Victor Batali Sillas
Victor Batali Sillas is a human rights defender and lawyer. Victor Sillas's work includes offering free legal counseling, mediation for human rights defenders, and land dispute dialogues. Victor also provides legal representation for victims of human rights violations which includes the elderly, civil rights groups and women human rights defenders. In addition, he has followed up on imprisoned individuals including human rights defenders by drafting applications for bail, filing lawsuit petitions, submitting memorandum of appeals and obtaining court orders.
Victor is also the Executive Director of the Forestry Conservers Association (FCA-SS), and advocates for environmental justice and environmental protection through community forestry dialogues and awareness.
HRDs in South Sudan face a number of challenges, most of which appear to be exacerbated by the fact that this is a new nation undergoing a difficult political transition and periodic bouts of instability. The country's early post-independence gains were depleted by a recent civil war that flared up in December 2013 as a result of an apparent power struggle between President Salva Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar. The crisis quickly degenerated into an ethnic conflict pitting members of the majority ethnic groups of Dinka (the group president Salva Kiir originate from) against the Nuer (the group vice-president Riek Machar originate from). During this period of insecurity that affected different regions of the country, including Juba, the capital, many human rights defenders faced death threats and were forced to go into hiding or flee the country.
