International Arbitration: A New Mechanism to Settle Intra-State Territorial Disputes between States and Secessionist Movements? The Divorce of Sudan and South Sudan and the Abyei Question

32 Pages Posted: 25 Sep 2011 Last revised: 22 Dec 2011

See all articles by Cindy Wittke

Cindy Wittke

University of Konstanz, Department for Politics and Public Administration; University of Regensburg - Institute for East and Southeast European Studies

Date Written: August 19, 2011

Abstract

In 2008, the Government of Sudan (GoS) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) submitted an arbitration agreement with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague. In a unique fast track procedure, an international arbitration tribunal had to determine in accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005, in particular the Abyei Protocol and Abyei Appendix, the Interim National Constitution (INC) and general principles of law, whether the Abyei Border Commission (ABC) exceeded its mandate, which was to define and demarcate the area of the nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms transferred to Kordofan in 1905. In case of excess, the parties entrusted the tribunal with redefining the boundaries of the disputed territory based on the parties’ submissions. To guarantee the transparency of the procedure and to generate acceptance by all stakeholders on the ground, all hearings and documents were made publically available. The procedure and the more than 200-pages-long final Award from July 2009 constitute an illustrative example of an international dispute settlement procedure dealing with an intra-state (territorial) dispute between a state and a secessionist movement. The paper asks why and how the parties initiated the arbitration procedure and evaluates the still disputed status of the Abyei Region and the record of the parties’ (non-)compliance with the Abyei Award and its role in the ongoing status-negotiations between Sudan and the newly independent South Sudan. By inter alia taking a comparative perspective with other international dispute settlements the paper critically discusses the legal-political implications of the Abyei Arbitration and whether it could serve as a model or lesson learned when it comes to the effectiveness and success of international arbitration and its potential contribution to the settlement of intra-state (territorial) disputes.

Keywords: South Sudan, Abyei, international law, secession, peace agreement, alternative dispute settlement, arbitration

Suggested Citation

Wittke, Cindy and Wittke, Cindy, International Arbitration: A New Mechanism to Settle Intra-State Territorial Disputes between States and Secessionist Movements? The Divorce of Sudan and South Sudan and the Abyei Question (August 19, 2011). Osgoode CLPE Research Paper No. 28/2011, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1933228 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1933228

Cindy Wittke (Contact Author)

University of Regensburg - Institute for East and Southeast European Studies ( email )

Landshuterstr. 4
Regensburg, 93047
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.ios-regensburg.de

University of Konstanz, Department for Politics and Public Administration ( email )

Germany
+49 (0)7531 88 2161 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.polver.uni-konstanz.de/en/seibel/team/cindy-daase/

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