South Sudan announced it has reactivated a rule of law forum between public institutions with a view to providing a space aimed at guiding dialogue among the key stakeholders.
Stakeholders comprise judiciary, interior ministry, Justice and police service whose functions extend to prisons as the key public institutions. Other stakeholders include media, academics, think tanks, national security and military intelligence but whose representative did not take part in one day workshop held on Tuesday by the ministry of justice, legal affairs and constitutional affairs.
Speaking on Tuesday at the ministry of Justice premises, Minister Paulino Wanawila said the reactivation of the forum will help citizens not to be arbitrarily arrested or detained until the due process of the law takes place.
“So the important of this meeting is to coordinate the work of the institutions involved in the enforcement of rule of law and we are reactivating it today and now it will continue to function and we hope that it will help a lot in surfing and even inform the citizens of what we are doing as people who are having moderate nation with the institutions that respect and observe the rule of law”, said Minister Wanawilla.
He continued: We want to coordinate the fact that citizens should not be arbitrarily arrested. They should not be arbitrarily detained and that due process of the law should take place”.
“This particular event is about the reactivation of the rule of law forum. This means there are institutions which are charged with enforcement of the law in the country and those institutions are Ministry of Interior and then Ministry of Justice and Constitution and you have the judiciary”.
The Judiciary of South Sudan (Joss), Ministry of Justice and Constitution Affairs (MoJ&CA), Ministry of Interior, the South Sudan National Police Service and National Prisons Service, are the key institutions empowered to protect, maintain and uphold the rule of law in South Sudan.
The meeting was attended by UNDP county Director, Deputy chief justice among other UN officials outline that the importance of this forum to coordinate and work together to find out that Law is not abuse by anybody.
He cited arbitrary arrest in which some people are arrested by the ministry of interior and investigated by the ministry of Interior. This, he says, has now changed. Investigation is done under the oversight of the ministry of Justice, and it is the ministry of justice that goes before the court to prosecute people. So it is the judiciary that listens and at the end before making a judgment.