Autonomy, Secession, and the Ties that Bind -- Lessons from the Peace Agreements of the Sudan

Abstract

This paper analyses the 40-year history of peace agreements emanating from the North-South conflict in the Sudan. In doing so, it aims to identify the legal features and structures of power that had a significant influence on that peace process, and subsequently found expression in an independent South Sudan. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement formally resolved the conflict between North and South Sudan in 2005. However, many of the symptoms of state-failure persist and the failures of peacebuilding remain evident. South Sudan’s secession – though prescribed under the terms of the 2005 Agreement – has not served as a cure-all for recurring civil conflict, fuelled by pastoral concerns at the State’s periphery and a contest for political power at its centre. A critical retrospective of the North-South peace process elucidates our understanding of this conflict and its causes by exploring the unequal structures of power that were legitimised by the Addis Ababa and Sudan Peace agreements, respectively. These unequal power structures were merely exported south of the border under the terms of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and they continue to find expression in contemporary efforts to resolve the conflict, such as the 2015 Compromise Peace Agreement on South Sudan. This paper unpacks the lessons learned from the Sudanese experience, revealing the manner in which legal mechanisms radically affect autonomy and the transition from short-term to long-term peacebuilding. It concludes by addressing the implications these lessons have for the ongoing conflicts in the region.