EUobserver opinion: EU has chance to help women of South Sudan

As UN high commissioner for human rights, I visited South Sudan in May 2012, less than a year after its people voted for better future as an independent nation state. There were human rights issues to address but also a great optimism.

I was made hopeful by discussions with South Sudan’s leaders on discrimination and violence against women.

The president and senior officials seemed committed to supporting girls’ empowerment and education, and accepted that the rule of law, based on a good human rights system, is fundamental to a properly functioning democracy.

I returned to South Sudan in April 2014, four months after tensions within the county’s ruling party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), boiled over into armed conflict in the capital, Juba.

Violence spread rapidly amongst security forces, with civilians targeted based on their ethnicity or assumed political affiliation. Armed thugs roamed the countryside raping women and children, and taking them as sex slaves.

My hopes were shattered.

The ruthlessness of sexual violence in South Sudan even brings back memories of Rwanda.

In 1998, while serving as a judge on the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, my colleagues and I heard horrendous stories of mass rapes and other sexual crimes. I was moved by the testimony of victims who said that rape destroyed their physical and psychological health.

In our judgment in the case of The Prosecutor v. Jean Paul Akayesu, we held that sexual violence in war could constitute genocide and crimes against humanity, as well as torture. We found that sexual violence was used as an instrument of war aimed at the systematic destruction of Tutsi women and the Tutsi group as a whole.

While South Sudan is not experiencing genocide, the levels of sexual violence are no less shocking.

Zainab  Bangura, the UN’s envoy for sexual violence in conflict, recently said she has not witnessed a situation worse than South Sudan in her 30 years’ experience.

She can draw comparisons with Liberia, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Bosnia, where women’s bodies were weapons in the frontlines of conflict.

One of the main reasons we are seeing such extreme sexual violence in South Sudan is the country’s pervasive culture of impunity.

The perpetrators -  including members of the police, army , and armed militias  - know that there is no rigorous justice system and almost no risk of consequences. Unless this changes, the frequency and brutality of sexual violence will rise, as one cycle of violence fuels the next. 

For those seeking justice, accountability and an end to  the country’s long-standing  culture of impunity, the  African  Union's  Commission of Inquiry  on South Sudan is a beacon of light. 

Under the leadership of former Nigerian pesident Olusegun Obasanjo, the commission’s final report is rumoured to be a damning document that details  countless human rights violations and even lists  names of those recommended for trial.

This is what the beginnings of accountability should look like.

Nkosazana Dlamini  Zuma, the chairperson of the African commission, is  to be commended for her leadership in forming the first ever African Union investigation of mass human rights violations on our continent.

Now she faces an even bigger challenge - to see life breathed into the commission’s recommendations.

It is an issue on which Europe has already expressed concern.

Just last December the EU foreign affairs council drew attention to ongoing human rights violations in South Sudan and the need to bring perpetrators to justice.

For the credibility of the EU, it is critical that Alexander Rondos, the EU’s special representative to the Horn of Africa, attends the African Union summit in Ethiopia later this month.

He should urge the continent’s leaders to make Obasanjo’s report public and act on the EU's own recommendations by calling for the urgent creation of a credible accountability mechanism.

If the report is buried or watered down, the hope created by the establishment of the commission will die, and impunity will continue to reign.

We need accountability and justice to stem the tide of human rights abuses spreading across much of South Sudan.

The threat of criminal prosecution can act as a powerful deterrent and may even help convince the warring parties they have more gain by laying down their guns and committing to the (more difficult) task of making peace and rebuilding their country.

There have been tremendous advances in tackling impunity for serious crimes over the past 20 years, in particular through the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Cambodia and the International Criminal Court.

While international and national accountability processes have contributed immensely to challenging impunity for violations of International law, such efforts on their own cannot stop the cycle completely.

Political will on the part of governments is essential, and usually constitutes the biggest obstacle.

If the government of South Sudan is not willing or able to put a stop to this insidious form of violence that targets women and girls, the international community has a responsibility to step in. 

As Rondos convenes with African heads of state  and AU officials in Addis Ababa for the 24th AU Summit, they must do all they can to ensure that the report from Obasanjo’s Commission of Inquiry represents the beginning of the end of impunity in South Sudan.

Navi Pillay has served as a judge of the International Criminal Court, as president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and, from 2008 to 2014, was the United Nations high commissioner for human rights. She currently has no formal role