Since the beginning of the crisis in 2013, there have been numerous reports of arbitrary arrests and detentions (see sections 1.a., 1.c. and 1.g.). During the 2013 crisis, the PSLA was badly fragmented, with roughly half of its forces defecting to the opposition. However, the SPLA regularly exercised police functions, in part due to its limited presence and general ineffectiveness of law enforcement in many parts of the country.
Outside the Greater Upper Nile conflict zone (Unity, Upper Nile and Jonglei States), there were reports of increased violence across the Equatoria during the second half of the year. There were press and other reports that during the fighting in Equator, the. During the year, aid workers reported increased government interference and harassment, particularly after the UN expulsion on 1 June.
Respect for Civil Liberties, Including
Freedom of speech and expression: Civil society organizations must register with the government under the 2003 NGO Act. The government suppressed dissenting voices and forced some civil society organizations and media houses to shut down or flee the country. The government closed three newspapers and Radio Free Voice (a media content provider of peace programming).
The government proposed board presidents and members to the NLA, but the assembly did not act until the end of the year. Government officials or individuals close to power regularly intervened in the publication of articles and broadcasts at a high level. Sources said the government's order came as a result of the newspaper publishing several pro-peace articles that the authorities interpreted as critical.
The government later blamed the closure on the paper's tax problems, a charge the editor-in-chief denied. Freedom of the press does not mean you work against the government." Some members of the media interpreted Kiir's comments as a threat against journalists, and. There were no government restrictions on Internet access or credible reports that the government monitored e-mail or Internet chat rooms without appropriate legal authorization.
The transitional constitution provides for freedom of peaceful assembly, and the government generally respected this right, but many citizens did not assemble for fear of targeted violence. The government sometimes obstructed the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other humanitarian organizations trying to provide protection and assistance to displaced persons and refugees.
Freedom to Participate in the Political Process
Government officials prevented the representative of other political parties, Lam Akol Ajawin, from traveling to Addis Ababa. President Kiir refused to sign at the time, returning to Juba with a copy of the agreement for consultation with stakeholders. In an effort to resolve an impasse among political parties over the signing of the agreement by their representative, IGAD offered the opportunity for all opposition parties to sign, which most did by the end of the year.
In October, the National Liberation Council of the SPLM dissolved the party's secretariat, keeping President Kiir as the chairman of the SPLM. Days later, SPLM officials, led by Vice President James Wani Igga who acts in the capacity of the party's deputy chairman, claimed that the dissolution of the secretariat did not nullify the SPLM reconciliation achieved through the Arusha Process and pointed out that Machar and ex-prisoner Okiech remained party. members, though not in their former capacities. Participation of women and minorities: The transitional constitution requires at least 25 percent participation of women in the legislative and executive branches of government at the national and state levels.
The Traditional Authority Leaders Council Act requires at least two of the nine members of the traditional council to be women. Representation was particularly weak at the local level, where implementation of the provisions of the 2009 act was particularly weak. Women held 87 of the 296 seats in the KLA, but only six of the 50 seats in the Council of States.
Women tended to be discouraged from assuming leadership positions due to the belief that such activities conflicted with their domestic duties. The absence of translations of the constitution into Arabic or local languages limited the ability of minority populations to engage meaningfully in political dialogue and contributed to low turnout for several consultations on a permanent constitution that took place around the country.
Corruption and Lack of Transparency in Government
The Central Bank has not published information on foreign reserves or other publicly available data. The Ministry of Petroleum has not published information on oil production, oil revenues or loans made in exchange for future oil sales.
Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
In October, the African Union published a report by a commission of inquiry into violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed in the early stages of the conflict. The report concluded that there are "reasonable grounds to believe that serious violations of human rights have occurred and that serious violence [and] other abuses have occurred which, given the context in which they occurred, may constitute violations of international humanitarian right. .” The report also finds reasonable grounds to conclude that some of the crimes were committed in a widespread and systematic manner that may rise to the level of crimes against humanity. The commission's team interviewed 70 witnesses in four main areas where violence and human rights violations occurred.
The report differed from the government narrative by concluding that "the evidence does not point to a coup." Immediately after the release of the report, government officials repeated allegations that an attempted coup had taken place, noted that the word "genocide" was not used in describing the human rights violations that followed, and generally criticized the commission's bias s findings and sources indicted. Government human rights bodies: The president appoints members of the South Sudan Human Rights Commission (SSHRC).
The SSHRC's mandate includes education, research, monitoring and investigation of human rights violations, either on its own initiative or at the request of victims. The commission worked with international human rights activists and submitted reports and recommendations to the government. The government has set up several commissions to investigate conflict-related human rights violations by the SPLA and the opposition.
The Human Rights Investigative Committee created by the President in 2014 to gather evidence related to the killings committed in Juba in December 2013 has concluded its investigation and submitted its report to the Presidency. Following the June release of the UNMISS Human Rights Division's report on gross human rights violations in the conflict states of the Greater Upper Nile from April to May, the SPLA announced that it would begin its own investigation into the violations.
Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
Several NGOs worked to end FGM/C and the Ministry of Gender raised awareness of the dangers of FGM/C through local radio broadcasts. Traditional courts usually rule in favor of the husband's family in most child custody cases, except when the children were between three and seven years old. Traditional beliefs tended to discourage women from assuming leadership positions because of the belief that this undermined the fulfillment of domestic duties.
The government did not register all births immediately, and the public had little knowledge of the. In other cases, families of rape victims encouraged marriage to the rapist to avoid public shame. Inter-ethnic clashes occurred throughout the year between Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups as a result of the crisis that began in 2013 (see section 1.g.).
In Unity State, the SPLA, supported by associated militias made up of various ethnic sub-groups of the Nuer tribe, targeted civilians during the spring offensive and throughout the year. While the transitional constitution provides equal rights for members of all ethnic groups, members of the government often contributed to inter-ethnic conflicts through discriminatory rhetoric. During a meeting of the Council of Ministers in October, the government voted to accede to the African Youth Convention with a single reservation regarding the convention's language regarding reproductive needs.
The violent conflict intensified during the last quarter of the year as armed groups from the western state of Equatoria established links with the opposition. Civilian casualties and forced displacement occurred in many parts of the country as raiders stole cattle, which defines power and wealth in many traditional.
Worker Rights
The law is silent on the rights to strike and bargain collectively and does not explicitly prohibit discrimination against unions or allow for the reinstatement of workers fired for union activities. The law provides penalties of up to seven years in prison for abduction and transfer of control of a person for the purpose of illegal forced labor, which is sufficiently severe to deter violations. The law prescribes a penalty of up to two years in prison for forced labor without aggravating circumstances, which is not sufficiently severe.
Forced labor occurred in domestic slavery, agricultural work on family farms and in livestock camps, and in prisons. Most of those forced to work in livestock camps and agricultural operations were family members. Employers subjected women, migrants and children (see section 7.c.) to forced labor in mines, restaurants, street begging, criminal activities and sexual exploitation.
The law defines light work as work that does not harm the health or development of a child and does not affect the child's school attendance or ability to benefit from it. The law provides penalties for the violation of a child's rights of up to six months imprisonment, which was not sufficient to deter violations. The law prohibits the recruitment and use of children for military or paramilitary activities and prescribes penalties of up to 10 years' imprisonment.
Children working in construction, vending machines, shoe shining, quarrying, brick making, pulling delivery trucks and begging were vulnerable to forced labour. The Act does not prohibit discrimination in employment or occupation on the basis of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national origin or.
