UN Commissioners on Human Rights return to South Sudan

JUBA/GENEVA, 13 February 2023 – Members of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan will begin their eleventh visit to South Sudan on Tuesday, 14 February 2023. 

Barney Afako and Andrew Clapham are the two Commissioners* taking part in the mission from 14 to 18 February. The experts are expected to meet Government officials, members of civil society, jurists, UN agencies and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). They plan to discuss the human rights situation in South Sudan, including the Commission’s latest findings and recommendations on priority areas for the country, following the signing of a two-year extension to the 2018 Revitalized Peace Agreement.

The Commissioners will hold a press conference on Friday, 17 February 2023 at 09.00 AM at the UNMISS Headquarters in Tomping, Juba.

The Commission will present its reporting on the human rights situation in South Sudan to the UN Human Rights Council in early March 2023, in Geneva.

ENDS

*The third member of the Commission is its chairperson, Yasmin Sooka.

Background on the Commission:
The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan is an independent body mandated by the UN Human Rights Council. First established in March 2016, the Commission is mandated to investigate the situation of human rights in South Sudan, and to determine and report the facts and circumstances of human rights violations and abuses, including by clarifying responsibility for violations and abuses that are crimes under national and or international law. To assist in addressing impunity in South Sudan, the Commission is also mandated to collect and preserve evidence, and to make this available to transitional justice mechanisms, including the hybrid court for South Sudan that is to be established under Chapter 5 of the Revitalised Peace Agreement of 2018.

For more information about the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, see its webpage.

For media queries, please contact:
JUBA: Rajeev PS rajeev.puthenpurackalsunilkumar@un.org or +211 912174078.
GENEVA: Rolando Gomez, rolando.gomez@un.org or +41 79 477 4411; or Todd Pitman, todd.pitman@un.org or +41 76 691 1761.

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