In 2017 the US Department of State Country Report on Human Rights for South Sudan found that there have been no reports of the authorities enforcing the restrictive laws in recent years.

Societal discrimination against homosexuality is widespread in the South of Sudan. In July 2010, the President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir Mayardit, spoke of a nation of equal rights, democracy, and justice. This, however, excluded the rights of homosexuals. Mayardit asserted that no homosexuals existed in South Sudan and that if homosexuality was brought to South Sudan it would be ‘condemned by everybody’. Homosexuality, he stated, was not in the character of the people of South Sudan and was not a topic the public could speak about.

In 2012, Sudan’s first online gay magazine named ‘Rainbow Sudan’ became available. This predominantly highlights the situation within the Republic of Sudan but occasionally refers to LGBTI issues in South Sudan.

On April 27th 2012, a South Sudanese youth group, called the Sudan Africa National Union (SANU), strongly rejected the idea of same-sex marriage, on the grounds that it is an idea rooted in Western culture and one that should not to be imported into South Sudan: a nation with ‘culture, values and beliefs’. This view was supported by a member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), James Mawut Lueth, in an interview reported by the Sudan Tribune.

The majority of South Sudanese maintain Christian or traditional beliefs and the Christian Church is very influential in the state. In 2006, Archbishop Abraham Mayom Athiaan, head of the Anglican Church of South Sudan, told the Sudan Tribune: ‘We, the bishops together with our congregation of the Anglican Church of the Sudan (ACS) strongly condemn the practice of homosexuality … which is being practiced in Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS) leaderships’. However, homophobic discrimination is also still seen to exist in the Episcopal Church.

On August 12 2006, a blog titled ‘Charly Alder in South Sudan’ reported on a story of a woman from the Dinka tribe. She had left Sudan for Canada, where she resided for five years. During this time she was able to freely discover her homosexual orientation. When she returned to South Sudan and revealed her homosexuality to her family she was immediately kidnapped in order to be sold to tribes who were known to practice human sacrifice. She was seen as possessed and a disgrace to her family.

In a review in 2004, Aleu Akechak Jok, an appellate court judge was reported saying that, in South Sudan, if men are found guilty of having consensual sex with one another they will be killed by firing squad.

In 2010, an estimated 128,000 people in South Sudan were living with HIV, accounting for around 3% of the population. Rates in Western Equatoria and in other southern regions of the country reached as high as 10%. Despite these statistics, the World Bank reported in April 2011, that activities relating to HIV/aids in South Sudan do not account for the needs of vulnerable groups such as LGBTI persons and ‘men who have sex with men (MSM).’.

We have not found any relevant case law at this time but we welcome suggestions. If you have any suggestions, please get in touch.