By Matik Kueth
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan has warned that the country’s planned elections could deepen political divisions and trigger renewed violence if key peace and human rights safeguards are not restored before the polls.
In a new advisory issued on Thursday, titled At the Brink: “Preventing Atrocity Crimes and Safeguarding South Sudan’s Transition,” Yasmin Sooka, Chair of the Commission, said South Sudan is moving toward its first national elections since independence while armed conflict has resumed in parts of the country, civic space has narrowed and key provisions of the peace agreement remain unimplemented.
She noted that the conditions are creating a dangerous environment in which elections could become a source of conflict rather than a pathway to democratic change.
“South Sudanese have waited 15 years to cast their first ballots as citizens of an independent state. They have the right to choose their government through free, peaceful and democratic elections. They deserve an election that gives them a voice, not one that puts their lives at risk,” Sooka said.
Carlos Castresana Fernández, a member of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, stated that several risk factors for atrocity crimes are converging, including renewed fighting, political exclusion, weakened institutions, corruption, shrinking civic space, inflammatory rhetoric and a lack of accountability.
He cautioned that mechanisms intended to prevent violence, including ceasefire monitoring, independent justice institutions and inclusive political dialogue, have also been weakened or suspended.
“An election cannot be credible simply because it is held on schedule. It is credible when citizens can vote without fear, political opponents can participate freely, courts can resolve disputes independently, and institutions can constrain the exercise of power,” he stated.
The Commission noted that 46.4 percent of the provisions of the Revitalized Peace Agreement remain outstanding, according to the Government’s latest assessment.
It also said the unification of national forces remains incomplete while armed conflict has resumed in several areas.
Against this backdrop, the Commission called for an immediate cessation of hostilities, restoration of transitional security arrangements and an end to the mobilization of armed groups.
It also urged the government and political parties to reconvene an inclusive dialogue involving Dr Riek Machar’s SPLM-IO faction, holdout groups, civil society, women and youth.
The Commission further called for the release of detained opposition leaders, including Machar, unless they are promptly brought before an independent and impartial court in proceedings that meet international human rights standards.
The UN human rights body noted that credible elections require a monitored cessation of hostilities, unified and non-partisan security forces, restored civic and political space, independent electoral institutions and impartial mechanisms for resolving electoral disputes.
It also stressed the need to protect the participation of women, youth, persons with disabilities, internally displaced people and refugees, urging the African Union, IGAD, the United Nations and other international partners to step up preventive diplomacy and support an inclusive political process.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July 2011, but has yet to hold national elections since independence.
The country has instead remained under transitional arrangements shaped by political crises and conflict.
The Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan was signed in 2018 to end the civil war and establish a path toward elections, constitutional reform, security-sector reform and a permanent political settlement.
The transition has repeatedly been extended, while fighting and political tensions have continued in parts of the country.
The government is now preparing for elections scheduled for December 2026, making the UN Commission’s warning particularly significant as South Sudan moves closer to the ballot.
The Commission said the current trajectory can still be reversed, but warned that the opportunity to prevent a return to the scale of atrocities and displacement experienced between 2013 and 2018 is rapidly narrowing.