Human rights groups have welcomed the scrapping of South Sudan’s National Security Services’ unfettered powers to arrest people.

President Salva Kiir Mayardit and First Vice President Riek Machar last month scrapped Section 54 and 55 that allowed an arrest without a warrant and arrest with a warrant respectively under the National Security Service Act of 2014. Many human rights organizations had called for the government to restrict the powers of the NSS, which has caused many LGBTQ and intersex people to flee to the Kakuma refugee camp in neighboring Kenya.

“The SSHRDN (the South Sudan Human Rights Defenders Network) welcomes the recent proclamation by the Cabinet Affairs Minister, Dr. Martin Elia Lumoro, on behalf of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity declaring that the NSS no longer has the power to arrest with or without a warrant,” said the South Sudan Human Rights Defenders Network National Coordinator James Bidal.

Bidal in his statement notes human rights activists “have faulted” the National Security Service Act of 2014 “for giving” the NSS “police-like powers to arrest, detain conduct searchers and seize property without adequate safeguards and exceeding the NSS’ constitutional mandate, which limits its powers to information gathering, analysis and advice to the relevant authorities.” 

“Human rights organizations have documented human rights violations by the NSS including arbitrary arrests and prolonged detention, including of political opponents and government critics,” said Bidal. “As the Human rights defenders’ network, we commit to continue defending and advocating for human rights of every person in the country and continue to exploring meaningful ways to collaborate and work with government, legislature, the judiciary, civil society, the South Sudan Human Rights Commission, media, academia, individual human rights defenders, international non-profit organizations, United Nations agencies and the diplomatic corporations.”

Carine Kaneza Nantulya, the deputy director of the Human Rights Watch in Africa, notes the NSS was established at independence in 2011 to collect information, conduct analysis, and advise relevant authorities however. It, however, repeatedly overstepped this constitutional mandate.

“Worryingly, NSS abuses also stretch beyond South Sudan’s borders,” said Nantulya. “In some cases, it has harassed and repressed South Sudanese activists in Kenya and Uganda with the aid of local authorities. South Sudanese authorities should immediately open an investigation into the security service abuses and hold officers to account while ensuring redress for victims. The investigation should include the role of senior leadership of the NSS in perpetuating abuses. The African Union and South Sudan’s neighbors should apply consistent diplomatic pressure to ensure these reforms. This could help transform the NSS into an agency that respects fundamental rights and freedoms not only in South Sudan, but the region.”

Flavia Mwangovya, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for East and Southern Africa, also said the NSS operates a spy network that extends throughout East Africa where many South Sudanese have found refuge. 

Mwangovya said at least four South Sudanese men — three of whom were refugees who had received protection in Kenya — since January 2017 have been illegally picked up and transferred back to South Sudan. They were held in prolonged detention at Blue House, the NSS’ detention facility, and two of them were reportedly killed extrajudicially.

“Since the NSS Act in 2014, the NSS has accumulated unchecked powers, becoming one of the main perpetrators of human rights violations and the most powerful security actor in South Sudan,” said Mwangovya.

Consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in South Sudan under the country’s 2008 penal code that criminalizes “acts of carnal knowledge against the order of nature” and “gross indecency.” These provisions carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison and a fine.

Daniel Itai is the Washington Blade’s Africa Correspondent.