A/HRC/40/CRP.1 The ECC community buried all but one of those killed in the compound in three graves.1267 The remaining victim was taken by his relatives to be buried. The Commission has documented the location of the graves. 1268 5. Violations and Alleged Crimes a) Killings, Rape, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment, Arbitrary Arrest and Detention, Pillage in southern Central Equatoria State in 2018 On the basis of the evidence collected as described above, the Commission finds reasonable grounds to believe that the SPLA forces based in Yei committed serious crimes and human rights violations in the Yei area, including wilful murder of civilians, rape, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, attacks against protected persons, and pillage over the course of 2018 and into January 2019. The Commission is also concerned by reports of similar violations having been committed by SPLA-IO (RM) forces, as outlined above; however, further investigations are required prior to making findings on these reports. The acts committed by the SPLA amount to serious violations of human rights law under the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan (2011), particularly the right to life and human dignity (Article 11), freedom from inhuman or degrading treatment (Article 18), and the right to own property (Article 28). They also amount to violations of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, including in particular the rights to life and the integrity of the person (Article 4), to liberty and security of the person (Article 6), and to property (Article 14). These acts constitute crimes under South Sudan’s Penal Code 2008, including, among others, murder (Article 206), criminal force (Article 224), rape (section 247), and theft (Article 293). Moreover, the Government’s armed forces are also subject to the provisions of the SPLA Act 2009, particularly Section 57, which establishes the offences of destroying and damaging property, plunder and committing any offence against the property or person of any inhabitant or resident of a country in which he or she is serving. Furthermore, the Commission finds reasonable grounds to believe that there was a nexus between the commission of certain prohibited acts such as the killings of civilians on grounds of their ethnicity and the non-international armed conflict ongoing in South Sudan at the time in light of them reportedly occurring in retaliation for battlefield reverses suffered by the SPLA soldiers or on suspicion that the victims were supporting the opposition. As such, they are violations of international humanitarian law under Common Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II to which South Sudan is a party and which it has incorporated into its national law in its Geneva Conventions Act 2012. They should also be investigated and prosecuted as war crimes under Article 4 of the Draft Statute of the Hybrid Court for South Sudan. b) Killings, Rape Other Forms of Sexual Violence, Arbitrary Detention, Destruction of Civilian Property, and Pillage, at the ECC in Goli on 14 May 2018 On the basis of the evidence collected, as described above, the Commission finds reasonable grounds to believe that the SPLA Tiger Division forces based in Tore engaged in serious crimes and human rights violations at the ECC compound in Goli on 14 May 2018 including unlawful killings, rape, inhuman and degrading treatment, destruction and theft of civilian property. The Commission is particularly concerned that these violations were committed in a place of education and religion and a place where internally displaced persons had sought refuge. In this regard, it recalls that attacks against schools are one of the six grave violations against children in armed conflict, according to UN Security Council Resolution 1612 (2005). 1267 Witness 741, ERN 101417-101457, para. 14; Witness 700, ERN 101462-101469, para. 15; Witness 703, ERN 101470-101475, para. 13; Witness 764, ERN 101946-101954, para. 8; Witness 699, ERN 101521-101529, para. 7; Witness 717, ERN 101388101399, para. 19. 1268 Confidential Document, ERN D113601- D113604. 159