The United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan has raised concern over the continued violations of human rights in the country.
Two commissioners, Barney Afako and Andrew Clapham arrived in Juba on Tuesday and met with the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Ruben Madol Arol, to discuss a report produced by the Commission on the human rights situation in South Sudan.
Speaking to Journalists after the meeting, Afako said their meeting with the justice minister focused on the Commission’s report on the continued human rights violation in South Sudan and how to hold perpetrators accountable.
“We have come on a four-day mission in which we will be engaging representatives of the government and we will also be going to Malakal because we want to meet with various stakeholders including survivors and victims of some of the violations that we have seen in this country. We have prepared a report on the human rights situation in this country which we will be presenting to the Human Rights Council in March,” he said. “Today we were discussing that report and hearing the views of the government which will have an opportunity to respond in full to that report in March.”
According to Afako, also said they wanted to confirm their invitation to the government for a workshop slated for next week in Mombasa, Kenya, which will discuss transitional justice issues including the establishment of the Commission of Truth, Reconciliation, and Healing, the Hybrid Court, and Compensation and Reparations Authority.
“We are glad that the government will be participating in that workshop and we think that it will make an important contribution to the way that the country deals with questions of violations of the past and fights impunity,” he added. “In that report, we have described the human rights situation during the last year and we found that violence and abuses have continued and become cyclical. So, we are asking what it will take to break the cycle of violence and we believe the political leadership can take steps to address this.”
Meanwhile, Commissioner Andrew Clapham said the report identified violators who have to be held individually accountable and prosecuted.
“One of the things we pointed out in the meeting is that many of these human rights violations constitute crimes for which individuals should be individually held accountable,” he said. “So, we discussed with the minister the possibilities of prosecutions before military courts and the ordinary courts and we are working on capacity building.”
“That report details incidents where we have identified individuals who we feel should be prosecuted as a matter of criminal law,” Clapham added.
On his part, Dr. Gabriel Isaac, the undersecretary in the justice ministry described their meeting as fruitful.
“The meeting was fruitful and the parties agreed that they will elaborate and discuss more the on issues of transitional justice and human rights violations in the workshop to be conducted next week in Mombasa,” Isaac said. “The justice minister expressed the government’s will to implement the peace agreement in letter and spirit.”