UN deploys human rights assessment team to South Sudan
October 26, 2015 (JUBA) –The United Nations said its High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, had started deploying a mission to South Sudan to conduct an assessment of the human rights situation in the world’s youngest nation.
Accoriding to the UN, the first three members of the assessment mission, mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, arrived in the South Sudan capital last week.
The mission, Zeid said, will focus on the human rights violations that have affected civilians since the outbreak of violence in the country in December 2013. The assessment report will be presented to the Human Rights Council March next year.
“The team will examine violations of international human rights law and of international humanitarian law committed by actors on both sides of the political divide,” said Zeid.
“Given the time constraints, this will be a preliminary assessment, building on the work done by the human rights division of the UN Mission in South Sudan, and it will advise the Human Rights Council on appropriate follow-up action,” added the senior UN official.
Zeid said the report findings and assessment would contain recommendations for ways to improve the human rights situation in South Sudan, and ensure accountability for gross violations.
In its resolution A/HRC/RES/29/13, the Human Rights Council reportedly stressed the importance of an objective assessment of the human rights situation in South Sudan and called for the deployment of a mission “to monitor and report on the situation of human rights, and to undertake a comprehensive assessment of allegations of violations and abuses of human rights with a view to ensuring accountability and in complementarity with the African Union Commission of Inquiry.”
It also called on the mission “to assess the effectiveness of steps taken by the Government of South Sudan to ensure accountability for human rights violations and abuses, which could include work to establish appropriate criminal justice mechanisms; to decrease and prevent violence against children and the recruitment of child soldiers; to investigate, arrest and prosecute perpetrators of any human rights violations and abuses, and of rape and sexual violence, including those in armed groups and the military; to investigate, arrest and prosecute perpetrators of targeted killings; to increase democratic space, especially for the media and civil society; and to prevent arbitrary detention.”
The High Commissioner for Human Rights said his team looks forward to the full cooperation and support of South Sudan government and the armed opposition (SPLM-IO).
(ST)