![Chair of UN Human Rights Commission in South Sudan Yasmin Sooka. [Photo courtesy]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/00600637_7429f4034b602efee3d316283c22bfd7_arc614x376_w1200.webp?resize=1024%2C627&ssl=1)
Yasmin Sooka, Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, said South Sudanese deserve elections that allow them to participate freely and safely in determining the country’s political future rather than putting their lives at security risk.
“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.
Sooka said the commission will support South Sudanese citizens’ right to participate in free and democratic elections, provided key political, security, and human rights safeguards are put in place.
“A peaceful democracy cannot be built on a foundation of armed conflict, fear, and exclusion. Yet the very safeguards designed to prevent a return to war are being dismantled as the country moves towards the ballot box,” she said.
She warned that renewed armed conflict, weakened institutions, entrenched impunity, exclusionary governance, corruption, shrinking civic space, and inflammatory rhetoric are converging to deepen instability in Africa’s youngest nation.
Sooka said mechanisms that could mitigate these security and political risks—including ceasefire monitoring, independent justice institutions, and others—have been weakened or suspended.
For his part, Commissioner Barney Afako said South Sudan’s peace agreement was intended to remove armed conflict from political competition and establish institutions capable of ensuring long-term stability.
“South Sudan is still in a transition intended to break cycles of violence and repression. Elections must not be allowed to create another violent battleground,” Afako said.
He urged the parties to the 2018 peace deal to return to genuine dialogue, rebuild consensus, and create the conditions favorable for December 2026 general elections.
“The peace agreement was designed to take the guns out of political competition and to build systems to ensure the stability and prosperity of South Sudan. Instead, the guns are returning while the safeguards for peaceful political competition are disappearing,” he said.
“That is a profoundly dangerous trajectory. South Sudan cannot build a democratic future by excluding those with whom it disagrees. The parties must return to genuine dialogue, rebuild consensus, and create the conditions in which political competition can take place without exclusion and violence.”
Commissioner Carlos Castresana Fernández said holding elections without addressing these deficiencies risks producing an outcome that lacks the conditions necessary for peaceful competition, meaningful participation, and public confidence.
“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,” said Castresana.
He urged the authorities to ensure genuine monitoring of the cessation of hostilities, establish unified national security forces under a non-partisan command, and restore civic and political space.
“These are not optional conditions. They are the safeguards that make an election a peaceful democratic process. Without those safeguards, the ballot risks becoming another arena for conflict rather than a pathway out of it.”
