HRC58 - Enhanced Interactive Dialogue on the Report of the Commission of Human Rights in South Sudan - EU Statement

Europe Egypt

BRUSSELS, 28 Febuary 2025 / PRN Africa / -- Mr Vice/President, honoured members of the Commission.

We thank you for your persistent efforts to shed light on the human rights situation in South Sudan, and appreciate South Sudan’s continued cooperation with your mandate. We express our sincere hope that your findings will be heard, and your recommendations translated into action.

However, we also share the disappointment of so many South Sudanese citizens that the Transitional Period was prolonged again and that elections have been further delayed. We urge the authorities to make use of this time now, set up the necessary institutions and speed up efforts to fully implement the Peace Agreement. It is our conviction that continued attention and support by the international community until the elections is of utmost importance: it remains essential for the monitoring of, reporting on and collecting of evidence regarding alleged violations and abuses of human rights in South Sudan.

We remain highly concerned by the widespread impunity your report again points out, and are appalled by the gruesome instances of sexual and gender-based violence, including conflict related sexual violence, especially in Western Equatoria. We are further appalled by alarming violence against children, including the forced recruitment and use of children in armed conflict, further limitations on already compressed civic space, and the disappearance of journalists and critical voices. Rampant corruption directly affects the people of South Sudan’s very basis of existence. These misappropriated funds are direly needed to protect their human rights.

Violence begets violence. We therefore call on the authorities to retract the Green Book law in Warrap State, resulting in a rise in extrajudicial executions, and once again reiterate our concern, shared with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, on the arrest without warrant under the National Security Service Act.

Members of the Commission,

What are the most pressing concerns and how can the international community support South Sudan on its path to complete the transition?

Thank you.

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SOURCE European External Action

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