Minister of Information, Michael Makuei addresses media in Juba. [Photo by Eye Radio].

The Council of Ministers has rejected a United Nations Human Rights Council’s Recommendation to have the death penalty abolished in the country.

This is according to a media briefing by Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth following the cabinet meeting on Friday.

In January last year, the Universal Periodic Review Working Group of the United Nations conducted the 40^th session to examine South Sudan’s human rights record.

During the review, the government of Iceland appealed to the South Sudan government to abolish the death penalty among other recommendations.

However, Minister Makuei says the government has decided to maintain the death penalty in yesterday’s cabinet meeting.

Speaking on the State-owned television SSBC last evening, Makuei says the cabinet has approved all the other recommendations of the review.

“After listening to a report from We have approved all the issues that came up in that cycle except for 25 points that came up in the cycle; issues to do with abolishing the death penalty.”

The review of the South Sudan Human Rights Record took into consideration reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities.

It was conducted immediately after the execution of Emmanuel Babu Lokiri, a young man who had been sentenced to death for murdering three children in Juba’s Rock City suburb.