South Sudan’s Salva Kiir signs top bills to facilitate power transition, constitution making processes

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir signed four Bills into law. The Bills had been passed by the Parliament and were forwarded to the President for assent into law as required by the constitution.

The Bills signed into law are the Constitution Making Process Act 2022, the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan 2011 (Amendment) No.11 Act, 2022, the National Police Service (Amendment) Act 2022, and the National Wildlife Service (Amendment) Act 2022.

In a statement to the state-owned media, Jemma Nunu Kumba, Speaker of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly, said the ascended Bills are related to the implementation of the revitalized peace agreement.

“These are very important laws that are related to the implementation of the Revitalized Peace Agreement, and as a key mandate of the current Transitional National Legislative Assembly, we made sure that they are worked on and passed on time,” she said.

Nunu said the Parliament has also submitted before the President five new Bills on security, Anti- Corruption, Referendum, Public Finance, and Accountability, respectively.

She also said that Parliament has rectified five conventions and international treaties on economic and political acts.

They are the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the rights of women in Africa, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ICCPR.

Others include the Paris Agreement and the International Covenant on the rights of persons with disabilities, 2006.

Reacting to the news, Mr Edmund Yakani, Executive Director of the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), said it is good that the president responded positively to the civil society’s call for a demonstration of political commitment for genuine implementation of the peace agreement.

“CEPO will carry out civic education on the Constitution Making Process Act, 2022. This is to inform the citizens about their responsibility for effective engagement in the constitution-making process,” Yakani said.

South Sudan is governed by a transitional coalition government formed under a 2018 peace agreement signed in neighbouring Ethiopia. However, key provisions of the agreement remain largely unimplemented.

On 4 August 2022, parties to the 2018 peace agreement signed on to a further two-year extension of the governance arrangements, postponing elections until late 2024.