Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent reports he has received on progress on the creation of the Hybrid Court in South Sudan.

We are deeply concerned about the human rights abuses in South Sudan, especially in the area of sexual violence. The 2015 Peace Agreement mandated the creation of a Hybrid Court in South Sudan for the most serious of crimes. We understand that the African Union has been working on a proposal for such a court and now needs to discuss this with the Government of South Sudan. We urge all parties to accelerate the establishment of the Court. We have jointly led a resolution at the Human Rights Council in Geneva which extended the mandate of the South Sudan Human Rights Commission to gather evidence of crimes for eventual use in a court of law.

We continue to urge all sides to show restraint, bring an end to the violence in South Sudan, and return to an inclusive and peaceful political process.