File: Inmates at Juba Central Prison are reportedly living in poor conditions | Credit | HRW

The US government will remain actively engaged with relevant institutions to ensure that human rights are respected in South Sudan, the US State Department’s Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor has said.

In an annual comprehensive and fact-based report on the state of respect for human rights around the world, the US has documented human rights violation in South Sudan.

These include arbitrary deprivation of life and other unlawful or politically motivated killings, disappearance of individuals, torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of people.

The report also documented the conditions of prison and detention centers in South Sudan, arrest procedures and treatment of detainees, denial of fair public trial and many more.

It says security forces, opposition forces, armed militias affiliated with the government and the opposition, and ethnically-based groups were also responsible for widespread extrajudicial killings in conflict zones.

Despite the fact that the transitional constitution prohibits such practices in the country, the US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor says security forces mutilated, tortured, beat, and harassed political opponents, journalists, and human rights workers.

Robert Destro, the US State Department’s Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, says the Trump administration through the US mission in South Sudan will continue to engage relevant institutions to make sure that the human rights equities of people are respected.

“We respect every country’s sovereignty, but we want to work together with – in dealing with facts on the ground – all the players to make sure that the human rights equities of people are respected,” Destro said during a telephonic press conference on 13 March.

The report further states that discrimination occurred in South Sudan on the bases of employment or occupation based on race, tribe or place of origin, national extraction, color, sex including pregnancy, marital status, family responsibilities, religion, political opinion, disability, age, HIV/AIDS-positive status, or membership or participation in a trade union.

As a result of gross human rights violations during the 5-year conflict, the US has blacklisted some military and political leaders, including Vice President Taban Deng and Cabinet Affairs Minister Dr. Martin Elia.

“The sanctions that we’ve imposed on certain individuals in South Sudan have had the purpose of trying to ensure the unity of this government,” explained Scott Busby, US acting principal deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

The government is yet to comment on the report.