The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Václav Bálek (Czechia), has appointed Carlos Castresana Fernández of Spain as a member of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan.
Castresana’s appointment follows the resignation of Andrew Clapham from the Commission, which was created by the UN Human Rights Council in 2016.
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.
The three-person Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan was created by the UN Human Rights Council on 23 March 2016 with a mandate to report human rights violations.
They are also tasked to collect and preserve evidence of and clarify responsibility for alleged gross violations, including sexual and gender-based violence and ethnic violence, with a view to ending impunity and providing accountability.
On 3 April 2023, the Council renewed the mandate of the Commission for a further period of one year.
The Commission headed by Yasmin Sooka is scheduled to deliver its next report to the Human Rights Council during its 55th regular session in February-March 2024.