A/HRC/43/56 Annex III Applicable law 1. The Commission conducted its work within the frameworks of international human rights law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law and the domestic law of South Sudan. The Commission’s Report of 2018 set out in detail the law applicable to South Sudan (A/HRC/37/CRP.2, paras. 98-163). 2. South Sudan is party to range of international and regional human rights instruments which reaffirm its obligations to protect fundamental rights and freedoms. It has ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and its Optional Protocol; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and its Optional Protocol; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child and two of the Optional Protocols – on the involvement of children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. South Sudan has also acceded to the United Nations Convention against Corruption and is party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. While the South Sudan Transitional National Legislative Assembly ratified in July 2019 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and their First Optional Protocols respectively, the Government has not yet transmitted the instruments of accession to the United Nations, and, therefore, South Sudan is not yet a party to these four treaties. The Commission encourages the Government of South Sudan to send the necessary instruments of accession without delay. 3. South Sudan is also a party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and its Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, the Organization of African Unity Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, as well as to the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention). The Government of South Sudan has signed but not ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. 4. A non-international armed conflict began in South Sudan on 15 December 2013. Consequently, parties to the conflict, and new conflicts that have arisen since then, are bound by Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and their Additional Protocols II and III (South Sudan is a party to all four Geneva Conventions and all three Additional Protocols) and by relevant customary international humanitarian law. Despite the signing of a permanent ceasefire (2017) and subsequent peace agreement (2018), the Commission assesses that hostilities have persisted to the extent that both international humanitarian law and international human rights law continued to apply throughout the reporting period. A. Recruitment and the use of children in armed conflict 5. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict sets 18 years as the minimum age for direct participation in hostilities, and for recruitment into armed groups. The recruitment and use of children in conflict is also contrary to section 22(2) of the SPLA Act (2009) and Article 31 of the Child Act (2008).270 6. The present report applies the definition of “children” in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (hereafter, “the CRC”) to which the Republic of South 270 During her visit to Addis Ababa on 10 May 2014, the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict had signed a commitment agreement with Riek Machar to end grave violations against and provide assistance to children, and to appoint a high-level focal point, Report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in South Sudan, S/2014/884, 11 December 2014, at p. 15. 46