Waging Peace: The Republic of Sudan and The Republic of South Sudan

Go to: Monitoring Elections | Referendum Monitoring | Constitutional and Political Monitoring | Conflict Resolution | Efforts in Sudan-Uganda

In one of the Carter Center's largest observation missions, an international team of more than 100 Carter Center observers were deployed Jan. 9-13, 2011, across Sudan and in eight out-of-country voting locations to witness voting in the historic referendum on independence for Southern Sudan.

Go to: Carter Center Blog – Sudan

Monitoring Elections

After more than 20 years of violent civil strife that displaced millions of Sudanese and resulted in the death of nearly 2 million people, Sudan is in need of lasting peace and stability.  The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in Naivasha, Kenya, brought hope for a transition from a state of conflict to development, democracy, and peace.

Through its provisions calling for democratic elections throughout Sudan, the CPA held the key to a more transparent, representative political structure for all Sudanese.  During former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's trip to Sudan with the Elders in October 2007, both President Omar al-Bashir and First Vice President Salva Kiir asked The Carter Center to observe the electoral process in Sudan. The Carter Center observed national elections in 2010 and the referendum on the self-determination of Southern Sudan. Read full text >

Election Reports

View Carter Center election reports for Sudan >

Referendum Monitoring

Introduction: Carter Center Sudan Observation Activities
Read our latest report >
The referendum on the self-determination of Southern Sudan was described in the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) as the final benchmark of the agreement that ended more than 20 years of civil conflict between the North and the South.

The Carter Center launched its observation mission in August 2010 to assess the referendum and deployed core field staff and observers to monitor the comprehensive referendum process. Read full text >

Constitutional and Political Monitoring

In South Sudan, several key steps are underway in the formation of a democratic foundation for the new state. The Center has maintained a small presence in Juba in the latter half of 2011 to observe, analyze, and comment on the drafting of a transitional constitution, political parties act, and national elections act. The Center released public statements on July 2 on the draft transitional constitution and on Nov. 16 on the passage of key democratic legislation. The Center has also closely tracked developments related to the formation of a constitutional review commission and other developments in the process of drafting a permanent constitution.

The Center has also maintained a scaled-down presence in The Republic of Sudan, tracking developments from Khartoum related to democratic processes, including the popular consultations in Blue Nile and South Kordofan and the constitutional review process. The Center released public statements commenting on the popular consultations on July 15, Aug. 26, and Oct.12, 2011.

Conflict Resolution

The Carter Center's Conflict Resolution Program has worked for more than a decade to mediate conflict in Sudan and to improve the climate for a just and lasting peace agreement to end the longest ongoing conflict in Africa.

The reasons for the conflict have been highly complicated, including ethnic and regional power struggles, religious differences, disputes over oil production and revenues, and issues of governance, leaving most Southerners feeling deeply marginalized and many in other regions feeling similarly unrepresented. These problems were compounded by a record of broken agreements and military government, leaving Sudan deeply divided and the Sudanese people mistrustful and profoundly scarred by the trauma of war. Read full text >

Carter Center Efforts in Sudan-Uganda

The internal conflict between the government of Sudan and the SPLM/A was complicated by hostilities between the Sudanese government and the Ugandan government, including the role of the Lord's Resistance Army. The Lord's Resistance Army is a quasi-spiritual Ugandan rebel group that has had bases in Southern Sudan and has been fighting the government of Uganda for almost 20 years. The LRA has kept northern Uganda in a state of almost continuous insecurity and has attracted particular attention due to its use of child soldiers, kidnapped from their homes in northern Uganda and forced to fight, often against their relatives and neighbors.

In 1999, President Carter and the Conflict Resolution Program negotiated the Nairobi Agreement between Sudan and Uganda, in which both sides committed to stop supporting forces against each other's government and agreed to eventually re-establish full diplomatic relations between them, opening the door for improved regional peacemaking. Following the signing of the Nairobi Agreement, the Conflict Resolution Program engaged intensively to ensure its implementation, convening a multitude of ministerial and security meetings between the two governments and other interested parties and making strenuous efforts to initiate dialogue between the LRA and the government of Uganda. Full diplomatic relations have since been restored between the two countries, and Uganda became a key regional partner in pushing for a peaceful resolution to Sudan's civil war, but efforts to end the civil war in northern Uganda through dialogue have yet to succeed.

Read the Nairobi Agreement, Dec. 8, 1999 >

Learn more about the Carter Center's Conflict Resolution Program >