Live stream video, Chapter 27, 01:00:12
Check Against Delivery
Organizations: Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada
Item: Item 4
Date: 9 March 2020
Speaker: Gabriella Casanova
Oral Statement of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) at the Interactive Dialogue on item 4
9 March 2020
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AND CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN SOUTH SUDAN
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada thank the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan for its report (A/HRC/43/56).
We underline the Commission’s ongoing concerns about lack of access to justice, entrenched impunity for serious crimes and human rights violations; continued threats against human rights defenders, journalists, and dissidents; and corruption in oil and non-oil sectors.
We appreciate the Commission’s continued investigation into enforced disappearances, including the 2017 enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of human rights lawyer Dong Samuel Luak and opposition politician Aggrey Idri.
We remain concerned by the lack of effective oversight of oil and non-oil enterprises and revenue misappropriation that has fueled violations. In the light of the findings by the Commission’s 2019 report (A/HRC/40/69, A/HRC/40/CRP.1) pointing to the oil industry as a “major driver” in the continuation of the armed conflict and resulting human rights violations, we would like to ask what follow up to those findings does the Commission intend to provide in the future?
Potential corporate complicity with crimes under international law demand investigation and a strong monitoring mechanism for the use of oil revenues should be established.
