South Sudanese and international organizations promoting and protecting human rights in South Sudan have written a letter to President Salva Kiir urging his government to complete ratification of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
The rights group including Amnesty International, Assistance Mission for Africa-South Sudan and Community Empowerment for Progress Organization, End Impunity Organization, Human Rights Watch and South Sudan Law Society among others asks President Kiir’s administration to deposit instruments of the rights’ ratification Charter with the African Union.
The group urges South Sudan government to complete the ratification before the 56th ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, commencing on April 21, 2015.
It calls on the government to initiate internal process for ratifying the Maputo Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.
The group hails South Sudan legislature for voting to ratify the African Charter in October 2013 and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in October 2014, but points out that the final step of the ratification process is still outstanding and that South Sudan is the only AU member state not party to the African Charter.