The South Sudan Law Review Committee (SSLRC), in collaboration with partners, on Tuesday held a validation workshop to review and amend the Criminal Procedure Code of 2008.
The three-day consultative workshop aims to identify areas requiring amendments, and reforms and ensure that the law is consistent with regional and international instruments and best practices.
Speaking during the opening of the workshop in Juba, Changkuoth Beal Diaw, the Acting Chairperson of the South Sudan Law Review Committee (SSLRC), said the objective is to review and examine the adequacy of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act in regulating the criminal justice system.
“The purpose of this workshop is to review and examine the Criminal Procedure Code with the current situation we are in now where we have a political dimension and with economic hardships that are now happening around the country and emerging of new crimes,” he explained. “There are some crimes which were not there when this act was activated, so, these crimes need to be included in Criminal Act.”
For his part, Samuel Wambugu, a senior Rule of Law Officer at the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), said he would ensure the amendments comply with the international best practice to enhance public access to justice.
“As UNMISS, together with our colleagues from UNDP, we are happy to be able to support this process, especially allowing the public to be able to help the commission come up with better laws,” he said.
Meanwhile, Catherine Waliaula, a Governance Advisor at UNDP, said the act should be amended to meet changing trends to enable criminal actors to deliver fair justice.
“By going through this act, we are enabling the process of access to justice, and making sure that the process is clear and that we can decongest the prison and that we can have all actors within the criminal chain to be able to do their work,” she stated. “I also want to note that this is the best time to have this given the socioeconomic situation where we have a lot of criminals and we have a lot of events that are leading to justice systems having a lot of work to do.”
The workshop was organized with support from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan – Rule of Law Section and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
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