The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Juba, South Sudan | Xinhua | The United Nations-appointed human rights experts on Monday warned that South Sudan’s peace process needs urgent attention to prevent violence from escalating.
Yasmin Sooka, the chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, called on the international community to swiftly pay more attention to the escalating violence proliferating at a local level all over South Sudan.
Sooka said its critical donors and member states continue to monitor the peace agreement and security sector reform and ensure constitutional legislation is pushed through before elections.
“Without these steps, we are likely to see millions more South Sudanese displaced or crossing borders, creating havoc for neighboring countries and aid agencies,” she said in a statement issued in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.
The UN experts said the parties to the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement for South Sudan signed onto a further two-year extension of the transitional governance arrangements, postponing elections until late 2024.
The Peace Agreement included a national consultation process on establishing the Commission on Truth, Reconciliation, and Healing. Consultations were held in mid-2022 but excluded millions of refugees who had fled fearing for their lives, along with large portions of the country, including those areas under opposition control.
The UN experts said after four years, none of the three proposed transitional justice bodies have come into being — the Commission on Truth, Reconciliation, and Healing, the Hybrid Court, or the Compensation and Reparation Authority.
Andrew Clapham, a member of the team, said survivors in South Sudan, particularly those of repeated incidents of sexual violence told them that criminal accountability is the only way to guarantee their safety and peace in the country.
