A/HRC/43/56 and women including freedom of expression, assembly and opinion. While South Sudan has not yet finalized accession to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which protects freedom of expression in Article 19, the Convention has been ratified by the TNLA and it is awaiting depositing with the Secretary General. Further, South Sudan has ratified the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights which recognizes under Article 9 the right to receive information and to express and disseminate opinions within the law. In one of its decisions, the Commission has concluded that “arbitrarily arresting and detaining journalists, seizing magazine publications because they are critical of the government, closing media houses, and establishing prohibitive registration requirements amount to violations under the African Charter.” 298 22. Within domestic law, the Transitional Constitution (2011) enshrines in Article 24 the right to freedom of expression, reception and dissemination of information, publication, and access to the press without prejudice to public order, safety or morals as prescribed by law. The Media Authority Act (2013) also enshrines principles of freedom of the press including reiterating Article 24 of the Transitional Constitution and stating that the law will promote freedom of expression, a diverse range of media services which serve South Sudan’s national languages, ethnic beliefs and cultures of the communities, and enhance the right of the public to know through promoting pluralism and a wide variety of publications and programming. It further provides that free media representing all groups and divisions of society shall be protected as essential to democracy, giving independent scrutiny of Government, and will be protected from censorship and against journalists having to reveal their source. 299 23. Based on the above, the government of South Sudan has an inherent obligation to protect and fulfil its obligations enshrined in both national laws and international human rights instruments which guarantee the rights to freedom of expression, opinion and assembly that it has voluntarily assumed. The government has a responsibility to ensure that citizens and journalists can access and disseminate information without fear or intimidation from individuals and state-controlled entities such as the National Security Services or Media Authority. It is incumbent on the government of South Sudan to ensure that individuals and entities that violate these rights and freedoms enshrined in the law are held accountable within the established institutional and legal framework. F. Enforced disappearance, abduction and torture 24. Enforced disappearance violates one’s right to recognition as a person before the law and to liberty and security and freedom from arbitrary detention, including the right to be brought promptly before a judge or other official for review of the lawfulness of detention. Enforced disappearance may also be associated with torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and extrajudicial execution, in violation of the right to life, prohibition on torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and may further lead to violations of the right to life. 25. Customary international humanitarian law further prohibits arbitrary deprivation of liberty,300 and requires parties to a conflict to keep a register of those deprived of their liberty,301 to respect detainees’ family life, to permit detainees to receive visitors, and to allow correspondence between detainees and their families. 26. Parties to a conflict must also take all feasible measures to account for persons reported missing as a result of the conflict and make efforts to provide family members with any information it has on their fate. Fundamental to the finding of a crime of enforced African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Media Rights Agenda et al. v. Nigeria, Communications 105/93-128/94-130/94-152/96, 31 October 1998. 299 See also “Response to NRA complaint against Eye Radio” Letter from the Managing Director of the Media Authority, December 17, 2019. On file with the Commission. The letter reiterates the fact that journalists are not required to disclose the sources of information obtained upon promise of confidentiality. 300 ICRC Rule 99. 301 Ibid., at Rule 123. 298 51