The UN Assistant Secretary-General for human rights, Andrew Gilmour, called for those committing atrocity crimes in South Sudan to be held accountable.
“This is a war that has been waged against the men, women and children of South Sudan,” he said in a statement at the end of a four-day visit to South Sudan.“And the only way of ending this onslaught will be when the perpetrators face consequences for what they are doing.”
Gilmour held meetings in Juba with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Minister of Information, the Chief of General Staff of the SPLA, the Director General of the National Security Service, representatives of the South Sudan Human Rights Commission, local authorities, religious leaders, UN and humanitarian partners, as well as NGOs, victims and civil society actors.
During his visit, Gilmour also travelled to Malakal, where he received further information concerning the suffering of the civilian population in the area.
“Although this is the fourth time I’ve been in South Sudan since 2011, I wasn’t prepared for the shocking devastation I witnessed in Malakal and even more by the clear pattern of systematic human rights violations and abuses suffered by the population,” Gilmour said.
According to the statement, Andrew was informed of the appalling risks that women, now living under UN protection, are forced to take in order to be able to earn even the most meagre livelihood.
“It is utterly abhorrent that women in this area have to choose between getting raped or getting a livelihood,” Gilmour said, “But this seems the brutal reality of what South Sudan has become.”
In March 2016, the UN human rights office issued a detailed report which documents the horrendous patterns of sexual violence in the country.
In his meetings with the authorities in Juba, Gilmour raised concerns about the unspeakable human rights situation throughout the country. He urged the authorities to combat the worrying rise of hate speech and to do more to protect human rights defenders.