A/HRC/43/56 30. Additional initiatives aimed at remedying critical gaps within the judiciary included the formation of a specialized chamber in Juba to address cases of sexual and gender-based violence to be functional by 31 October 2019 (annex II, para. 64). At the time of writing, only the property for locating the chambers had been identified. While the establishment of a chamber specialized in addressing sexual and gender-based violence is a welcome development, the Commission notes that the chamber envisaged will operate at the national and not the state level. Moreover, although mobile courts have adjudicated cases of sexual and gender-based violence, they do not appear to be linked to the specialized chamber, depriving thousands of victims countrywide of access to justice, including victims of conflict-related sexual violence, which falls outside of the specialized chamber’s narrow mandate. Despite these commitments, very few perpetrators have been prosecuted for sexual and gender-based violence or conflict-related sexual violence. 31. In December 2019, the National Security Service also announced the establishment of a special five-judge tribunal to try its members responsible for criminal acts, breaches of the National Security Act and any other laws and regulations. According to the National Security Service Director of Legal Affairs, the tribunal will also have the “power to try and punish officers of the National Security NCO [non-commissioned officers] as an individual or as a member of the National Security [Service] if they are charged with offenses which include human rights abuses.”16 32. Despite certain developments, the Commission also remains deeply concerned at the lack of progress in establishing transitional justice mechanisms pursuant to chapter V of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan, including for sexual and gender-based violence. Little progress was made in establishing the hybrid court during the period under review. In December 2019, the Office of the Legal Counsel of the African Union, in consultation with Judge Theodor Meron and Professor Bongani Majola, noted that the draft statute of the hybrid court had been finalized, and that the drafting committee would be preparing the draft rules of the Court. No progress was made, however, in establishing the commission for truth, reconciliation and healing or the compensation and reparation authority, which should be complemented by customary and other community-centred mechanisms (annex II, paras. 87–94). V. Economic, social and cultural rights 33. Extreme levels of poverty and lack of access to essential services were exacerbated by economic crimes perpetrated by members of the State apparatus.17 Corruption has made several officials extremely wealthy at the expense of millions of starving civilians, resulting in acute socioeconomic inequality. Over time, corruption has been so lucrative that it has infected every sector of the economy and every State institution.18 The illicit diversion of revenues has robbed the Government of critical resources to fund the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, such as health, education, food and agriculture, and water. 19 34. The misappropriation and diversion of public funds are made easier by the predominantly cash economy of South Sudan, and are facilitated by nepotism in appointments to senior government positions. An overall lack of transparency and civilian oversight in accounting exacerbates the problem. Deeply flawed prioritization means that 16 17 18 19 court concludes proceedings in Malakal”, United Nations Peacekeeping, 23 September 2019, available from https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mobile-court-concludes-proceedings-malakal. Dimo Silva Aurelio, “South Sudan Creates Tribunal to Try Security Operatives”, VOA, 5 December 2019. See conference room paper on … (A/HRC/40/CRP.1), available on the webpage of the Commission at www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/CoHSouthSudan/Pages/Index.aspx. Alex de Waal, “When Kleptocracy Becomes Insolvent: Brute Causes of the Civil War in South Sudan”, African Affairs, vol. 113, No. 452 (2014), pp. 347–369. See for example Sam Mednick, “Sprouting Weapons of War” Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, 17 July 2019, available fromwww.occrp.org/en/investigations/sprouting-weaponsof-war. 9