Customary laws, unruly cops breeding GBV-CJ Reech

Stringent customary laws and rogue law enforcement agents are largely to blame for the rampant Gender-Based Violence in South Sudan. While some cultural traditional values encompass abuse of a particular gender and female in most cases; some cops and members of the military have indulged in the act with impunity.

Chief Justice Chan Reech Madut blamed the grim state of affairs on a situation where law enforcement agencies and customary law enforcers undermine the judicial progress in handling GBV cases. “South Sudan has a high case of GBV. Some are reported and some are not reported. There are 64 tribes in South Sudan with different cultures and radiations, and some of these customary laws contradict fundamental human right,” Reech said.

Reech gave an address during a joint visit to GBV Court on Tuesday, February 2, where diplomatic community teamed up with the government to assess the progress of prosecuting GBV cases in the country. The government has partnered with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to activate lifesaving responses for the survivors. It was revealed in the meeting that the GBV cases surpassed 200 in South Sudan in last year, with majority of the cases going unresolved.

Saddening statistics

 This only lays an emphasis on the necessity of fight against GBV in the country. In January 2020, Humanitarian Needs Review report by the UNOCHA painted a picture of gross human rights violation in the country in 2020. The report noted that atleast 1,200 human rights violations were documented in South Sudan between January and October, 2020.

These cases peaked during the COVID-19 lockdown. The report conducted in 79 counties of South Sudan showed that 97 per cent GBV cases involved women and girls who are vulnerable due to the unsupportive circumstances. Also, Justice Reech said the fight against the vice would involve a multiagency approach between the police and the Judiciary. But this he said remains a pipe dream because input by law enforcers have been underwhelming.

“The fight against GBV is a collaborative work which Judiciary alone cannot do. We only deal with the brought to us by the police. But you can imagine even police themselves are the perpetrators,” Reech said.

 South Sudan inaugurated Special GBV Court in December, 2020, with the support from Kingdom of Netherlands via United Nations Development Program (UNDP) where about 10 perpetrators have been so far convicted.

“There are two signals coming from this which are extremely important for this country. The first thing is conviction of perpetrators of gender based violence and the second is this-no more impunity in this country,” Jette Van Wieren, Ambassador of Kingdom of the Netherlands warned.

Ambassador Van promised they would collaborate with authorities to ensure GBV mobile courts were established all over the country to help curb the prevalence of the vice in the society. Last year, Aya Benjamin Warile, Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, noted that beside the penal code, anti GBV act was paramount in the fight against gender base violence. Child-forced marriages, rape and sexual violence were the major instances of GBV cases in South Sudan with Yei in Central Equatoria and Unity States accounting for the majority of the number.