The government will not adopt recommendations by the UN Human Rights Council to legalize same-sex marriage and abolish death sentence, the Minister of Justice has said.

Paulino Wanawila says the two are among 30 human rights concerns the council has asked South Sudan to consider and enforce.

Mr. Wanawila says there were more than 200 human rights conventions the council also wanted the government to ratify.

He says some of them, such as the death sentence, which he said “is not the time for it” and same-sex marriage.

“The same-sex marriage is in conflict with our national laws and our cultures,” Mr. Wanawila stated.

Justice Wanawilla spoke on return this week from a Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva.

The Penal code provides that whoever causes the death of another person intentionally, shall be sentenced to death or imprisonment for life once convicted.

It also states that murder by a person serving life imprisonment shall upon conviction, be punished with a death sentence.