Carlos Castresana Fernández, a longtime judge from Spain was appointed on Tuesday. (Courtesy)

The President of the Human Rights Council has appointed Carlos Castresana Fernández, a renowned Spanish magistrate, as a member of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.

The Council’s president, Ambassador Václav Bálek appoints Castresana to replace Andrew Clapham who resigned from the Commission, under unclear circumstances.

A practicing attorney and magistrate for more than 30 years, Castresana has headed notorious investigations and prosecutions on corruption, organized crime, terrorism, and international crimes.

He has worked in the Prosecution Offices of Barcelona and Madrid as well as Spain’s Anti-drug and Anti-corruption Special Prosecution Offices.

From 2005-2015, he served on the Supreme Court of Spain. In 2015, he went to private practice as an attorney before resuming his career as a public prosecutor in 2020.

Castresana has also held positions including Commissioner of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala with the rank of UN Assistant-Secretary-General (2007-2010), UNDP expert on anti-corruption tasked with advising the Truth Commission in Tunisia, and expert for the Institute for Integrated Transitions on transitional justice projects in Nigeria and Libya. 

He also worked as a consultant and senior expert for various UN entities (UNDPA, UNDP, UN Women, UNODC), the European Union, the Council of Europe, the World Bank, the Organization of American States, and several national agencies on cooperation in criminal matters, anti-corruption, human rights and transitional justice.

The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan was created by the UN Human Rights Council on 23 March 2016.

It was mandated to determine and report the facts and circumstances of, collect and preserve evidence of, and clarify responsibility for alleged gross violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes, including sexual and gender-based violence and ethnic violence, with a view to ending impunity and providing accountability.

The South Sudan Commission’s mandate was renewed on 3 April 2023, for a further period of one year.

The Commission is scheduled to deliver its next report to the Human Rights Council during its 55th regular session in February-March 2024.