South Sudan: Rights groups call for national security law revision
July 26, 2023 (NAIROBI) -South Sudan’s parliament should revise the pending National Security Service Amendment Bill to bring an end to the agency’s arbitrary arrests and other abusive practices, two rights groups said Thursday.
The call is contained a joint letter from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to South Sudan national legislative assembly regarding the national security bill’s “problematic” provisions as well as several positive provisions.
“An in-depth review and revision of outstanding gaps in the law governing the National Security Service is critical to reining in the notorious agency,” said Mausi Segun, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
“Parliament needs to ensure that the pending law genuinely limits the security service’s powers and strengthens oversight of the agency’s activities,” he added.
The current National Security Service Act of 2014 gives the agency broad and unqualified powers that allow it to commit serious abuses with impunity, creating and sustaining a climate of repression and fear. Over the years, various human rights groups have documented that the security agency’s broad powers have contributed to shrinking civic space.
The agency exerts its authority without meaningful judicial or legislative oversight, agents are rarely punished for abuses, and the government lacks the political will to address these widespread practices, the organizations argued.
These abuses, they stressed, have left many victims with long-term physical and mental health conditions.
The bill to amend the 2014 law currently before parliament was drafted by the National Constitutional Amendment Committee (NCAC) as part of the reforms initiated by the September 2018 peace deal. Following lack of consensus by committee members about the agency’s authority to make arrests, the bill was referred to the Justice Ministry in 2019 and then to the presidency in April 2021 for resolution.
In December 2022, the justice minister recommended to the cabinet and presidency that the agency’s authority to arrest and detain suspects be limited.
In February 2023, reports indicated that the presidency had agreed to abolish the agency’s authority to arrest and detain people, with or without a warrant.
The bill also includes a series of positive provisions such as guiding principles founded on a respect for human rights and prohibits torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and prohibits detention or confinement by security agents.
However, while the bill revokes sections 54 and 55 of the National Security Service Act, which gave the agency the authority to arrest with or without a warrant, it retains its arrest authority “under emergency circumstances,” which could be subject to abuse. The bill further allows arrests without a warrant in section 57, if the person is suspected of broad “crimes against the state”.
South Sudan government should order the closure of all unauthorized detention sites operated by the security agency and release detainees or hand them over to legitimate law enforcement officials for charge and fair trial, the groups stated.
(ST)