NGO Act

The NGO Act was signed into law by South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit on February 10, 2016. The purpose of the act, as stated in Section 3, “is to provide for establishment of a legal framework for the registration, co-ordination and monitoring of operations of Non-Governmental Organisations in the Republic of South Sudan, and for other related matters.” However, various commenters have noted that the NGO Act resulted in a more constrained operational environment for humanitarian organizations.[1] In this sense, this act and its implementation is relevant to humanitarian access, including the grave violation of denial of humanitarian access for children during armed conflict.

[1] See, for example, Lindsey Hamski, “A thousand papercuts: the impact of NGO regulation in South Sudan,” Humanitarian Practice Network, January 26, 2017, https://odihpn.org/publication/a-thousand-papercuts-the-impact-of-ngo-regulation-in-south-sudan/.