After South Sudan’s secession from the country in 2011, the internal political situation of Sudan has remained tense. In January 2014 the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, has called on all political forces in the country to carry out a National Dialogue. In August 2014, the country’s governing and several opposition parties reached a common position on conducting the national dialogue. As part of this process constitutional questions are also to be addressed.

The current project aims to support Sudan in the realisation of its National Dialogue. With this goal in mind, the Foundation is providing legal support and assistance to this far-reaching National Dialogue through capacity building measures for an inclusive group of actors. Individual project activities include discussions on the sequence and structure of constitutional processes and fundamental principles of constitutional law. Ultimately, a successful National Dialogue can only be achieved through cooperation between participants and an inclusive process. Project activities thus use a comparative legal approach to promote and encourage discussions about different options for constitutional arrangements between different interest groups. This requires building mutual trust on an ongoing basis and increasing the confidence of participants in one another and the whole process through extensive trust- and capacity building measures. Bearing the country’s continuously unfolding developments in mind, the Foundation adapts its activities to the requirements of the Sudanese interest groups, who have emphatically welcomed the project.

With this project, the Max Planck Foundation continues the activities of the Global Knowledge Transfer Working Group of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (MPIL), which were initiated in Sudan in 2002 under the management of Prof. Rüdiger Wolfrum.

European Union

15 August 2014 – 28 May 2016

Prof Dr Rüdiger Wolfrum

Email:
Phone: +49 6221 91404 37
(See full profile)