By Benjamin Takpiny
JUBA, South Sudan (AA) - The independent experts of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan have called for accountability on human rights violations and the provision of resources to help people in the East African country.
“There are three deeply troubling patterns across the country. It's entrenched impunity, given that there's no accountability for human rights violations and absolutely no effective response. There's also a complete absence of governance and basic services, particularly in the justice and health care and education sectors, and what you're seeing is really the outcome of years of corruption and predation by political elites,” Yasmin Sooka, the chair of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, said during a press conference in the capital, Juba, after a four-day visit to South Sudan.
Instead of upholding justice, impunity and lawlessness have been entrenched, she argued.
She urged political leaders to prioritize human rights, address the urgent needs of their people, and take meaningful steps to protect more than 2 million refugees and 2 million internally displaced persons.
She said the situation is further compounded by severe international aid cuts, with humanitarian support diminishing and South Sudan's vast oil revenues diverted away from the people.
“We visited Kuacjok in Warrap State, where we were confronted with the stark realities of sexual and gender-based violence. We also met numerous young girls forced into marriage—treated as commodities, exchanged for cattle as dowry. These teenage survivors shared harrowing stories of being coerced into marriages with older men, enduring rape, physical abuse, and forced pregnancies.
“This suffering exists alongside extreme poverty and a complete lack of development. Local authorities lamented their scarce resources, while victims of brutal abuses complained of total lack of access to even the most basic services,” she added.
Barney Afako, another UN expert, called upon the government to address the repression, particularly associated with the National Security Service.
“We have called upon the government to amend the National Security Service Act and repeal the services’ powers of arrest and detention, which continue to be systematically abused, without any effective oversight,” he said.
He urged the government to end the ongoing arbitrary detentions and other violations by the security forces, particularly against members of civil society and the media.
Another expert, Carlos Castresana Fernandez, said that the lack of funding for justice institutions is quite evident.
“The judiciary is completely neglected, deprived of judges and funding, rendering courts incapable of addressing the extreme violence and clashes among communities," the expert said.
He added that the adoption of extrajudicial killings as a state law in Warrap State must be understood in the context of this utter neglect of the lawful mechanisms to address violence.