By Chol Makol Riak
The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), human rights division in Jonglei State decried a gap in respect to human rights justice in the State.
In a report released recently, the information indicates that there is a gap in handling of cases especially in Bench court and customary law in the state.
Speaking to No. 1 Citizen Daily Newspaper after a visit to Jonglei State Central Prison, Tara Sadasivan, and a team leader for human rights division in Bor said that their work is to advocate for the rights of the people.
“We have to find means of ensuring that people have there rights so, because cases like the request for divorce by women, they should not be in prison. The only thing they should do is find ways to reunite the families and maybe these kinds of things are to be done under customary law but not judiciary law,” Tara said.
“Some of the prisoners are here with the conviction of the judges’ customary court, bench court the traditional leaders and we are working to make sure that the traditional leaders do not exceed their jurisdictions but work within the human rights principals” he continued.
She further stressed that, the human rights division also monitors the situation in the prison and all other detention centers in the State as they continue to advocate the rights of inmates.
She added that detention is done to rehabilitate those that were once convicted adding that it is not put a person under torture.
“Freedom of liberty is the rule and the detentions are only an accession, so detention is done to rehabilitate not to put someone through unnecessary torture. So, we would like to appreciate the judiciary and the directorate of legal administration and prison service for working together to ensure that so many people are released today,” Tara said.