HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL PRESIDENT APPOINTS ANDREW CLAPHAM OF THE UNITED KINGDOM TO SERVE ON SOUTH SUDAN BODY

GENEVA, 21 September 2017 (Issued as received) - The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Joaquín Alexander Maza Martelli of El Salvador, announced today the appointment of Andrew Clapham of the United Kingdom to serve as a member of the Council-mandated body charged with monitoring and assessing the human rights situation in South Sudan.

Professor Clapham will join Yasmin Sooka of South Africa and Godfrey M. Musila of Kenya whose appointments were announced in June 2016. He will replace Kenneth Scott to whom Ambassador Maza Martelli is grateful for his dedicated service in carrying out the tasks mandated by the Council.

The Human Rights Council decided to establish the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan in March 2016 to monitor and report on the human rights situation in South Sudan and to make recommendations on accountability.

The Commission presented a comprehensive report to the Human Rights Council in March 2017 following which its mandate was extended for another year with additional functions to determine and report the facts and circumstances of, collect and preserve evidence of, and clarify responsibility for alleged gross violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes.
The Commission is scheduled to submit a subsequent report to the 47-member Human Rights Council in March 2018.

Biographies of the members of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan

Ms. Yasmin Sooka (South Africa) is a leading human rights lawyer. She is currently the Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights in South. Ms. Sooka served on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 1996-2001 and chaired the committee responsible for the final report from 2001-2003. She was appointed by the United Nations to serve on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Sierra Leone from 2002-2004. Since 2000, she has also been a member of the Advisory Body on the Review of Resolution 1325. In July 2010, Ms. Sooka was appointed to the three-member Panel of Experts advising the Secretary General on accountability for war crimes committed during the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka.

Dr. Godfrey M Musila (Kenya) is currently a legal consultant in the areas of human rights, transitional justice and the rule of law. From 2015-2016, he served as the head of International Criminal Law Research Program at International Nuremberg Principles Academy in Germany. He was a lead researcher on the African Union Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan (AUCISS) in 2014. Before this, he worked extensively in Africa as a legal advisor, consultant and researcher. As the director of Kenyan Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) in 2010, he helped conceptualize the work of the TJRC and authored several chapters for the Commission. Dr. Musila is also an experienced lecturer on international law, international criminal law and human rights law. He has taught at universities in Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania and guest lectured in Europe and the USA.

Professor Andrew Clapham (United Kingdom) is Professor of Public International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. He was the first Director of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights (June 2006 - July 2014). He teaches international human rights law and public international law. Prior to joining the Institute in 1997, he was the Representative of Amnesty International at the United Nations in New York. Andrew Clapham has worked as Special Adviser on Corporate Responsibility to High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, and Adviser on International Humanitarian Law to Sergio Vieira de Mello, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Iraq. He is an Associate Member of Matrix Chambers

For more information about the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, please see: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/CoHSouthSudan/Pages/Index.aspx

For more information and media requests, please contact: Joseph Bonsu (+41 79 444-4355 / jbonsu@ohchr.org) or Rolando Gómez (+41 79 477 11 / rgomez@ohchr.org)



For use of the information media; not an official record

HRC/17/143E