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Joint NGO letter to UN Security Council Members regarding the draft resolution on sanctions for South Sudan

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Joint NGO letter to UN Security Council Members regarding the draft resolution on sanctions for South Sudan

Posted by Enough Team on November 7, 2014

7 November 2014

RE: Draft Resolution on Sanctions for South Sudan

Dear United Nations Security Council Members,

We, as human rights and advocacy organizations working on South Sudan, commend the Council’s dedicated attention to the crisis, including your most recent trip to South Sudan. As the conflict looks set to intensify, it has become clear that the fighting will continue unless the calculations of the warring parties are fundamentally altered. To that end, we urge you vote in favour of the draft resolution on global targeted sanctions in front of the Council. We also suggest a complementary arms embargo to limit the ability of both sides to wage war on their own people.

Asset freezes and travel bans should be imposed against those that continue to undermine the peace process, obstruct humanitarian access, and perpetrate grave human rights abuses. Building on sanctions designations already made by the United States, the European Union, and Canada, the UN Security Council should establish its own list of individuals to target in close consultation with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) leading regional negotiations. Steps must also be taken to ensure the global sanctions regime does not further impede the delivery of humanitarian assistance or harm ordinary civilians in any way.

To ensure these measures have the desired impact, the Council should give the sanctions committee a clear mandate and adequate resources to quickly investigate and make designations against those that continue to undermine the peace process. Enhancing the capacity for enforcement of the sanctions regime at the regional level should be given top priority, particularly in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia. Additionally, an empowered group of experts should be tasked with tracking the flow of arms into the country and ensuring that any weapons, ammunition and other military-grade equipment and technology sent to South Sudan for peacekeeping purposes are not used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.

A globally and regionally enforced sanctions regime, including asset freezes and travel bans, would restrict the ability of South Sudanese elites to fund and fuel this civil war. Please act today.

Sincerely,

The Enough Project
United to End Genocide
Voices for Sudan

View a PDF of the full letter.