GICJ Oral Statement with International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD) and Geneva International Centre for Justice

By Anyssa Boyer / GICJ

On the 4th of July, Anyssa Boyer delivered an oral statement during the meeting on South Sudan’s adoption of its Universal Periodic Review. Her statement aimed to draw attention on the continuous violations that threaten women’s freedoms, fundamental human rights, and lives.

Since the 2013 conflict, women’s exposure to sexual violence has remained staggeringly high. These include instances of rape, abduction, sexual slavery, sexual mutilation, and sexual torture. Perpetrators continue to violate women’s rights and are not held accountable for their actions and as a result, enjoy blatant impunity.

While she acknowledged the government’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, she called on South Sudan to ratify key instruments to protect women which include ​the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

EAFORD and Geneva International Centre for Justice (GICJ) urges South Sudan to implement additional legal frameworks to promote and protect women’s rights. We call on South Sudan to include women in participative decision-making processes both in political and social spheres. South Sudan should halt all harmful practices that target women’s dignity and have long-lasting effects on their physical, social, and psychological trauma that persists throughout generations.

 Justice, South Sudan, UPR, HRC50, Human Rights, Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review, WomenRights, Freedoms, Sexual Violence, Geneva International Centre for Justice, GICJ, Geneva4Justice