The head of the UN Human Rights Commission in South Sudan, Yasmin Sooka, has emphasized the need for the government to limit national security powers in order to create a more favorable environment for civic engagement.
Speaking in an interview with Sudans Post on Friday, Sooka also stressed the importance of completing the permanent constitution process, as it not only addresses procedural matters but also defines the vision for the country.
“I think the one we say is that it’s really important that the government really ensures that the permanent constitution process is completed. Because that in a sense deal with not just process, but it also deals with what kind of country you want to see,” Sooka said.
The top UN official called for a clear constitutional framework that determines whether the country should be led by a single winning party or a government of national unity that accommodates diverse parties and ethnic groups.
“I think the ruling party sees itself forced to be in alliances with other political groupings and that’s not something they want to see going forward. That’s why we think that if you have the constitution the constitution will actually set out,” she said.
“Are we talking about a sole winner party taking it all? Or are we talking about a government of national unity in which you will have divergent parties and ethnic groups in fact accommodated? And so that’s one of the things we’re saying,” she added.
Furthermore, Sooka highlighted the crucial role played by civil society, media, and journalists in fostering an open space for discussions, electoral debates, and holding government and political officials accountable.
She said that for South Sudan to achieve a conducive civic environment, it has to restrict the powers of the National Security Service (NSS) and the media authority to what is legally mandated, empathizing the need to protect the media and human rights defenders from harassment, arbitrary detention, and secret facilities, known as ghost houses.
“I think the second we’re saying is that if you look at the role played by civil society, the media, and journalists in creating an open space in which there can be discussions, there can be open electoral debates. You can compel answers from different government and political officials about the stance that they’re taking on particular issues,” she said.
“That in fact creates a conducive environment. But to get to that point, you actually have to curb the way in which the NSS has been operating and of course the media authority. And what you have to do is in fact just contain them to what the law sets out they have the authority to do. And that means in fact that you don’t actually harass the media and human rights defenders.
“You don’t arrange for arbitrary detention. You don’t lock them up in ghost houses where nobody ever hears about them afterwards. And of course, another important issue is to really deal with this question of fear. And that also means making sure that you don’t have these illegal renditions which are taking place from neighboring states around Sudan,” she added.
South Sudan is planning for elections at the end of the transitional period in December 2024. If conducted, it would be South Sudan’s first-ever elections since it obtained its independence from neighboring Sudan in July 2011.
But as elections year approaches, the country’s political environment is restrictive, and there have been reports of intimidation and harassment of opposition politicians and civil society activists. This has raised concerns about the ability of all candidates to campaign freely and fairly in the 2024 elections.
The senior UN human rights official further said that there is an impression that the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) faction led by President is intolerant of political activities by other parties, something she said is a concern ahead of the elections.
“The ruling party … held a meeting to announce that the president would in fact be the person who would be running for that role [presidency in 2024 elections] and there were great celebrations around that. But then similarly, when you had the attempt of SSOA to host Lam Akol when he came back to the country, the security services basically shut that down,” Sooka said.
“To me, that’s a sign of great intolerance of the political activities of other parties. I think you could see a similar thing when you look at the fact that recently, Riek Machar also complained about not being able to leave Juba since he came. And I would suggest that that’s also about making sure that in fact, the IO are not able to campaign so freely,” she added.
LAUNCH OF REPORT FROM NAIROBI
Ms. Yasmin’s interview with Sudans Post comes after the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan launched a new report, in Nairobi, Kenya, documenting South Sudan government repression of the media. Sooka said they chosen to launch the report from Nairobi report because the Commission was concerned about the safety of journalists and media outlets in Juba, and that they wanted to ensure that the report would be accessible to the widest possible audience.
Sooka said if they launched the report in Juba, the government would retaliate against journalists and media outlets that would have covered it which she said would have prevented the South Sudanese people from learning about the findings of the report.
“I think that originally when we decided to launch the report, we actually looked at where the report would be covered most widely from, and this is not the first report that we in fact launched from Nairobi. I think in 2017 we launched our report from Nairobi, because I think that Nairobi is also a place where you have quite a wide spectrum of journalists who operate from the region, and that’s the reason we chose to go to Nairobi, and I think that we were also aware of the fact that if we launched it in Juba, while perhaps the international community would cover the content of the report,” she said.
“in fact the media houses and journalists and the electronic media would in fact not be able to cover it in Juba, because if they did so, they would immediately be punished really for doing that, and so we wanted to ensure that in fact there would be the widest possible access to this report, and that is why we went to launch in Nairobi.
“I think that’s been borne out by the large amount of coverage that the report has got, not just in international media, but also in media in the region, because I think the lessons we are learning and I mean, it’s the salutary lesson for all of our countries including my own, that fundamental freedoms come from a free and democratic society based on a constitution with a bill of rights, and of course a conducive environment in which civil society exists,” she added