Constitutional review committee under fire
Every country needs a constitution, and with just months to go until Southern Sudan's celebration of independence on 9 July the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) is scrambling to review and adapt the current interim constitution in time. Last month Southern Sudan President Salva Kiir formed a technical committee to carry out the review but the committee, consisting of ministers and lawyers, immediately came under heavy criticism from opposition parties for being made up almost entirely of members of the leading Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).
"I would only join the committee if representatives of all the other political parties in Southern Sudan were included."
The Chairperson of the United Democratic Salvation Front (UDSF), Gabriel Changson Chang, the only minister from a party other than the SPLM appointed to take part in the review process, declined to participate in protest. He said he would only join the committee if representatives of all the other political parties in Southern Sudan were included, as agreed in a forum last year.
Last week President Kiir decreed the addition of twelve more committee members representing the other political parties. The additional representatives include Prof. David De Chan of the Southern Sudan Democratic Front (SSDF), one of the SPLM's most outspoken critics. De Chan was one of few politicians in the South who openly campaigned for unity during the recently concluded referendum. Two of the other appointees, Angelo Beda and Gabriel Roric, are widely seen by Southern Sudanese as stooges of Khartoum. Like De Chan, they also favoured unity.
John Luk Jok, GoSS Minister of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development
The GoSS Minister of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development, John Luk Jok, said last week that President Kiir had agreed with the various political party leaders, in a two-day meeting, to include representatives of political parties, civil society and faith based groups in the review committee. However, civil society groups subsequently petitioned the appointment of Anjelo Beda as their representative, claiming that Beda is not a civil society actor, and has never been a part of any civil society organisation in Southern Sudan.
A team of South African experts on constitutional review are also involved in the process. John Luk Jok told the press, “the technical committee has received a lecture and presentation from the South African experts, particularly those who were involved in the South African constitutional review process. The lessons learned by South Africa and their experience may be relevant to us.”
Click here to download the interim constitution of Southern Sudan
The agreement to establish the review committee, if the South voted for secession, was reached at the Southern Sudan All Political Parties Conference held in Juba in October last year. It was agreed that the committee would review the current interim constitution for adoption by the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly, as a transitional constitution. The parties also decided that an all-party constitutional conference would be convened, in the event of secession, to deliberate and adopt a new constitutional system of an independent and sovereign state. However, now that the referendum is over, the constitutional review is already proving contentious - the path to independence is far from smooth.
