Western Embassies: Approval of Security Bill Would Be Regrettable

Western diplomatic missions in Juba have expressed deep concern over the adoption by the National Transitional Legislative Assembly of a law giving the National Security Service (NSS) the power to carry out arrests and detentions without warrants.

In a joint statement released Wednesday, the embassies of Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States said the bill “would be an important step toward opening up political and civic space, a prerequisite for genuine and peaceful elections.”

Diplomatic missions said that “the enactment of the bill would be regrettable at any time, but particularly now, as it would undermine the transitional government’s claims that political and civic space exists.”

All South Sudanese should have the right to freely participate in political and civic expression without fear of arbitrary arrest or intimidation by security personnel, they concluded.

Last week, South Sudan’s parliament voted in favor of the 2014 National Security Amendment Bill 2024, and President Salva Kiir will need to approve it within 30 days for it to become law.

Sections 54 and 55 of the bill authorize national security officers to arrest and detain, without a warrant, any person suspected of having committed an offence against the state.

These offences are defined broadly and vaguely in Article 7 of the bill, resulting in many people being arrested and detained for legitimate civic and political activities. Although any detainee must be brought before a judge within 24 hours, this rarely happens.

The decision comes ahead of the country’s first-ever elections, scheduled for December 22.