The 49th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council

28 February to 1 April 2022

Item 4: Interactive Dialogue with the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan

18 March 2022

Statement by International Organisation for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

Delivered by Patricia Jjuuko / GICJ

Thank you, President.

We acknowledge the recent developments in South Sudan including the deployment of mobile courts to prosecute and try perpetrators in areas affected by violence and those in which the formal justice structure is not fully operational. However, we remain concerned about the alarming incidences of intercommunal violence, the most recent one being the attack reported by armed youth from the Murle community carried out in two villages in Baidit, in which 32 people from the Dinka Bor community were killed.

In this regard, we would like to ask the Commission on human rights in South Sudan: what is being done to ensure that the mobile courts operate effectively to deliver justice in a timely manner?

EAFORD and Geneva International Centre for Justice call on the Government of South Sudan, which has the primary responsibility of protecting its civilians, to carry out timely investigations and that the perpetrators be held accountable.

We are also deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation caused by climate change. Flooding in the last quarter of 2021 affected and displaced more than 835,000 people, impacting livelihoods, food production, drinking water supply and the loss of access to basic human rights such as health and education facilities. We cannot stress enough the urgency for the international community to cooperate and find feasible solutions to these predicaments.

Thank you.