Name

Identifying information

Statement of Reasons

Date of listing

‘1.

Michael MAKUEI LUETH

DOB: 1947

POB: Bor, South Sudan; Bor, Sudan

Gender: male

Michael Makuei Lueth has held the position of Minister for Information and Broadcasting since 2013 and continues to hold that position in the Revitalised Transitional Government of National Unity in South Sudan. He was also the public spokesman for the government delegation to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development peace talks from 2014 to 2015 and from 2016 to 2018.

Michael Makuei Lueth has obstructed, in particular through inflammatory public statements, the implementation of the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS) of August 2015 (replaced in September 2018 by the “Revitalised ARCSS” (R-ARCSS)), the work of the ARCSS Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (JMEC, renamed “Reconstituted JMEC” under R-ARCSS), the establishment of the ARCSS Transitional Justice Institutions (also provided for in R-ARCSS), and the operations of the United Nations’ Regional Protection Force.

In addition, Michael Makuei Lueth is involved in the systematic curtailment of political and democratic space and in the repression of media, including through regular threats against journalists and support to media censorship, which hinders democratisation and sustainable peace in South Sudan.

Since the beginning of 2025, Michael Makuei Lueth has publicly dismissed calls for dialogue, using confrontational and inflammatory rhetoric in an increasingly tense environment. Michael Makuei Lueth has also defended the arrests against First Vice-President Riek Machar and his allies, hampering efforts to deescalate the situation.

Therefore, Michael Makuei Lueth has been obstructing the political process in South Sudan and is responsible for serious violations of human rights, in particular freedom of expression.

3.2.2018’