Protecting Women from Violence in the United Nations Protection of Civilians Sites, South Sudan?

This article explores the everyday politics of protecting women from war and atrocities, based on ethnographic work within the United Nations Protection of Civilians sites, South Sudan. It examines the heterogenous ways that peacekeepers and displaced people conceptualised and enacted women's rights and protection inside the sites. Protection and gender were variously interpreted, resisted, and transformed. But sexual and gender-based violence remained rife in these makeshift ‘safe havens’. These experiences demonstrate that international peacebuilders cannot impose gendered protection. They must engage with local authorities and activists to promote women, peace and security in warzones

Justice in practice: South Sudan

There is no question that the administration of justice in South Sudan can and must be improved. Indeed there are ongoing efforts by government, practitioners, civil society groups and international agencies to promote access to justice. But in this evolving and plural legal environment, we also need better information about everyday experiences of justice

Seeking justice in Nimule, South Sudan

‘There is no law in South Sudan’, a resident of the town of Nimule, Eastern Equatoria, explained: ‘You see the police cell there is for those who are very poor. You will never see a rich person in that prison for the rest of your life. Trust me, this is true.

Customary protection? Chiefs' courts as public authority in UN protection of civilian sites in South Sudan

Justice and security depend upon community action in South Sudan, even where civilians are under international protection. In this paper, we look inside the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Protection of Civilians (PoC) sites at the functioning of customary courts in this unique context. We find that the courts are more than a mechanism for community dispute resolution, they are also integral to the invigoration of local norms and structures for protection. This self-reliance is understandable, given that UNMISS has failed to protect people outside and inside the PoCs, and is mired in a legal and administrative quagmire within the sites. In South Sudan, chiefs’ courts have generally been associated with the pursuit of legitimate authority and accessible justice, but they are also the purveyors of norms that reproduce gender and generational inequalities and license certain abuses. Based on qualitative research and 395 court observations in the Juba and Bentiu POCs between July 2015 and July 2016,1 we find that this duality persists even amid displacement and under humanitarian governance. The courts punish criminality, violence and breaches of custom, often in ways that oppress women and youth, yet their judgements, whether mediation or punishment, are concerned with making social and moral order, as illustrated by our detailed descriptions of a sample of cases. In interaction with UNMISS, new forums, actors and practices of justice are emerging; chiefly authority and ideas about the customary are adapting and thriving. We conclude that the regeneration of the courts in the sites is a response to a practical need for justice forums, but is fundamentally associated with the constitution of public authority and community among people affected by atrocity, conflict and profound uncertainty

Civicness in exile: The solidarities and struggles of South Sudanese refugees in Cairo

We explore refugee solidarities and struggles under conditions of extreme political exclusion and violence, based on collaborative ethnography with South Sudanese refugees in Cairo. From the perspective of the refugees, the city is hostile and precarious. They are routinely subject to racism, deprivation, and arbitrary applications of law. At the same time, South Sudanese people have historical roots in Cairo and have generated forms of moral and political order there, shaped by fluctuating relations with each other, the city, and their homeland. We argue that these inconspicuous socio-political structures provide community citizenship at the urban margins. Additionally, we show how refugees strive for legitimate authority, social welfare, and rights in exile, within and beyond these local realms. We label these endeavours ‘civicness’ to capture their situated politics. The refugees’ relations and contentions are distinctive in that they are mostly oriented towards customary and humanitarian authorities, rather than the state; they rely on and encourage quotidian solidarities; and they blend notions of custom with references to human rights and constitutional norms. In this harsh context, South Sudanese refugees deploy civicness to promote survival with dignity and to counteract dehumanizing modes of humanitarian governance

Ending impunity in South Sudan

Rachel Ibreck and Alex de Waal argue that, despite the ongoing violence, South Sudan is not a lawless society and courts can contribute to ending the conflict

Chiefs’ courts: protecting civilians in South Sudan?

In this blog Alex de Waal and Rachel Ibreck explore the provision of justice and security within the ‘Protection of Civilians’ sites in South Sudan, drawing on extensive research in the Juba and Bentiu sites. A new JSRP paper by Rachel Ibreck and Naomi Pendle provides fuller details of this research

Memory

Memory leads to a reconsideration of ethical and practical questions at the core of humanitarianism. Political actors employ selective memory to construct exclusionary definitions of humanity, and humanitarians must be prepared to actively confront these and to promote inclusive processes of remembrance. Humanitarian law and standards prescribe an obligation to treat the dead with dignity even in the midst of conflict and crisis, yet too often the dead are simply regarded as a public health concern, and mourning is left to bereaved local communities or caring individuals. Humanitarian agencies rightly prioritize saving lives and alleviating suffering, but this work has sometimes been undermined by political amnesia and social distance. This chapter highlights that humanitarian participation in cosmopolitan communities of memory and mourning is also a significant contribution to the recognition and realization of a common humanity