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Social and Human Development Consultative group (SAHDCG)

In collaboration with

Norwegian church Aid (NCA)

The CPA Interim Assessment Workshop:

Civil Society Vision on the Future

Final Report and Recommendations

Jan 22-21 -2009

Grand Hall, University of Khartoum

Graduates house

This workshop on the CPA interim assessment: civil society vision on the future was held with the participation of a number of experts and activists in the field of peace, as well as the relevant governmental administrations represented in Nivasha agreement. A number of civil society organizations active and effective in the field of human rights, participated in directing and enriching the discussion.

The discussion was transparent, objective and strictly observant to principals of the civil society which are:

Positive engagement:

By advising the policy and decision makers to be far above factional interests and to endeavor for a national program of concordance that commits to consensus in a minimum action plan for the peaceful exchange of power, independence of judiciary, the rule of law and exaction of right and legal justice driven from the bill of rights as stipulated in the interim constitution

The participants recognized the efforts made by the government of the national unity and the government of southern Sudan and the governments of the states, but the civil society organizations have to act as pressure groups on the decision makers to strictly commit to the following:

1-Complete the institutional structure as stated by the peace agreements by speeding up the following

a- Establishment of the human rights, the land commission and finish the fixation of states boundaries.

b-Activate and support the work of the commissions by interring into serious negotiations with Nivasha partners to constrict the jurisdiction of all ministries and units that are hampering the effective work of the commission and continuously appropriate the resources that must given to commissions .this should be done even if it is necessary to liquidate or merge these ministries. The   commissions should be activated, for example, the public service commission should start to realize it’s duties of providing public service with ethnic and cultural diversity without breaching the professionalism and the minimum level qualification requirements for the public service. In southern Sudan , despite the establishment of these institutions since 2006,but they lack the trained cadre, the thing that disables the public service commission to the extent that it fails in the south to control the wide disparity in the wages and allowances.

c- All the institutions brought by the peace agreements, should be empowered, and recourses for them should be allocated, and be provided by experts through vacancies advertisement to guarantee professional transparency in their performance.

2- The participants expressed their concern about the delay in the matrix of implementation of the CPA which lead to the delay in acting the elections law and the commission. With due consideration to the bare fact that the process f making the electoral register, needs 7-9 month  accordingly we request the two partners sit and amend the constitution to ensure the delay of the elections which may even be conducted with the referendum, if GOSS accept this

3. The participants confirm the right of self-determination for the people of the south. The civil society confirms the concern on the issue of democratic transformation. Whether Sudan is united or separated, democracy and peaceful transfer of power is the issue and, not how many states are there.

4. Another necessary amendment for the constitution is needed to oblige the states to bring down the resources to the level of localities. For that to be realized, the institution of the presidency should allocate resources by decree for the competent commission. The states should commit to spend 70% of the federal transfer on the localities. Development can not be achieved by establishing political frames of governance at the cost of achieving the Millennium Goals for Development (MDGs) that already integrated into the Quarterly Century Strategic Plan (2007-2031).

5. A Sevier economic crisis is striking the country while the ruling elites do not reflect any of what complies with the reduction of spending on the sovereign and constitutional institutions. The allocations for these institutions in the current budget, if brought together (73.3% for security and defense + 8.2 for the security institution) thus the remainder of the budget which is 14.5% is what spent on development. What kind of production is going to be?, we consider the DDR as a good opportunity   to cut the budget for the defense and security, as well as to review the inflated administrative frames  by reducing the regional governmental expenditure through reducing and merging the states.  

6. Civil society must keep far away from politics, so as to work efficiently as a third partners in putting into effect and realizing the peace agreement especially the protocols of the three areas.

7. The participants call upon Nivasha partners to work as quickly as possible for promotion of the local good governance.

8. Call upon the SPLA to redeploy its forces according to the security protocols and simultaneously the JIU should take over and both SAF and SPLA to reduce their presence to support peace and to stop having to authorities in southern Kordofan.

9. The Nivasha partners should quickly act on forming the Joint Integrated Units (JIU) forces. Simultaneously with the development of these forces, they should cut back on the number of both the Army and the SPLA and with special concentration in development of JIU.

10. Call upon the armed forces to evacuate the schools and medical institutions used by them as barracks (Camps) during the war time and to rehabilitate it to serve the communities.

11. The civil society organization must work to solve the tribal conflicts in general and in particular the currently active one in Khur Adalaib between Kauleeb and Houazma.

12. Mobilize resources to support the voluntary return. It would just be wasting of resources in case the citizen returned to find no available of basic services. This requires that all the resources ad allowances should be handed over according to the peace agreement including the 2% of the oil revenue from western Kordofan to south Kordofan state.

13. The states should adopt human settlements policy to bring together the remote villages together to achieve the desired development.

14. The issues on the environment and oil are still a night mare for the future of land use in the country.

Finally, the civil society sees the amendment of laws to comply with the peace agreements, should not be selective, but should aim to integrate the values of democracy and justice and, the strict commitment to the rule of law and the independence of judiciary. There are more than 64 laws that need to be amended according to the classification made by the good governance committees and considered the by civil society organizations to be most important. Among these are in this workshop, these are:- the national security law which recommend by the participants that this law is to be governed by two basic principles which are a

a. should work as define in the CPA agreements.

b. we need a security system which is efficient with specific and clear TOR, in the interm constitution. It should be highly professional, with qualified experts and staff. It should be fully under the hegmany o law workers and the judiciary. All arrests in this law should be issued by and investigation level judge and the accused should be under the normative criminal procedures.

As far the press law it must strictly adhere to the bill of rights of the interm constitution and must protect the journalists and ensure the freedom and commit the state to free information and transparency.

The elections la need to be constitutionally consistent and the participants noted that the right to nomination should not be hampered by dues to be paid. Independent to have the right to form lists and compete in the proportional package of the law and Sudanese working abroad has had the right to vote.

The participants expressed their deep concern about constitutional justice and appeal to the constitutional court to address the case No 35/2006 presented by the CSOs against the voluntary work act and the law must be shelled until the court produce its verdict which had passed three years without action.  

Lastly, we confirm that without considering the consequences of Darfur crisis, Nifasha is in the dangers of refracting. All the partisan partners should deal with Darfur crisis as national and not regional. The independence of federal justice will reflect on the process of criminal justice in Darfur, in the centre and the rest of states in country.