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Human Rights Watch has urged the African Union Commission to engage the unity government of South Sudan to accelerate the establishment of the hybrid court as stipulated in the 2018 peace agreement.
In a statement at the 67th ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights on Tuesday seen by The EastAfrican, the rights group urged the continental body to launch investigations into allegations of human rights violations.
We call on the African Commission to urge all African States, in particular Tanzania, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Liberia, Guinea, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Nigeria to initiate prompt and impartial investigations into allegations of human rights violations.
“These violations include destruction of property, extrajudicial executions, torture, enforced disappearances, sexual violence and other abuses committed by members of the security force,” said HRW.
In July this year, civil society in South Sudan reiterated calls for the African Union to help form a hybrid court that will address issues of injustice.
The South Sudan Civil Society Forum, a lobby of activists in the country, said the formation of a hybrid court should be accelerated to improve judicial independence.
The court, which will be convened by local and foreign judges from African countries, was proposed as part of efforts to reconcile a country that had been divided on ethnic grounds by nearly seven years of civil war.
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The revitalized peace accord, a peace accord that created a national unity government last February, stipulates that there will be a hybrid tribunal in South Sudan, aimed at holding perpetrators of war accountable in the conflict that has killed some 400,000. people and has forced 4 million. South Sudanese are fleeing their homes, according to UN figures.
Under the peace agreement, the African Union will establish a hybrid court for South Sudan to investigate and prosecute people suspected of having committed crimes since the conflict began in December 2013.
But its creation has been a controversial issue, with Juba authorities, led by President Salva Kiir, arguing that it could open up old wounds.
Since the formation of the unity government in February this year, which brought together Kiir and his former nemesis Riek Machar, little has been mentioned regarding Chapter 5 of the pace of peace that stipulates the establishment of the court.
The Transitional Government of National Unity, as the new structure is known, has argued in the past that trying to “get out” perpetrators of violence when negotiating peace may dissuade them from accepting or abiding by the agreement.
He advocated “peace before justice.”
The government often dismisses reports of rights violations, saying they are “clearly orchestrated to tarnish the government’s image.”
