A/HRC/21/34 prosecutors and the judiciary are chronically underresourced and poorly trained. Some progress in the professionalization of the police, by means of training programmes and the establishment of a national training centre, has not obviated the challenges for the South Sudan National Police Service, which has an illiteracy level estimated as high as 90 per cent. This capacity gap has led in part to the usurpation of police powers by the SPLA. The establishment of such national institutions as the Human Rights Commission has been severely affected by the recent austerity measures. As a result, the Commission lacks the capacity and resources necessary to carry out its statutory and oversight functions. 15. While many of the threats posed to security and stability in South Sudan are internal, relations with the Sudan have deteriorated to the brink of an outright war in the country’s first year of existence. Political tensions between the two States have persisted in the postindependence period as a result of the failure to resolve major issues concerning aspects of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, including border demarcation, wealth-sharing and the fate of the disputed territory of Abyei. Tensions have flared up with fighting erupting in Abyei and in the Kordofan and Blue Nile States in the Sudan. The Sudan accuses South Sudan of supporting insurgents of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army North (SPLA-N), a charge denied by the Government in Juba. The latest escalation of violence, the worst since the independence of South Sudan, was witnessed in April 2012, when South Sudan captured and occupied Heglig, home to oil fields that account for about half of the total oil production of the Sudan, after accusing it of using the area as a launching pad for attacks against South Sudan. In response to international pressure, the Government of South Sudan announced the unconditional withdrawal of the SPLA from Heglig. Meanwhile, fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and SPLA-N in the Sudan States of South Kordofan and Blue Nile and their proxies has pushed streams of refugees into South Sudan, with more than 170,000 settling in the Upper Nile and Unity States. III. Human rights challenges and priorities 16. As a new State emerging from years of conflict and underdevelopment, South Sudan faces a vast number of human rights challenges, which pose a threat to the peace, security and stability of the country and the region. The Government has pledged to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, and has made some progress in putting in place laws and policies to that effect. During the universal periodic review of South Sudan,1 the Government pointed out that it had started to build up its administration and institutions of governance since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, including the establishment of a human rights commission with a mandate to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms. It also stated that provisions in its transitional Constitution incorporated basic human rights principles and provisions, including from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. 17. In spite of the above-mentioned achievements, a number of concerns and issues were raised by delegations during the universal periodic review, including the impact of armed conflicts on civilians; combating impunity; the need for the country to complete its transition from a militarized society to a democratic system based on the rule of law; 1 Southern Sudan participated in the eleventh session of the universal periodic review, in May 2011, even though it was still to become an independent State at the time. The review was held on the basis of a specific arrangement that reflected Southern Sudan’s autonomous status during the transitional period of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. 5