The United Nations is expanding its support for South Sudan’s government despite accusations from its own human rights monitors of violations committed by that government.
In recent months, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Institution for Training and Research (UNITAR), and UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) have scaled up or started new programs in support of South Sudan’s security sector and at national, state, and local government institutions.
Much of this support is in the form of “capacity building,” a term used to describe training or technical assistance. The UN has provided such support for various government entities including the police, prisons, and ministry of justice.
Such support comes despite explicit recommendations by the UN’s Office for the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) against international support for the government of South Sudan due to alleged human rights offenses.
A recent report by the OHCHR lists a number of alleged abuses carried out by the government’s security forces in 2015, including sexual slavery, mass rape, murder of thousands of civilians, and forced starvation.
Presidential Press Secretary Ateny Wek has called this report unethical and unfounded.
Nonetheless, OHCHR advised other United Nations bodies, “Supporting any capacity building activities to government entities would implicitly condone the violations.”
“Given the findings in this report, that in 2015, state actors primarily bore the greatest responsibility for the violations of both international human rights law and international humanitarian law in the face of a weakened opposition force, it is not timely to re-introduce UN assistance in the form of training and other support to government entities,” the report concluded.
The report added that the government has shown no serious committment to justice for crimes committed during the ongoing war, and that any support should be contingent on removal of suspected perpetrators of human rights abuses from the government, and the government’s cooperation with a Hybrid Court.
Even so, UNDP has scaled up its programming in South Sudan recently, including to government entities which have been implicated in some of the atrocities.
Support to the police
One of the biggest new programmes is a partnership between UNDP and South Sudan’s police. A year and a half ago UNDP started supporting the ‘777’ emergency response unit of South Sudan’s police force. The programme began in Juba, and has included provision of information technology and communications equipment, training and equipping of responders, printing of registers, and provision of solar power for the ‘777’ through funding by Japan’s government.
UNDP has also provided premises, furniture, technical support, training, and maintenance of the ‘777’ equipment in Juba using German funding.
“It is a unique initiative with the government, private partners and development partners playing their respective roles to improve public security in Juba,” UNDP told Radio Tamazuj.
The programme has since expanded to Wau, where UNDP last month graduated 161 police officers for an emergency response center in that town. UNDP also helped renovate and furnish six emergency call center units in the town.
This is not the first time that the UN has supported capacity building for South Sudan’s police service.
The OHCHR report noted that between 2005 and 2014, the UN’s capacity building efforts prioritized criminal justice with a focus on police, prosecutors, judges and prisons, as well as training on sexual and gender-based violence. The report added that international police and prison experts have worked in South Sudan training their South Sudanese counterparts for more than a decade too.
“However, despite the considerable human and financial capital expended, there was modest success in all of these areas,” the report said. “Some members of that same police force [supported by the UN] were implicated in the killings of civilians in December 2013.”
UNDP did not respond to questions emailed more than two weeks ago asking why it was supporting the police given the OHCHR’s recommendations and whether it would halt or adapt its planned programs in light of the rights report. However, a recent blog posted on the UNDP South Sudan website sheds some light on the agency’s stance.
“It’s absolutely essential not to look for odds in the past but refocus our energy and resources for the better future,” wrote Dominic K. Aurelio, a Programme Associate at UNDP South Sudan in a blog posted on the agency’s website. “If investing in capacity building sector doesn’t change people’s attitude towards developments – then, it’s high time that we invest in infrastructures developments to change people’s attitude in quest to strengthened institutions.”
‘Political issues’
UNDP is also expanding its Civil Service Support Officers (CSSO) programme, which brings in civil servants from neighboring countries like Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia to work with and train government employees.
By the end of 2016, according to UNDP, 139 CSSOs will deploy in South Sudan. They will be deployed in 15 national institutions including eight ministries, as well as other government entities.
So far, South Sudan’s Ministry of Interior has received four CSSOs under the programme, including an information technology expert, a finger prints expert, and an automobile engineer. Further, one financial expert has been deployed to the prisons service.
Thirty state or local institutions will receive CSSO trainers, too. These civil servants will be placed in all of South Sudan’s ten states except Jonglei, Unity, and Upper Nile.
UNDP in collaboration with UNMISS’ Human Rights Division has recently supported South Sudan’s Ministry of Justice through a separate programme training the ministry to comply with the Universal Periodic Review, which is a UN process of human rights reporting meant to be carried out by all member states.
UNMISS has also assisted UNDP in the police training programme. Last week, UNMISS conducted a joint operation with the South Sudan National Police Service and the army to dismantle a market near one of its bases. UNMISS said the exercise took place due to requests by local community leaders.
Before the current conflict, UNMISS was mandated in part to support South Sudan’s government through state-building projects. This changed in July 2014 after the war began, yet UNMISS has continued its support, including by constructing police posts, roads, schools, and drainages.
Meanwhile, UNITAR is expanding its support for the state by bringing 25 South Sudanese citizens from government and civil society to Japan for five months of “specialized capacity building training.”
UNITAR Training Officer Shamsul Hadi was unable to provide data on how many came from government and which institutions they represent, but information on UN websites lists affiliations with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, the Office of State Protocol, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Labour.
In response to emailed questions, Shamsul declined to elaborate on whether UNITAR’s work with these institutions potentially conflicts with the OHCHR’s recommendations regarding alleged human rights violations. “We cannot comment on any of political issues,” he told Radio Tamazuj.
“Our training program is aiming to empower working individuals from non-governmental organizations, private sector organizations, civil society as well as public sectors organizations to improve their performance and deliver needed services to the people of South Sudan,” explained the UN official.
UNDP to expand government support
UNDP says it is looking to further expand its programmes in support of the South Sudanese government. They have launched a new country plan with three main target areas for development. One of those target areas is “peace and government,” which would likely include support for the state.
Two weeks ago, the agency held a meeting in Juba appealing for donations from various foreign nations and institutions to fund its initiatives to support the government.
According to the press release, UNDP said it would scale up its existing projects and launch new initiatives in various government sectors including good governance, community security, policy advisory services, and transitional justice. The press release said UNDP will also aim to continue enhancing capacity building to civil servants and the rule-of-law sector.
Representatives from Norway, The Netherlands, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, France, China, and the EU, as well as the UK’s Department for International Development, US Agency for International Development, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank attended the meeting.
According to the press release, Norwegian representative Gunnar Holm said: “We are interested in engaging further on UNDP’s proposed country programme.”
File photo: President Salva Kiir, General Paul Malong and members of the national police service at a rally on 9 July 2015 (Credit: Radio Tamazuj)
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