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South Sudan Human Rights Commission evicted from rented office

Author: Obaj Okuj | Published: August 2, 2024

Fidensia Charles, the Deputy Chairperson of South Sudan Human Rights Commission. August 1, 2024. (Photo: Obaj Okuj/Eye Radio)

The Deputy Chairperson of the South Sudan Human Rights Commission has revealed that the institution is now operating from her home after it was evicted from a rental office due to unpaid rent.

Fidensia Charles disclosed that a landlord evicted the commission in August 2023, in a common problem that has faced many government agencies and peace implementation bodies.

Ms. Charles said the landlord whose name she did not disclose the name, was demanding rent arrears amounting to 48,000 US dollars.

She said this was the third eviction since the commission – which is mandated to independently monitor, investigate, document, and protect human rights in South Sudan – was restructured and reconstituted under the 2018 peace deal.

“For the last three years, we have been – experiencing a series of eviction from an office to another and every year that you are evicted now like three years or three times. The last time was in August last year,” she said.

The human rights official was speaking during a roundtable discussion on civic space, media integrity, and elections in South Sudan on Thursday.

“The landlord decided to lock the office of the human rights commission because we failed to pay the house rent and the money is little. It’s only 48,000 USD, and we are not able to pay.”

As a result of the eviction due to the non-payment, Ms. Charles said, the commission resorted to using her house to conduct its work.

“So what I can say is that the commission is really passing through a very difficult time, and sometimes we meet in my house because my house is near the office.”

“So I offered my house for some of the colleagues to come and meet to discuss some of the issues facing the commission.”

The South Sudan Human Rights Commission has been hardly noticed in the public domain and there are no reports of the commission on the country’s human rights situation since it was reconstituted in 2018.

Over the years, the UN Human Rights Commission for South Sudan has predominantly been the primary body reporting and publishing information about human rights violations in the country.

But the Ministry Justice Ministry has taken a tough stance against the UN Commission, and preconditioned the renewal of its mandate for allegedly failing to cooperate and collaborate in releasing its annual human rights reports.

 

 

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