses and bloody cycle of ethnic revenge killings in the South Sudan conflict create an urgent need to hold those responsible for atrocities to account,” said Elise Keppler, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch.
“But domestic will and capacity to prosecute the cases in South Sudan is not there.”
The 38-page report, “Ending the Era of Injustice,” cites the views of South Sudanese judges, prosecutors, private lawyers, victims and government officials and others. It is available for download here.
File photo: A mass grave in Bor (Radio Tamazuj)