Following decades of civil war and ongoing conflict, violations and abuses of human rights continue to plague the world’s youngest nation, including loss of life, sexual and gender-based violence, arbitrary and prolonged detention, lack of access to justice, poverty, and prevalent impunity.
The Human Rights Division, which also represents the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in South Sudan, works to promote human rights across the country. Its core activities include monitoring, investigating, verifying and reporting on violations and abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law.
This work is conducted through field missions to monitor and assess human rights, notably in areas hosting internally displaced people from conflict-affected states. In addition, HRD intervenes in cases where human rights defenders and individual victims require protection, including those subjected to sexual and gender-based violence.
The Division leads UNMISS’ relentless efforts to facilitate the building of a vibrant and robust human rights culture among civil society actors, media, and human rights defenders, through training, mentoring and provision of resources. The aim is to enhance civil society’s ability to monitor and report on human rights and empower local communities to identify, assert and demand the protection of their rights, while engaging in human rights and democracy dialogue with their government and relevant stakeholders.