Executing children: South Sudan's death penalty practice

Written and edited by Diana Ciurezu

The death penalty has been widely considered as an inhumane form of punishment, breaching human rights such as the right to life and the right to live freely from torture, rights legally protected by the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. Worldwide trends are showing a decrease in the number of death penalty executions: there was an 4% decrease between 2016 and 2017, and an even higher 31% decrease in 2018, estimated by Amnesty International. Yet, there were still 19,336 people known to be serving a death penalty by the end of 2018.

Despite Sudan not ranking as one of the highest executing nations, with the top place going to China, it has attracted great attention from human rights movements for its scandalous sentencing of Magai Matiop Ngong, who was sentenced at the age of 15 in November 2017 for fatally shooting his cousin whilst he was attempting to break a fight between Magai and a neighbour. Magai maintains this was accidental.

The use of the death penalty against children such as Magai is strictly prohibited by Section 21(2) the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan, 2011. It is also banned under international human rights law, specifically Article 37(a) of the Convention on the Rights of a Child, of which South Sudan is party to.

Regardless, Magai was sentenced to death for murder. He was not provided with legal representation, despite this being a legal requirement. He remains on death row as a 17 year old and has opened up to Amnesty International about his life before death row.

“Before the accident, I was in secondary school. I was a runner, a very good one and I was also a singer of gospel and earthly songs. … My own aim was to study and do things that can help others. My hope is to be out and to continue with my school.”

As of 2018, there were 342 people on death row in South Sudan including a breastfeeding mother with a small child. This is more than double the number recorded in 2011. It has been argued that the rise in executions has been catalysed by a directive by the director-general of South Sudan’s national prison service on 26 April. Through this directive, all death row prisoners stationed at county and state prisons were ordered to be moved to two of the country’s most infamous prisons – Wau central prison and Juba central prison, with the latter housing Magai himself.

The women's side of Juba Prison

Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty International’s East Africa Director, has asserted:

“It is extremely disturbing that the world’s youngest nation has embraced this outdated, inhuman practice and is executing people, even children, at a time when the rest of the world is abandoning this abhorrent punishment.

“The President of South Sudan must stop signing execution orders and end this obvious violation of the right to life.”

It is clear that the continuation of the death penalty in South Sudan is barbaric, outdated and exposes a gross misuse of justice. Pressure should continue to be placed on the South Sudanese government to end state-sanctioned executions.

You can help Magai’s cause by signing Amnesty International’s petition to free him from death row here: https://www.amnesty.org/en/get-involved/take-action/w4r-2019-south-sudan-magai-matiop-ngong/