oal Gatkuoth, the winner of 2023 youth Human Rights of the year in South Sudan - Courtesy

A ward-winning human rights defender Yoal Gatkuoth is appealing to young South Sudanese to choose dialogue over guns to safeguard the future of the country against violence.

Also, an alumnus of the Mandela Washington fellow, Yoal says, during the 2016 violence, some of his relatives asked him to pick up a gun, but he rejected the call.

He then decided to do something else and talked about human rights issues which exposed him to training and capability-building programs.

Gatkuoth says through the training, he learned many ways of addressing issues without the use of violence.

“I got to know that if you don’t talk it will come back to you, we have a home where I lost a lot of my relative’s neighbours and my best friend during the crisis, in 2016. People were asking me to pick the gun as the only way and I said no,” Yoal told to Eye Radio during an interview on Monday.

“I am very social and I got to know many people who tell me I am good at exposing human rights issues so with many trainings and capacity building I came to know there are many ways of addressing issues without violence,” he said.

Yoal Gatkuoth is a renowned peace, social justice, and human rights activist and psychologist. He holds leadership positions with numerous youth-led –organizations, youth clubs, and community associations.

He is a Co-country coordinator for the African Artists Peace Initiative, the South Sudan chapter, and peace ambassador for the International Women’s Peace

Yoal is a YALI Regional Leadership Center of East Africa; Alumni and he is Co-founder and deputy Chairperson of the Civil Society Coalition on Defense of Civic Space.

He presides over advocacy, campaigning, and lobbying, and organizes forums, dialogues and meetings with different relevant stakeholders and institutions based in South Sudan.