Ambassador Anthony Kon, the Director-General at South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, has said the government lacks a sufficient budget to fully monitor human rights violations in remote parts of the country.

He made the revelation during a joint press conference by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday and called on the Commission on Human Rights to support legal institutions such as courts and police units.

“The Human Rights Commission always writes reports critical of the Government of South Sudan because we always face challenges in areas that witness violations because there are no courts or police in remote places,” he said.  “We ask the Commission for Human Rights to assist the government in those areas. The government does not have enough money to put an end to human rights violations in the country.”

Amb. Kon reiterated the commitment of the government to monitor all human rights violations if the commission can cooperate with the government.

“At times, we are disappointed when we read your reports. You have now heard how much information we have given you about what we have been doing,” he added. “That means a lot of commitment from our side as a government. And it means that we are serious about implementing what we have agreed to implement.”

For his part, Lawrence Loro Camilo, the officer in charge of the human rights desk at the justice ministry, said that the report of the Human Rights Commission is political and related to how the government works in South Sudan. He noted that there are demands that the term of the Human Rights Commission be extended.

“The report on sexual crimes, according to the Human Rights Commission, focused only on Pibor and Unity State and there are no numbers about these crimes,” he stated. “I asked a delegation from the Commission for Human Rights, during their visit to South Sudan, to visit the legal institutions to verify the written reports against the Government of South Sudan.”

Loro pointed out that the mission of the Human Rights Commission is not to be the Hybrid Court but rather to monitor violations against human rights in the country.