In September 2014, the Foundation began the preparatory phases of a comprehensive programme to support Sudan’s commitments towards a constitutional process with the support of the German Government and the European Union.
Over the last weeks, experts from the Max Planck Foundation held consultative meetings with the heads and representatives of Sudanese political parties and with representatives of various Sudanese civil society groups and academics to discuss, among other things, the status and developments of the National Dialogue and the wider constitutional process as a whole.
Encouraged by the widespread support from Sudanese partners for such an initiative, the Max Planck Foundation envisages coordinating several activities to take place in Sudan with a broad and inclusive range of Sudanese stakeholders within the political process. All activities have as their aim the provision of technical expertise and assistance to facilitate discussion on the possible options for the future of Sudan from a comparative constitutional perspective.
Various Sudanese stakeholders ranging from representatives of the Government of the Republic of Sudan, opposition political parties and civil society organisations have expressed their support for such a programme and have indicated their willingness to participate in a series of capacity building workshops facilitated by the Max Planck Foundation. The workshops will provide technical expertise on comparative constitutional law, case studies and examples of regional and international best practices with respect to constitutional processes that could be used to develop a similar process conducive to, and taking account of, Sudan’s particular exigencies.
In the upcoming weeks, the Max Planck Foundation intends to hold further discussions with the relevant stakeholders in order to ensure that all such efforts and processes are coordinated and maintain a cohesive complementarity.