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LADY JUSTICE JOYCE ALUOCH APPOINTED MEMBER OF THE JUDICIAL REFORM COMMITTEE FOR SOUTH SUDAN

24 March 2023

Lady Justice Joyce Aluoch recently appointed a member of the Judicial Reform Committee for South Sudan, by IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority for Development). The Committee consisting of 12 members was commissioned in Juba-South Sudan July 2022. It is under the Peace Agreement known as the Revitalized (power sharing) Agreement for the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan. The Agreement was signed by 5 Political Parties, Civil Society Coalitions, Women Blocks and IGAD, as the mediator, on September12, 2018. It is the current sovereign document in South Sudan until a permanent Constitution is enacted and adopted. It gives legitimacy to the Executive, The National Assembly, the Judiciary etc. The Agreement was to remain in force until February 2023, as the elections were to be conducted in December 2022, however, the parties to the Agreement “must have foreseen” that this was not going to be possible as some key tasks under the Agreement had not been completed, so in August 2022, the same parties signed another Agreement, known as the “Agreement on the RoadMap to a Peaceful Democratic Transitional Period of the Agreement.” This is supposed to run until February 2025, but elections must be conducted in South Sudan in December 2024. Given the above circumstances, my team has made some progress in the judiciary using mediation and peacebuilding as South Sudan, being a country that has been in Conflict for almost 21 years, there is still a lot of suspicion and mistrust amongst her people.  We involve them in the process by conducting “public participation.”