South Sudan v James Dak: A Case of Travesty of Justice
Publication Summary
James Dak is a national of South Sudan who sought refugee status in Kenya in 2015 due to the civil war in South Sudan. In 2016, however, the Kenyan government cancelled his visa and returned him to South Sudan where he was charged with treason, among others, and sentenced to death. Fortunately, South Sudan‘s President, Salva Kiir, exercised his presidential clemency and pardoned him, along with other convicts. This paper notes the fact that Mr Dak has been set free but maintains that the case against him never seemed to have been proven for two principal reasons: the paucity of evidence to prove the charges (insofar as the evidence remains controversial) and the politics involved. The Court did not seem to have paid regard to these underlying issues.
The gist of the argument this paper makes is that Mr Dak has suffered injustice through combined violations of international refugee law and domestic constitutional law/criminal law and due process. This should alert the UN refugee agencies, such as the UNHCR, as well as human rights organisations, to step up their efforts to prevent such violations from occurring in the future.
Mark A. W. Deng is a McKenze Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Melbourne Law School, the University of Melbourne, Australia, where he previously served as a Co-convenor of weekly seminars at the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies. He obtained his PhD from the University of Queensland in 2021. His research intersects the South Sudanese public law, customary law & practices and human rights. His work has been published in reputable international journals such as the International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family (Oxford University Press) and African Human Rights Law Journal (Pretoria University Law Press). His recent major work is a book on South Sudan’s constitutional law: Emerging Constitutionalism in South Sudan: Challenges and Opportunities (Hart Publishing 2025). Dr Deng’s work has also appeared in leading news outlets, including The Conversation–Africa where it has been read by thousands of people from around the world. He has presented his work at international public law annual conferences, particularly the International Society of Public Law and The Stellenbosch Annual Seminar on Constitutionalism in Africa. He has also given media interviews to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Sky News Australia.