By Mary Poni
The Chairperson of the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (R-JMEC), Maj. Gen. Charles Tai Gituai, convened an extraordinary meeting for members to deliberate and state their position on the adoption of the peace roadmap extension signed by the parties to the 2018 R-ARCSS.
The transitional unity gov’t (R-TGoNU) in response to R-JMEC’s request developed a roadmap which was endorsed by its Council of Ministers on 5th Aug 2022.
The roadmap according to the transitional government was meant to enable a peaceful and democratic end to the transitional period.
It was then submitted to R-JMEC on 10th August 2022, along with the council’s resolutions both of which have been shared.
The roadmap seeks to extend the transitional period and term of office of the R-TGoNU for more 24 months which requires the amendment of Article 1.1.2 of the R-ARCSS.
“As you are aware, article 8.4 of the R-ARCSS provides for the procedure for any amendment of the revitalized agreement specifically it states that the provisions of the R-ARCSS may be amended by the parties with at least two-thirds of the members of the Council of Ministers of the RTGoNU,” Gen. Gituai cited.
He said at least two-thirds of the voting members of R-JMEC consented to the amendments followed by ratification by R-JEMC and Reconstituted Transitional National Legislative Assembly (RTNLA) in accordance with the procedure for constitutional amendment under the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan (TCRSS) 2011.
“Second extraordinary meeting of R-JMEC, I still may have recalled the first extraordinary meeting was held about three years and half ago on the 19th Feb 2019 during which the national pre-transitional committee NPTC presented its detailed budget roadmap, financing needs and status of the implementation of the pre-transitional activities as well as financial and other challenges impeding the implementation of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan” he noted.
In pursuant to article 7.12 of the racquet R-JMEC is mandated to hold regular meetings and to convene extraordinary meetings as may be required accordingly and as per rule 3.2 of the rules of procedure of RJMEC.
“I would like to congratulate the parties to the R-ARCSS and the RTGoNU leadership up on the significant milestone achieved two days ago with the graduation of the first batch of the National Unified Forces,” Gituai lauded.
The graduation of almost 22,000 unified forces was a remarkable achievement; there is now an urgent need to build on the momentum generated by completing graduation of phase 1 of the unification of forces.
On the 9th Dec 2021, RJMEC plenary meeting, the RJMEC members through resolution 2 acknowledged the growing concerns over the slow pace of implementation of the R-ARCSS and recommended to the RTGoNU to develop a clear roadmap and timeline for the implementation of the critical pending tasks in the remaining period of the transitional period.