A/HRC/28/49 United Nations General Assembly Distr.: General 27 March 2015 Original: English Human Rights Council Twenty-eighth session Agenda items 2 and 10 Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General Technical assistance and capacity-building Human rights situation in South Sudan Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights* Summary The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 26/31, in which the Council requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to monitor the human rights situation in South Sudan and to report thereon to the Council at its twenty-eighth session, with recommendations on technical assistance and capacitybuilding measures, including on human rights education to overcome challenges in the area of security, and on accountability and transitional justice. The present report was prepared in cooperation with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and covers the period from 15 August to 15 December 2014. At the Council’s twenty-seventh session, in September 2014, the High Commissioner submitted a report on the situation of human rights in South Sudan covering the period from 8 May to 8 August 2014 (A/27/69). The situation of human rights in South Sudan remained of serious concern during the reporting period. Civilians continued to bear the brunt of the ongoing armed conflict and of their leaders’ failure to stop the fighting. While the scale and severity of the conflict declined, the number of civilians displaced across the country continued to rise, with no likelihood that people would be able to return to their homes in the near future. UNMISS continued to receive reports of human rights violations and abuses, as well as violations of international humanitarian law, including the killing and wounding of civilians by all parties to the armed conflict. Incidents of conflict-related sexual violence also continued to be reported, not only in the context of the hostilities between the main belligerents, but also * Late submission. GE.15-06570 (E) 