In 2018 LAW submitted the first ever communication against the Government of South Sudan for the rape, mass rape and sexual slavery of South Sudanese women and girls by members of the army, lodged with the CEDAW Committee alongside a request to protect the survivors’ identities. In July 2025 the Committee decided the communication was admissible, establishing that South Sudan has a case to answer for failing to protect women and girls during the 2017 conflict. The merits decision is awaited.

With the Hybrid Court still not established, LAW and its partners filed the first war crimes criminal complaint in South Sudan using the Geneva Conventions Act, representing three South Sudanese women survivors of conflict related sexual violence. LAW continues to follow the case with prosecutorial authorities to ensure it is registered, investigated and prosecuted. LAW’s red lines on the Anti-GBV bill, endorsed by four national civil society organisations, are now used by stakeholders pressing to reopen consultations.

Through partners including the Centre for Inclusive Governance, Peace and Justice and the Assistance Mission for Africa, LAW works with 201 survivors from seven survivor groups to create their own transformative justice mechanisms and to advocate for the implementation of transitional justice processes, including training them to design their own advocacy strategies. LAW also builds the capacity of South Sudanese women lawyers and civil society members on transitional justice, gender sensitivity and advocacy.

Two of the three women LAW represents in the Geneva Conventions Act complaint were children at the time of the crimes committed against them. In late 2023 LAW and the South Sudan Law Society secured a groundbreaking preliminary ruling, the first of its kind in South Sudan, protecting an 18 year old survivor from being forcibly married for a second time by her father. LAW has also made submissions to the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the situation in South Sudan.