Women Activists Accuse Kiir Of Disrespecting Constitution

By Waakhe Simon Wudu
JUBA, 29th January 2012 [Gurtong] - South Sudanese women groups and activists from different civil society organizations have publicly accused President Salva Kiir of violating and disrespecting the National Transitional Constitution.

In a press conference the group held in Juba last Thursday, they accused the President of not fulfilling his duty to uphold the integrity of the constitution during the formation of the National Constitutional Review Commission, (NCRC)

“The President of South Sudan in a series of events did not represent the 25% women power sharing and constitutional rights,” Aguil Dechuit Deng, Chairperson of South Sudan Women Constitutional Review Task Force told journalists during the conference.

Amid this month H.E Kiir appointed the NCRC members who were sworn last Tuesday to work on the process of reviewing South Seudan National and permanent constitution, a constitutional duty the President is entitled in the current transitional constitution in article 202(2).

According to the activists, the President had only appointed 10 women out of the 44 members of the Commission constituting 22% of the women representation. Of the ten women only three were appointed into the nine members who serve as the permanent members of the Commission.

In a joint communiqué of the women’s group, they said that, “your effort to appoint 22% women in the NCRC is in contrary to the 25% provided for in article 142(3) of the South Sudan Transitional Constitution.”

Meanwhile, in a letter drafted by the group to the President, they expressed that;
“We have come together now to express our concern that this first step in this national constitution-building process has fallen short of the duties set out in article 202 of the Transitional Constitution 2011; in particular the duty to consult key stakeholders, civil society organizations and civil society formation of the NCRC; and the duty to ensure that membership of the NCRC reflect the goals of inclusiveness, transparency and equitable participation.”

The activists said that most of the women appointed to the NCRC holds multiple constitution posts, representing political parties but not to implement activist’s agenda. They also alleged that, some of the members are from one family, contrary to the spirit of nationalism and does not reflect the diversity of South Sudan.

The NCRC had only one member appointed by the government representing the entire civil society group. The civil society had early last week also protested and demanded to democratically select their representatives and not only one activist.

The Appeal
In the official letter released to the press by the group, written to the President, they stated and demanded three main issues to be addressed by the president. “We therefore appeal to your Excellency to:

1. Urgently consider the full participation of additional women from the civil society in the NCRC by increasing their number by at least four female members in order to broaden women voices from both political and citizenry perspective i.e. ordinary South Sudanese women not affiliated to any political party.
2. Consider the full participation of women not only from the political parties but also representatives of women civil society groups;
3. Immediately resolve the points that portray conflict of interests among the appointees in terms of political affiliation of tribal inclination of some members (same family being represented in the NCRC).