President Salva Kiir. (Photo/Office of the President/March 4, 2024).

The Human Rights Watch is appealing to President Salva Kiir to reject the recently passed National Security Service Bill which maintained arrest without warrant clause.

On Wednesday, the National Legislative Assembly passed the National Security Service Act 2014 Amendment Bill 2024.

This is contrary to last year’s consensus between President Salva Kiir and his First Deputy Dr. Riek Machar that Articles 54 and 55 mandate the National Security Service to arrest without warrant should be scrapped.

However, after a long and heated debate, the National Legislative Assembly passed the long-overdue National Security Service Act.

Before its passing, the bill was presented in its third reading stage by Hon. Kom Kom Geng, the chairperson of the Committee on National Security and Public Order.

In the final show of hands, 274 members voted in favor, and 114 were opposed to it, with 3 MPs absent.

The next step is for the speaker to refer the bill to the president for assent in 30 days, or refer the bill back to parliament for reconsideration, if he has noted reservations.

Reacting to the move, Human Rights Watch said the security bill will further undermine human rights and entrench the agency’s longstanding abuses in the country.

Laetitia Bader, the Deputy Africa Director at Human Rights Watch, said the South Sudan parliament was expected to omit the clause used as justification for alleged arbitrary arrests and detention.

“Instead of reining in the security service, which has been the government’s preferred tool of repression, South Sudan’s parliament has further emboldened the agency,” she said.

“This was an opportunity to promote and enhance justice and human rights. But instead, parliament chose to strengthen a security service that routinely abuses rights with impunity.”

The watchdog further stated that the security service has exercised these powers without meaningful judicial or legislative oversight, and its agents are rarely punished for abuses.

It has repeatedly called on the South Sudanese authorities to limit NSS powers to intelligence gathering, as envisioned by the Transitional Constitution of 2011, which mandates the agency to focus on information gathering, analysis and to advise the relevant authorities.