Renewing The Pledge: Re-engaging the Guarantors to the Sudanese Comprehensive Peace Agreement

(July 2010) The clock is ticking fast towards what might be the most important date in modern Sudanese history – two referenda in Sudan that are likely to result in the breakup of africa’s largest state. With six months remaining until 9 January 2011, the scheduled date of the referenda, the run-up to, and outcome of, the vote must be managed with extreme care. the Guarantors to the comprehensive peace agreement (CPA), who invested considerable effort in obtaining the CPA on 9 January 2005, have both a responsibility and an ability to help sudan implement the CPA and prevent further conflict. It is imperative that the Guarantors urgently redouble their efforts to ensure adequate preparations for the referenda, and help secure agreements on sensitive issues such as border demarcation and oil sharing.

The experiences of recent years have demonstrated that focusing on one part of sudan at the expense of another complicates the situation in both. Focusing too narrowly on the challenges of securing a peaceful post-CPA transition in southern sudan could backfire. the CPA Guarantors must not relegate the situation in Northern sudan – especially the conflict in Darfur, where violence in may 2010 claimed the highest number of  lives since 2008 – to the second tier of priorities.

As the Guarantors step up their political involvement, we hope to see generous donor support. more needs to be done now to bring in the requisite diplomatic, financial, and technical resources to put in place the requirements for the referenda and, after the vote, to improve sudan’s stability and dire state  of human development.

This is a report published by:

Aegis Trust
African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies
Arab Coalition for Darfur
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
Collaborative for Peace in Sudan
Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (Sudan)
Cordaid
Darfur Consortium
The Enough Project at the Center for American Progress
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
Global Witness
Human Rights First
ICCO
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
International Refugee Rights Initiative
Italians for Darfur
KACE – Al-Khatim Adlan Centre for Enlightenment and Human Development (Sudan)
Pax Christi IKV
Refugees International
Standard Action Liaison Focus (Sudan)
Save Darfur
Sudan Democracy First Group
Sudan Forum Global Campaign Members (Norway)
Sudan Human Rights Monitor
Sudanese Network for Democratic Elections
Waging Peace

Download Full report here.

This post is also available in: Arabic