South Sudan needs to recognize citizenship
* Article
* Comments (0)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
*
*
*
*
By Nasredeen Abdulbari
May 12, 2011 — The proper birth of any sovereign nation starts with
the adoption of a set of fundamental principles according to which it
would be governed. In this context, the draft of the Transitional
Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan, 2011 has recently been
released, and will soon be approved by the South Sudan Legislative
Assembly. The Constitution is not entirely a new document. It is, in
point of fact, an amended version of the South Sudan Interim
Constitution of 2005.
Like all constitutions in the world, the South Sudan Transitional
Constitution of 2011, which falls in 82, A4 pages and contains 201
articles and 5 schedules, determines, inter alia, the structure of the
government of the new republic, the guiding principles that would lead
the new nation, the relationship between the main organs of the state,
and the relationship between the individual and the state.
Unlike some previous constitutions of Sudan, the draft of the
constitution does not make any mention of the identity of the new
nation, and rightly so. The fundamental idea on which constitutions
are based nowadays is citizenship, not ethnic, cultural, or religious
identities. Wisdom therefore dictates that nations, states, and
governments concentrate directly on how different identities could
peacefully live together, and establish a strong nation, rather than
sparking unnecessary debates over the identity of the state.
There are of course several issues that deserve throwing light on, but
this article limits itself to the issue of citizenship, which is
mentioned in the draft constitution in Chapter II. This Chapter
consists of two articles, 45 and 46, titled “Citizenship and Rights”
and “Duties of the Citizen”, respectively.
Article 45 (1) recognizes the alienable right of citizenship to every
person born to a Southern Sudanese mother or father. This article
enables thousands of individuals who hail from Southern Sudanese
fathers or mothers, and not from parents who both come from Southern
Sudanese origins, to acquire the nationality of South Sudan. In
addition, Subsections 5 and 6 recognize dual or multiple nationality.
They provide that Southern Sudanese may acquire the nationality of
another country, and that non-Southern Sudanese may acquire the
nationality of South Sudan by naturalization. The detailed rules that
will regulate acquisition of another citizenship or that of South
Sudan are to be worked out by the nationality law, which will be
adopted later. Subsection 4 unequivocally prohibits arbitrary
deprivation of nationality acquired by non-Southern Sudanese. This
transitional constitution by these provisions avoids discrimination
against women, violation of the rights of the child, and prohibition
of the desirable recognition of the dual and multiple nationality
principle.
It is of course yet to be seen whether nationality laws and
regulations would be consistent with the aforesaid provisions. Recent
statements, however, by South Sudanese officials give us reasons to be
cautiously optimistic. In the last week of this April, the Minister of
International Cooperation in the South stated that South Sudan would
give all Northern Sudanese who are residents of South Sudan the right
to choose between the nationality of the new state and the retention
of their Sudanese nationality. He said South Sudan would abide by the
applicable international norms as far as nationality and citizenship
are concerned. He also said this was their unchangeable position,
regardless of what the government in Khartoum would do as far as the
status of Southerners in the North is concerned.
Sudan has lost too many decades, because of wars that have been
ignited by the inability of the Sudanese to appreciate and effectuate
the notion of citizenship. We, the Sudanese, unnecessarily wasted time
and financial and human resources on wars and shows of public
bickering over the identity of our nation. It is time now to learn
from our history. That means, at the moment, the recognition, not only
in theory but also in practice, of citizenship as the basis of rights
and duties in Sudan and South Sudan. It also means that our failure to
coexist and establish an irresistible nation should not prevent us
from seizing any opportunity to cooperate and recognize the
internationally recognized rights of individuals, the most important
of which is the right to nationality and citizenship. In this regard,
the provisions of Article 45 of the draft constitution of South Sudan
and the statements made by the International Cooperation Minister of
the South are a great step in the right track. The Government in the
North should also take a similar step in the same direction for the
future of political relations and economic cooperation between the
Republic of Sudan and the soon-to-be Republic of South Sudan.
* Nasredeen Abdulbari is a Sudanese lawyer and academic. He is a
lecturer at the International and Comparative Law Department,
University of Khartoum. This article was published by the Star
newspaper in Nairobi on May 9th, 2011.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD
info" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
