A/HRC/40/CRP.1 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography On the same day, South Sudan also acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography which likewise came into force on 27 October 2018. Among the provisions of the Optional Protocol, Article 3 requires each State party to ensure that the following acts are criminalized in domestic law, whether they are committed domestically or transnationally or on an individual or organized basis: (a) in the context of sale of children, offering, delivering or accepting, by whatever means, a child for the purpose of sexual exploitation of the child; transfer of organs of the child for profit; or engagement of the child in forced labour; or improperly inducing consent, as an intermediary, for the adoption of a child in violation of applicable international legal instruments on adoption; (b) offering, obtaining, procuring or providing a child for child prostitution; (c) producing, distributing, disseminating, importing, exporting, offering, selling or possessing child pornography. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol On 28 September 2018, South Sudan acceded to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol after it was ratified by the Transitional National Legislative Assembly. The Convention provides certain rights to refugees including the right not to be expelled, except under certain, strictly defined conditions; the right not to be punished for illegal entry into the territory of a contracting State; the right to work; the right to housing; the right to education; the right to public relief and assistance; the right to freedom of religion; the right to access the courts; the right to freedom of movement within the territory; and the right to be issued identity and travel documents. The 1967 Protocol removes the geographical and time limits that were part of the 1951Convention. This accession is important as South Sudan was hosting 291,824 refugees as of the end of December 2018.300 However, in any event, South Sudan has already been party since 2016 to the 1969 Organisation of African Union Convention on Refugees, a regional instrument governing the specific aspects of refugee issues in the African continent, and is a member State of the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region which includes the Protocol on Protection and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons. B. International Humanitarian Law International humanitarian law regulates the conduct of parties to an armed conflict. It comprises the principles and rules that seek to mitigate the effects of war by limiting the means and methods of conducting military operations and by obliging parties to spare those not participating in hostilities. Under the laws of war, not all deliberate killings are prohibited; however, the deliberate killing of civilians not directly participating in hostilities is expressly prohibited. Other fundamental principles are those of distinction, proportionality and precaution in attack.301 In the Commission’s view, international humanitarian law applied to the noninternational armed conflict in South Sudan when clashes broke out between the SPLA and the SPLA-IO on 15 December 2013. Such a conclusion is also evidenced in statements issued by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) since January 2014.302 Once the threshold for the application of Common Article 3 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions has been reached, the provisions which operate to protect the victims of war continue to apply even 300 UNHCR, South Sudan - Refugees Statistics as of 31 December 2018. Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 (Additional Protocol II), Article 13(2), ICRC, Study on Customary International Humanitarian Law, Rule 1; Prosecutor v. Tadić, Case No. IT-94-1-AR72, ICTY Appeals Chamber, Decision on the Defence Motion for Interlocutory Appeal on Jurisdiction, 2 October 1995, paras. 109-119. 302 See in particular the ICRC Annual Report 2013, p. 200, the press release 6 January 2014, https://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/news-release/2014/01-06-south-sudan-juba-peter-maurer-president-visit.htm; ICRC Annual Report 2014, p. 204; the Intercross blog interview with the ICRC of 12 June 2015, http://intercrossblog.icrc.org/blog/interview-with-head-of-delegation-in-south-sudan; ICRC Annual Report 2015, p. 208; ICRC Annual Report 2016, p. 195; ICRC Annual Report 2017, p. 196; ICRC, Press Release: South Sudan: Relief operations postponed after gunshots fired at ICRC compound, 23 April 2018. 301 43