A/HRC/43/56 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 31 January 2020 Original: English Human Rights Council Forty-third session 24 February–20 March 2020 Agenda item 4 Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention Report of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan*, ** Summary The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan notes with grave concern a sustained lack of political will in the signatories to implement in good faith the key provisions of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan, which would allow the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity to be formed. Political elites remained oblivious to the intense suffering of millions of civilians for whom they were ostensibly fighting. As facilitators and guarantors of the Agreement, neither the Intergovernmental Authority on Development nor the African Union have been able to exert decisive influence on the parties. Even though regional efforts yielded an extension of the pre-transitional period, States often pursued divergent goals in relation to South Sudan. Having missed two deadlines in May and November 2019, and with a third now looming, unresolved issues remain: the training and deployment of the Necessary Unified Forces, establishing the number of states and boundaries, the restructuring of the Council of States and the enactment of the Constitutional Amendment Bill. Government forces moreover continued to forcibly recruit men and boys into their ranks through extensive campaigns in Warrap, Western Bahr el-Ghazal and Unity States, while opposition forces forcibly recruited men and boys in Unity and Central Equatoria States. Hostilities involving the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces, local militias and the National Salvation Front– a non-signatory to the Revitalized Agreement– also continued in flashpoint areas, including Yei and Lobonok (Central Equatoria) and Maiwut (Upper Nile). Incidents of armed conflict confirmed an ongoing threat to peace and security, and the urgent need to address comprehensively issues relating to accountability, entrenched impunity and the arming of local militias and holdout groups. Beyond the fragile peace at the national level, localized and often ethnically-based tensions intensified, leading to an increase of nearly 200 per cent in the number of civilian casualties over 2018. Between late February and May 2019, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan recorded some 531 deaths and 317 injuries in 152 incidents of localized violence. Of grave concern, brutal attacks, often premised on cattle raiding, involved members of the State apparatus or the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (pro- * Agreement was reached to publish the present report after the standard publication date owing to circumstances beyond the submitter’s control. ** The annexes to the present report are circulated as received, in the language of submission only. GE.20-01462(E) 