The UN Human Rights in South Sudan on Monday called for the establishment of a Hybrid Court enshrined in the 2018 peace deal to try perpetrators of Gender-Based violence (GBV).
UN human rights commissioner based in South Sudan Andrew Clapham, stressed the need to severely punish perpetrators of Gender-Based violence (GBV) for their actions in order to avert its progress.
“Survivors of repeated sexual violence in South Sudan, tell us again and again that criminal accountability is the only way to guarantee their safety and peace for the country which is the reason why setting up the Hybrid Court is non-negotiable,” Clapham said.
Chapter 5 of the peace deal signed by Kiir and first vice president Riek Machar, who formerly led a rebellion against Kiir’s government, calls for establishment of a Hybrid Court, transitional justice, accountability, reconciliation, and healing institutions.
Barney Afako, Commissioner of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan disclosed that while in New York, the Commissioners also spoke at a Global Survivors Forum hosted by Nobel Peace Prize winners, Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad.
Afako said a Global Survivors forum examined best practices for reparations of victims of sexual violence.
“You can neither exclude large numbers of people whose voices matter in the future justice system nor go solo on this matter because the different transitional justice bodies should work together for the betterment of the country,” Afako said.
He urged the Government of South Sudan to by all means available make reparations to survivors whose lives are shattered by the conflict that have ravaged South Sudan for a reasonably time now.
The UN mission in South Sudan contends that although armed conflict is declining in the country, conflict-related to sexual violence is steadily gaining momentum in the country.
In a report, the mission disclosed that there was a whopping 218% increase in rape cases in the world’s youngest nation between April and June and implored the government to save women and girl children from this unfortunate trend.
A UN panel of experts has on several occasions accused the government of delaying and obstructing the process of establishing the Hybrid Court.
