A/HRC/45/CRP.3 of the EAC Treaty, which South Sudan has undertaken to uphold by becoming a State Party. The East African Court of Justice could therefore provide a potential avenue for victims of starvation to seek redress for violations of the right to food. 4. Transitional Constitution of South Sudan (2011) and national criminal law 46. At the national level, the right to food may be construed by Articles 9(3) and 11 of the Transitional Constitution of South Sudan, which guarantee both the domestic application of international human rights instruments to which South Sudan is a State Party and the right to life and human dignity. The interdependence, indivisibility, and interrelated nature of all human rights form another basis for the recognition of the right to food. The rights to life and physical integrity are also protected by South Sudan’s criminal law in several provisions of the Penal Code Act (2008), as amended by the Penal Code (Amendment) Bill (2015). The SPLA Act also grants jurisdiction to civilian courts against military personnel accused of crimes against civilians or civilian properties. 48 5. Crimes against humanity 47. The Draft Statute of the Hybrid Court includes the following relevant crimes against humanity when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population: (i) deportation or forcible transfer of population; (ii) persecution against any identifiable group or collectively on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender or other grounds that are universally recognised as impermissible under international law; and (iii) other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.49 48. The draft legislation pending before the National Legislative Assembly would add a Section 206B to the Penal Code thereby allowing for the trial and punishment of certain crimes against humanity at the national level.50 V. Western Bahr el Ghazal State (2016-2019) 1. Background to conflict and food insecurity 49. For more than seven years, Western Bahr el Ghazal State has been marred by persistent ethnic tensions that have triggered on-going armed insurgencies between Government and Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (pro-Riek Machar) (SPLA-IO (RM)) forces, induced mass displacement, and generated acute levels of food insecurity for tens of thousands of vulnerable South Sudanese women, men, and children. Prior to the outbreak of national conflict on 15 December 2013, the population of Western Bahr el Ghazal State comprised primarily the Balanda Boor (Fertit) and Luo ethnic groups, both of which represent minority communities generally perceived by the Government of South Sudan as being aligned with opposition forces. 50. Not long after South Sudan gained independence in 2011, the Government of President Salva Kiir made the controversial decision on 19 October 2012 to transfer the administrative headquarters of Wau County from Wau town to Baggari – a town 20 kilometres southwest of Wau – despite fierce objections by Fertit and Luo citizens in Wau 48 SPLA Act, Art. 37(4). Draft Statute of the Hybrid Court for South Sudan, at Arts. 3(d), (h), and (j). 50 Article 206B Crimes Against Humanity: “Whoever directs widespread or systematic attack against any civilian population, with intent of killing or extermination or enslavement or deportation or forcible transfer of population or imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law or torture or rape or sexual slavery or pregnancy or enforced sterilization or any other form of sexual violence or comparable gravity or prosecution against any identifiable group or collectively on political or racial or national or ethnic or cultural or religious or gender or enforced disappearance of persons or crime of apartheid or any other inhuman acts of similar character commits an offences of crimes against humanity and upon conviction shall be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.” 49 14