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On May 27, the UN Security Council passed a resolution refocusing the mission’s mandate away from government support to protection of civilians, protecting humanitarian assistance and human rights monitoring, investigations and reporting. 186 The mandate calls for protection of civilians under threat – not just ‘imminent’ threat – and for peacekeepers to protect ‘within (the mission’s) capacity and areas of deployment’; providing for much more than just protecting bases. To be able to implement this mandate to the fullest extent possible, UNMISS needs to have its old problems – the lack of military manpower and a lack of clarity about when peacekeepers will intervene to protect civilians outside of the bases – addressed. On December 24, soon after the violence spread out of Juba, the UN Security Council speedily passed a resolution authorizing the deployment of 5,500 more peacekeeping troops for South Sudan and 440 police – in addition to its existing 7,000 force- and 1300 police. 187 However, only a few of the promised peacekeepers had arrived by June 2014 limiting the number and range of patrols peacekeepers have been able to undertake. The overall number of civilians – and so the number of troops needed to protect them – in UN bases has continued to increase. Promised additional troops are urgently needed to bolster UNMISS’ chances at being more effective outside the bases. Peacekeepers also need to be clear that they are required, within their abilities, to protect civilians outside of the bases. Aid workers have regularly advocated for more patrolling by armed peacekeepers around the perimeters of all camps and along key roads and in markets to help reduce abuse. Peacekeepers have also struggled to vary patrols and have tended not to get out of vehicles and walk in neighborhoods and markets, even when unarmed UNMISS police, military liaison and civilian staff have done so to collect provided numerous medical evacuations and has treated hundreds of patients who have been unable to seek medical care in government hospitals because they were frightened of being targeted because of their ethnicity. In some cases, for example in Bentiu in December 2013, UNMISS helped transport civilians under threat to their base. 186 UN Security Council Resolution 2155 (2014), S/RES/2155 (2014). http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_res_2155.pdf (accessed June 2, 2014). Also see “United Nationals Mission in South Sudan to Suspend Current Activities , Re-focus Priorities, Peacekeeping Chief Tells Security Council”, March 18, 2014, http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2014/sc11323.doc.htm, (accessed June 2, 2014). 187 UN Security Council resolution 2132 (2013) S/RES/2132 (2013) http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/s_res_2132.pdf (accessed June 2, 2014). Formed Police Units of police arrived within months of the resolution. 77 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | AUGUST 2014
information and advocate for civilian protection to military leaders. 188 The provision of language assistants to peacekeeping forces could make these kinds of important activities easier and more meaningful. Troop contributing countries should also ensure that at least some members of their troops speak English or Arabic. Equally confronting abuses by both parties when they occur is important for the mission’s ability to implement its civilian protection mandate and access areas controlled by both sides to the conflict. Even though both sides have been responsible for serious abuses, in January in Bor the mission allowed SPLA military liaison officers to stay in its base and flew injured SPLA soldiers to Juba from Bor for medical treatment, while refusing similar assistance to injured opposition soldiers, some of whom subsequently died of their injuries. This could have compromised the mission’s capacity to access rebel held territory and advocate with opposition forces against the targeting of civilians. UNMISS continued to regularly fly government officials, for example by approving a request to fly local government officials back to Bentiu in March, a few months after the government recapture of the town during which numerous serious abuses took place. The mission should broadly interpret its human rights due diligence policy and refuse support, including transport, to authorities who might, even indirectly, support human rights violations. 189 Continuing to accept government demands has also had an impact on the kind of work the mission has been able to do. In Juba, UNMISS continued to seek permission to vary patrol routes many months after the December crisis, often taking government military liaison officers with them. 190 These restrictions have undermined the perception of independence of the mission and its flexibility and the ability of its staff to conduct sensitive investigations. 188 Human Rights Watch interviews, UNMISS officials, government officials, humanitarian officials, 2014. 189 The UN Human Rights Due Diligence Policy (HRDDP) includes as a core principle that: “UN support cannot be provided where there are substantial grounds for believing there is a real risk of the receiving entities committing grave violations of international humanitarian, human rights or refugee law and where the relevant authorities fail to take the necessary corrective or mitigating measures.” See Human Rights Watch “Can UN Help Itself from Underwriting Human Rights Abuses?” http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/07/24/can-un-help-itself-underwriting-human-rights-abuses. The UN HRDDP is available here: http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/2013/110&referer=http://www.un.org/en/sc/documents/letters/20 13.shtml&Lang=E (accessed June 10, 2014). 190 Human Rights Watch interviews, UNMISS officials, names withheld, April 2014. SOUTH SUDAN’S NEW WAR 78
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H U M A N R I G H T S W A T C H SOU
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Copyright © 2014 Human Rights Watc
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IV. Attacks on Civilians in Bentiu,
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Summary ‘The leaders of the SPLA
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Tens of thousands of Nuer remain sh
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In line with international law, IGA
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monitors, independent journalists a
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attack on the UN base in Akobo and
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the ICC’s jurisdiction by the gov
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• Counselling to address the emot
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interviews were conducted by teleph
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country, dictatorial tendencies and
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Riek escaped from Juba on the night
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continues in all three states. In m
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The new war in South Sudan began wi
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house was attacked as Riek had alre
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Page 36 and 37: Attacks on Nuer Civilians Including
Page 38 and 39: Three witnesses separately reported
Page 40 and 41: immediately opened fire, injuring h
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Page 44 and 45: army uniforms -that they were Nuer
Page 46 and 47: One young Nuer man described how so
Page 48 and 49: A member of parliament, Jal Thich w
Page 50 and 51: site was a concrete cellar, with st
Page 52 and 53: move because, he said, he was repea
Page 54 and 55: In late January government official
Page 56 and 57: At least four prisoners were shot i
Page 58 and 59: neighborhoods sometimes apparently
Page 60 and 61: decomposing bodies. In another hut
Page 62 and 63: and military uniforms, attacked the
Page 64 and 65: IV. Attacks on Civilians in Bentiu,
Page 66 and 67: office of the Sudd Petroleum Operat
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Page 70 and 71: Attacks on Civilians by Government
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Page 76 and 77: V. Attacks on Civilians in Malakal,
Page 78 and 79: mobile and money. They pointed thei
Page 80 and 81: Images of a neighborhood in the sou
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Page 86 and 87: Human Rights Reporting Public human
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Page 90 and 91: no opposition forces or other milit
Page 92 and 93: during the crackdown. Several milit
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Page 96 and 97: journalists and freedom of expressi
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Page 100: Since mid-December 2013, South Suda
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