A/HRC/40/CRP.1 At the time of writing, South Sudan is not a party to the following treaties: the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its Optional Protocols; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and its Optional Protocol; the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD); the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families (ICRMW); the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its Optional Protocol. The Commission notes South Sudan’s 2013 letter deposited with the General Assembly in which it stated that the Council of Ministers had acceded to a package of treaties and submitted them to the Legislative Assembly for adoption. These included among others the ICCPR, ICESCR, and CERD. At the time, it indicated the fact that it had not yet acceded to them was “not a lack of will to adhere to international standards”.296 The Commission encourages to South Sudan to become a party to these conventions. South Sudan is bound by rules of international human rights law that have attained the status of customary law,297 which includes the principles in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.298 While armed opposition groups cannot become parties to international human rights treaties, such non-state actors are increasingly deemed to be bound by certain international human rights obligations, particularly those actors exercising de facto control. 299 1. Treaties to which South Sudan Became a Party in 2018 The Commission welcomes South Sudan’s progressive accession to a number of international legal instruments. Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict South Sudan acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict on 27 September 2018 which came into effect on 27 October 2018. The Protocol includes a commitment by Signatory State parties not to recruit or conscript children under the age of 18 into their armed forces; to take all possible measures to prevent such recruitment, including legislation to prohibit and criminalize the recruitment of children under 18 and involve them in hostilities; to demobilize anyone under 18 conscripted or used in hostilities and to provide physical, psychological recovery services and to help their social reintegration; and the Protocol states that armed groups distinct from the armed forces of a country should not, under any circumstances, recruit or use in hostilities anyone under 18. 296 Letter dated 31 October 2013 from the Permanent Representative of South Sudan to the United Nations addressed to the President of the General Assembly, A/68/565, 31 October 2013. 297 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the foundation of international human rights law. Many, if not all of the rights set out therein have attained the status of customary international law. See further H. Hannum, “The Status of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in National and International Law”, vol. 25 Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law (1995/6) 287-397. 298 Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), Judgment, I.C.J. Reports 2007 (I), pp. 110-111, para. 161. 299 See United Nations International Commission of Inquiry on the Central African Republic (S/2014/928), 22 December 2014, paras. 41 and 107; Report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka, 31 March 2011, para. 188. See also Report of the International Commission of Inquiry to investigate all Alleged Violations of International Human Rights Law in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, 2 March 2012, para. 18. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has recently confirmed that: “both international humanitarian law and human rights law have recognised the direct obligations of non-State actors, including as parties to an armed conflict, in specific circumstances. These include the prohibition of torture, which is part of customary international law and has become a peremptory norm.” CEDAW/C/GC/35, 14 July 2017, para. 25. 42