UN Says Human Rights Violations in South Sudan May Amount to War Crimes (February 20, 2019) [1]
On February 20, 2019, the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan released its third report [3] on the situation in South Sudan, providing updates on incidents that occurred in 2018 and concluding “that despite the signing of the peace agreement, violations including rape and sexual violence continue to occur which may amount to international crimes, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.” The Commission determined there were reasonable grounds to believe that the Sudan People's Liberation Army and affiliated armed groups have committed serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including deliberately targeting civilian populations, targeting civilians on the basis of political and ethnic violations, killing, abduction, rape and sexual violence, looting and pillaging villages, and conscripting children into the armed forces. The Commission also found that a number of incidents were part of widespread or systematic attacks directed against the civilian population, and consequently may amount to crimes against humanity. The Commission concluded that “peace in South Sudan requires meaningful progress towards accountability for past crimes” and that the “scale of violations and crimes committed during the course of the conflict demands an urgent and holistic approach, which involves all South Sudanese.”