On March 11, 2016 the United Nations Human Rights Council published a report on human rights abuses related to the conflict in South Sudan. The report was produced by an assessment team sent to South Sudan by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from October 2015 to January 2016 and focused on violations that occurred in 2015. According to the press release, the report describes human rights violations, including the deliberate targeting of civilians and large-scale commission of rape and sexual assault. The report states that since the conflict in South Sudan began in 2013, all parties have engaged in “attacks against civilians, rape and other crimes of sexual violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, abduction and deprivation of liberty, disappearance, including enforced disappearance, and attacks on UN personnel and peacekeeping facilities.” However, the report notes that in 2015, state actors bore the greatest responsibility for such violations. The assessment team found credible allegations that groups allied with the government of South Sudan were being allowed to rape women in lieu of wages, stating that women “were considered a commodity and were taken along with civilian property as the soldiers moved through the villages” and concluding that the scale of rape and sexual violence “suggests its use in the conflict has become an acceptable practice by [Sudan People’s Liberation Army] soldiers and affiliated armed militia.” The High Commissioner also urged the parties to the conflict to cease hostilities and support the formation of a transitional government of national unity, and recommended that the Human Rights Council continue to monitor developments in South Sudan.