A/HRC/40/CRP.1 SEA.686 This office also deals with issues of paternity claims related to SEA as well as sexual abuse resulting in pregnancies.687 The steps taken by the UN regarding the allegations of SEA in the Ghanaian FPU case was critical to addressing impunity. While the approach is admirable, witnesses the Commission spoke to in South Sudan have raised the issue of unequal power relationships between victims and those committing the violations particularly in respect of transactional relationships as well as rape and sexual violence, which results in a chronic under-reporting of SEA. In addition, witnesses described the following factors as major challenges in ensuring accountability for SEA: failure to address the educational and livelihood needs of extremely vulnerable victims; the remoteness of field locations; lack of feedback to alleged victims; failure to ensure accountability of UN national staff, contractors and staff of implementing partners working in PoC sites; and a more general failure to ensure accountability due to the complexities inherent in pursuing accountability across different jurisdictions. The Commission recommends that UNMISS and UN agencies take steps to address these shortcomings particularly in respect of access to justice for the victims. A key challenge is the inability of the UN to ensure that reparations or compensation is paid to victims of SEA and while paternity claims may be lodged, soldiers are repatriated often without the survivors receiving any kind of payment at all. The stigma in communities around the issue of children born of these relationships increase the hardship for women in South Sudan. C. The Situation of Children and Youth As set out in detail in the Applicable Law section above 688 and the Commission’s previous Report,689 South Sudan’s domestic legislation, including the Transitional Constitution (2011) and the Child Act (2008) and its international obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the Maputo Protocol guarantee of children’s rights in South Sudan. These include the rights of children to life, survival and development, non-discrimination, a name and nationality, to know and be cared for by parents or a guardian, not to be subjected to exploitative practices or abuse, corporal punishment, cruel and inhuman treatment, not to be subject to negative or harmful cultural practices, to be protected from abduction and trafficking, to education, well-being and health, and to liberty and security of person. 690 Despite these legal obligations, the conflict in South Sudan and its resulting devastating humanitarian and economic situation mean that many of these guarantees are not fulfilled. As set out below, children’s fundamental rights to life; protection from physical and mental violence including injury, abuse, and sexual abuse, rights to health, food, and education, as well as the right not to be recruited into the armed forces or armed groups are routinely violated. Although the Government had signed an action plan for ending and preventing the six grave violations against children in armed conflict 691 in 2012, with the breakdown of the ARCSS in 2016, key elements of the agreed workplan remained largely unimplemented. 692 Re-engagement by the United Nations in 2017 reactivated progress on aspects of the 686 Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse, A/72/751, 15 Feb 2018, para. 29. https://www.un.org/preventing-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse/content/victims-rights-advocate. 688 See above Applicable Law section (Sections V(A) and V(D)). 689 Conference Room Paper on the Report of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, A/HRC/37/CRP.2, 23 February 2018, paras. 105, 106, 162. 690 Transitional Constitution (2011), Article 17; Child Act (2008), sections 9-33, 36; Convention on the Rights of the Child, Articles 1, 4, 6, 19, 24, 27, 28, 37, 38 ; African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Article 18(3); Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, Article 13(g). 691 Recruitment and use, killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, attacks on schools and hospitals, abductions and denial of humanitarian access to children. 692 United Nations Security Council, Report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict in South Sudan, S/2018/865, 25 September 2018. 687 98