A/HRC/43/56 Sudan is a party. Pursuant to Article 1 of the CRC, a “child” is defined as every person younger than 18 years, unless, according to the law applicable to the child, a child becomes an adult earlier. In accordance with international standards, the 2008 Child Act of South Sudan also defines children as individuals under the age of 18. The Act further upholds the rights of children to non-discrimination, to life, survival and development, to education, wellbeing and health and to liberty and security of person. It sets the minimum age for conscription or voluntary recruitment into armed forces or groups at 18 years and prohibits the use of children in military or paramilitary activities. 271 7. South Sudan made two declarations to the Optional Protocol. On Article 3, it stated that “the minimum age at which it permits recruitment of volunteers in Armed Forces is eighteen years and in accordance with section 22 of the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army Act, 2009”. It further stated “that the safeguards provided in Article 3(2) of the Optional Protocol on Involvement of Children in the Armed Conflicts and in the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army Act, 2009 shall be observed and bound by to ensure that all recruitment is made in public places and not done under force or duress, advertised in the press and national media for young people, the recruits undergo medical examination and the record consist of recruitment as appropriate, among others, a birth certificate, certificate of education or apprenticeship”. B. Localized conflict(s) 8. As part of their obligation to protect human rights, States must prevent, investigate, punish and ensure redress for human rights violations committed by both those within their ranks and non-state actors. South Sudan is a party to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols, which demand that parties to a conflict respect the rules on the conduct of hostilities (especially the rules on precaution, distinction and proportionality) as well as rules for the protection of the victims of armed conflict. The treaties have been incorporated in the law of South Sudan. 272 9. South Sudan is also party to international human rights instruments such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and, again, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. These treaties require respect for human rights including right to life, freedom from torture, freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment, right to fair trial and presumption of innocence and non-recruitment of children. 10. Under international law, including human rights law, the State may be held generally responsible for the wrongful conduct of non-State individuals or groups when the latter are acting in “complete dependence” on the State. 273 A State might also be held responsible in cases in which non-State individuals or groups act on its instructions or under its direction or its “effective control”274 and also when its own agents acknowledge and adopt the conduct of non-State groups.275 States must investigate the use of lethal force by their agents, 271 Child Act (2008), §§ 9, 12, 14, 15, 19, 31 and 36. See also SPLA Act (2009), § 22(2). Geneva Convention Act, 2012. 273 International Court of Justice (ICJ), Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), Judgment, 2007 paragraphs 392, 399. 274 International Law Commission, Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, Article 8, See also ICJ, Military and Paramilitary Activities in and against Nicaragua (Nicaragua v. United States of America), Merits, Judgment, 1986 paragraphs 109-110; and Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), Judgment, 2007 paragraphs 400, 401. 275 International Law Commission, Draft Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, Article 11. In its General Comment No. 3 on the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights: The Right to Life (Article 4), the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights expressed the view that a State could be held responsible for killings by non-State actors if it 272 47