(Middle) German Ambassador Christian Sedat, PAX Country Director Emmanuel Ira (seated left) and representative from the South Sudan Ministry of Gender Child and Social Welfare, pose for a picture in Juba. (Baria Johnson).

PAX South Sudan Country Director appeals to women leaders in the government and other policymaking bodies to take lead in eliminating Gender-Based Violence in the country.

Emmanuel Ira made the remarks as the organization signed a 3.6-million-dollar agreement with the German Federal Agency for Foreign Affairs to empower women and girls.

Mr Ira said the project seeks to influence legislations and judicial processes in ending Sexual and Gender-based violence.

Phase Three project aims in strengthening the capacity of women leaders to jointly influence the legislation, Judicial reform, and sustainable peace in the country.

The humanitarian official called on empowered women to take lead and contribute positively to ending GBV.

“I want to encourage my partners to continue with their journey, we want to see the voices of women that are loud are listened to. Most of our women have made noise, but we want them to be listened to,” he said.

“We want to see Gender Based Violence ended. We want to see women contributing to leadership, as I said, ‘behind a successful man, there’s successful woman’, so I want to see these empowered women are really going to take lead and contribute positively to our country.

The project will be implemented by six partners in Eastern Equatoria, Upper-Nile, Unity, Warrap, and Northern Bahr El Ghazal states.

Ira explained how the grant will be implemented in a sideline interview with Eye Radio on Thursday.

“This project is going to train the different groups for example, the advocacy groups that are going to be form are going to be capacitated on how they can engage in advocacy when the project is not there.”

“So, they are able go to the communities to identify, what are the issues. And are able with the skills and knowledge they have gained in this project to be able to continue to advocate for many issues, whether we get funding or when the project comes to an end.”

According to a study conducted by South Sudan Law Society (SSLS) and Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), about 90 % of gender-based violence cases are heard in customary courts presided by older male judges with deeply ingrained patriarchal views.

This, the assessment said, generally condones domestic violence. South Sudan accounts for the second highest prevalence case of GBV in the region.

A substantial proportion of its women (aged 15-64), the study observed, experience gender-based violence either in the form of physical (34.0%) or sexual (13.5%) violence in their lifetime.

In 2020, a women-led organization in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender, Child Social Welfare, UNFPA and other organizations presented the Anti GBV bill to the Ministry of Justice.

And in May 2023, a group of women called on the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to speed up the tabling of the Anti GBV bill before parliament.

But there has been no tangible progress since then.