A/HRC/45/CRP.3
the international crime of starvation of the civilian population as a method of
warfare.
147. Finally, the Commission has reasonable grounds to believe that sufficient
evidence exists to hold to account members of the SPLA-IO (RM) under
international and national laws for the crime of intentionally using starvation of
civilians as a method of warfare by arbitrarily denying humanitarian aid to
populations in need in Central Equatoria, including by arbitrarily denying objects
indispensable to their survival.
XI.
Recommendations
148.
The Commission recommends that the Government of South Sudan:
(a) Prevent, investigate, and punish those responsible for starvation related
crimes in accordance with the Geneva Conventions Act 2012, and other relevant
laws of South Sudan;
(b) Allow humanitarians unhindered access in the delivery of items
essential to human life;
(c) Ensure that all communities have rapid, unhindered, and sustained
access to humanitarian aid, prioritising the acute needs of civilians in the Greater
Upper Nile and Bahr el Ghazal regions, and take measures to hold accountable State
agents as well as individuals from the opposition non-State armed groups who
obstructed or unlawfully diverted humanitarian assistance;
(d) Take urgent measures to address the malnutrition of children, including
by investing in infrastructure to facilitate access to treatment, ensuring the
availability of potable water, and adopting adequate measures concerning
communicable disease surveillance and prevention;
(e) Include starvation as a method of warfare as an explicit war crime in
the Draft Statute of the Hybrid Court;
(f) Deposit with the Secretary-General, without delay, instruments of
accession to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the first
Protocols thereto, which have been ratified by the Transitional National Legislature;
(g) Realign spending priorities and commit resources towards fulfilling
citizens’ needs, including ensuring freedom from hunger and other economic, social,
and cultural rights, and improving standards of living, including by providing and
ensuring access to remote and hard-to-reach areas in particular where women and
girls are affected by the lack of access to adequate food.
149.
The Commission recommends that the African Union:
(a) Ensure that South Sudan as a member of the African Union is held
accountable for acts and omissions related to access to food which amount to a
violation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and for arbitrary
displacement used as collective punishment in violation of the African Union
Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in
Africa (Kampala Convention);
(b) Engage with the Government of South Sudan and support it in taking
the steps necessary to establish the Hybrid Court and other transitional justice
mechanisms and processes, and establish a timeline for the process.
37
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