Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The Chair of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Commission on South Sudan, Yasmin Sooka, and human rights lawyer, Barney Afako, are expected to visit Juba on a six days mission on Monday to assess the status of peace implementation.
The two commissioners will be expected to meet with key government ministers, members of civil society, religious leaders, diplomats, entities monitoring the 2018 Revitalised Peace Agreement, UN agencies, and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
As part of these meetings, they will discuss and support the transitional justice mechanisms under the Revitalised Agreement, following a related hosted conference by the commission in December 2021 in Nairobi, Kenya.
The visit is also aimed at accessing the status of human rights violations in the country and preparing a report to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in March this year.
The expected visits come amidst a series of calls on the government by the international community to respect human rights following reports of human rights abuses such as rape, arbitrary arrest, torture, and disappearances in the country.
Recently in October 2021, the UN Human Rights Council called on the government to honour the freedom of expression enshrined in the country’s transitional constitution, lamenting the continued violence in the country.
The council noted that the severe suffering caused by ongoing violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, displacement, and arbitrary detentions, was unacceptable.
It also expressed concern over increased restrictions on freedom of expression in response to calls for a peaceful protest, which the council said was of deep concern.
In April last year, the EU embassies of France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the Office of the Swedish Embassy in Juba raised concerns over the arrest of activists on the failure to honour people’s constitutional rights to peacefully protest.
The EU urged that the implementation of the slow peace pace agreement was imperative to guarantee every citizen the right to freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly.
The Commission
The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan—an independent body mandated by the UN Human Rights Council—was established in March 2016 to investigate the situation of human rights in the country.
The commission determines and reports the facts and circumstances of human rights violations and abuses, including clarifying responsibility for violations and abuses that are crimes under national and international law.
To assist in addressing impunity in South Sudan, the commission is also mandated to collect and preserve evidence, and to make this available to transitional justice mechanisms, including the hybrid court for South Sudan yet to be established under Chapter Five of the 2018 Revitalised Peace Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS).
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