STATEMENT BY NICHOLAS HAYSOM, SPECIAL REREPRESENTATIVE OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
SECURITY COUNCIL BRIEFING ON UNMISS
New York
15 SEPTEMBER 2023
I thank you, Madam President, for the opportunity to brief the Security Council.
With 15 months remaining until the elections that are scheduled to end the transitional period, time is of the essence for South Sudan. The country anticipates holding its first elections in December 2024. However, key institutions and legal frameworks have yet to be put in place and critical questions remain unanswered. Resolving those questions requires no material resources, only the political will to reach compromise and consensus is what is needed. Such questions include the type of elections to be held, voter registration requirements, how electoral boundaries will be determined, the nature of the participation of refugees and internally displaced persons, the allocation of security responsibilities and how electoral-related disputes will be managed.
One particularly important issue is the stalled constitution-making process, to be carried out in an environment that respects freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly and encourages civic engagement. The process is 12 months behind schedule, according to the road map of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan. The need to recalibrate or resolve priorities within the remaining time of the transitional period is now urgent. However, that sense of urgency needs to come from the parties to the Revitalized Agreement, not from the international community.
Since my previous briefing (see S/PV.9353) there has been modest progress in some areas. They include the passage of the National Elections Act; the establishment of a joint task force between the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity and the trilateral group of the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the United Nations to coordinate support to the implementation of the constitution-making and electoral processes; the commencement of electoral security planning, which needs retention; initial election budgetary discussions have taken place; and a recent agreement on the deployment of the first batch of the newly graduated necessary unified forces has been reached.
While in the assessment of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) the delays on key decisions can be attributed to foot-dragging by the signatories, we have also noted a lack of capacity in establishing the required institutions and in the complexities of electoral planning. However, in his Martyrs’ Day statement, President Kiir made a clear commitment that South Sudan will not return to war, that the path forward includes holding elections in December 2024 and that all the parties must work to emerge from perpetual transitional Government status. He has committed to holding the elections on time. A level playing field is therefore now required for a credible, inclusive and peaceful election. The situation currently privileges one party above others, and I note that campaigning has begun in some states. That reinforces the urgent need to establish the Political Parties Council as the body responsible for registering parties so that they all have equal opportunity, access and rights, by law, to mobilize support.
Relatedly, I want to caution that unilateralism and brinkmanship are toxic to the practice of post-conflict mutual trust and confidence-building. I recognize the collective responsibility of the political class, as a whole and in general, including the opposition parties, in progressively unlocking the blockages in the road map. Some of them were outlined by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition in a statement issued this week. We would also acknowledge, however, that a pre-eminent responsibility rests on the ruling party — to resist unilateral interpretations of the peace agreement and to make full use of available public resources and decision-making committees to advance the implementation of the agreement.
Looking ahead, further steps that must be taken by the country’s political leadership include passing priority elections-related legislation in Parliament; allocating a national budget for elections; reconstituting and resourcing key electoral institutions — the National Constitutional Review Commission, the National Elections Commission and the Political Parties Council; and completing essential benchmarks in the road map, especially related to the transitional security arrangements.
Despite all those challenges, an independent perception survey commissioned by UNMISS showed that there remains significant popular demand for elections. Civil society organizations across the nation have expressed to UNMISS their desire for elections, but not without reservations about the overall status of the implementation of the peace agreement. They have identified a role for themselves in monitoring and supporting its implementation and in conducting civic education campaigns. But to do that, they need a secure environment, as well as resources to partner in expanding civic and political space.
I note that during a recent political parties forum in Wau, supported by UNMISS and its partners, stakeholders across the political spectrum reaffirmed their commitment to a more open political space, including through local mechanisms to support freedom of expression, association, assembly and movement. A stable security environment is essential for creating a conducive environment, both for elections and for future sustainable development. The reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission has reported that since the graduation of the first phase of the necessary unified forces in January, little progress has been registered. However, positively, UNMISS takes note that, this week, the Joint Defence Board has called for graduated personnel of the necessary unified forces to return to their training centres within seven days for onward deployment and has summoned recruits for phase 2 of the integration process.
In summary, the importance of sustaining the country’s overall stabilization, through continued international engagement and support to the implementation of key road map benchmarks, including electoral preparations, must be underlined. For our part, UNMISS has been mandated by the Council to support an enabling environment for South Sudan to carry out its first national elections since independence. We are currently seeking, including within our existing resources, to support a two-phase approach to assist South Sudan in preparing for its elections. In the first phase, the United Nations will focus on capacity-building for standing up key institutions and expanding civic and political space. The second phase, support to the electoral process itself, will be contingent on Member States’ support and progress during the first phase, when and if a national electoral framework matures.
Against that backdrop, the ceasefire is largely holding across the country. There has been a substantial reduction in conflict between the signatories since the signing of the Revitalized Peace Agreement in 2018. But intercommunal and subnational violence remains an overall impediment to peace consolidation, as does sporadic fighting between the government forces and non-signatories, absent the latter’s integration into the peace process.
While I am confident that the Mission’s more robust posture has contributed to a limited decrease in violence in South Sudan, the expanded protection-of-civilians mandate in resolution 2677 (2023), coupled with a reduced aviation operability and a static budget, has put our mobility enhancement under strain. In that context, the Mission requested an external review of our protection-of-civilians capacity, which has validated the need for increased capability requirements.
UNMISS, nevertheless, continues to strengthen its approach towards the protection of civilians, including an enhanced coordination mechanism for whole-of-mission responses to early-warning indicators. We are also expanding our uniformed presence across the country by adding six additional operating bases.
The impact of the crisis in the Sudan, along the political, economic, humanitarian and security dimensions, continues to loom. The situation has exacerbated existing conflict drivers in South Sudan, such as competition over limited resources. South Sudan needs additional support from international donors for support to the Sudan crisis, but I also call for the unity Government to allocate national budget funding to meet its own humanitarian and public service needs and restart support for the onward transportation of people who have crossed into South Sudan. I note that an overall squeeze in humanitarian funding continues, and reductions in anticipated food distribution have already sparked tensions and protests in the camp for internally displaced persons in Bentiu.
While I will defer detailed briefing on the humanitarian situation to my colleague from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, it must be said that, after four years of recurrent flooding and drought, the impact of climate change has been unrelenting. That has a significant bearing on the security environment, given that the majority of South Sudan’s population relies on climate-sensitive sectors for their livelihoods, such as agriculture, pastoral activities, fishing and forestry.
That suggests that addressing humanitarian needs alone is insufficient. We are increasingly emphasizing coordinated approaches across the peace, humanitarian and development nexus, focusing on enhancing community resilience to conflict-, climate- and food-related shocks, finding durable solutions to displacement and strengthening community violence reduction, including through project platforms such as the reconciliation, stabilization and resilience trust fund, and building institutions in proper alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework.
In all those efforts, I wish to thank our partners — IGAD, the troika, the European Union and its member States, the reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, the African Union and the United Nations country team as a whole.
The inspirational success and popularity of South Sudan’s national basketball team, the Bright Stars, illustrates how the people of that country yearn for their nation-building moment. It is time for the political class and signatory parties to marry that dream with reality, and for the international community and the United Nations to stay the course towards that objective.