Human Rights Violations In South Sudan

Human right violations happen everywhere, but Sudan has its own violations that happen every single day. “The South Sudan Authorities have failed to adequately investigate” (Issa, 2013). It is believed that the government and police do not help their citizens when in need or investigate crimes adequately. “There is an increasing amount acknowledgement of child marriage as a serious human rights problem in South Sudan” (Odhiambo, 2011). Child or forced marriage is a serious issue in Sudan. Young girls are being sold to strangers and older men so that their families profit from them. “Violence against women and girls is a tolerated problem in Sudan; as violence increases so does rape and sexual abuse” (Onyango, 2011). Everyday women and children …show more content…
According to Doki (2013), South Sudan’s Child Act of 2008 sets the minimum age of marriage at 18 and if anyone contravenes this law they could face up to 7 years in prison. This has not stopped the marriages from happening. Girls are being pressured to marry by family so that they can receive payments. “Families sold their daughters for cows and the daughters were forced to marry men much older than them” (Gauri and Walsh, 2013). Girls were being sold as young as 10 or even 12. The daughters were a way of obtaining wealth. The girls had absolutely no choice and if they resisted they could be murdered by their own family. According to the Human Rights Watch report, a 17 year old girl’s father tried to force her to marry an old man who had offered 200 cows to her family. The girl had refused by saying she did not know the man and that he was much older than her. The girl was taken to a nearby forest where she was tied to a tree and beaten until she died. When the girl is married and becomes a widow she cannot inherit anything of her husband’s. Whoever the girl is sold to next gets to inherit whatever the other husband had. Young girls are seen as a source of wealth because of the high bride prices that families are paid. According to the Ministry of Gender and Child Affairs, 48 percent of girls in South Sudan are married at 15 to 19 years old and some being as young as …show more content…
Every day an innocent live is lost due to the hands of others or the authority not stopping anything. Every day a young girl is forced into a marriage because her own family sold her for cows to obtain wealth and she cannot resist due to the possibility of being murdered. Due to lack of roads the authority cannot be there in time or in enough time to thoroughly investigate and find the attacker. The police and government do what they can, when they can. They do investigate and they do get justice for a few cases. Women are said to have a choice and that it is their fault that they get raped. Men do not see it as raping or abusing women. In a tradition of Sudan, families should get to pick who their children marry and even get a profit off them. The daughters are there for a reason and families take advantage of that. The violence and hatred in Sudan should not continue. Something needs to be done so that the police are there for people, young girls do not have to be married off, and women and children do not have to be abused. If none of these human rights violations existed Sudan would be an overall better country. Fewer civilians would be getting abducted, raped, tortured, and even killed. Police could do their job right and citizens would be happy with the authority. Young girls could grow up, finish their education, and choose who they please to get married too. Women and children would not have to have the constant