Southern Sudan is already implementing a ‘technical review process’ for the existing constitution in order to ensure that the constitution is appropriate for an independent state. The GoSS has already committed to a more intensive constitutional review process after the end of the CPA Interim Period (July 9^th 2011).

Justice Africa is convinced that the role of civil society is critical in such a process and has designed a component of the Civil Project that will facilitate the participation of the ordinary citizen of Southern Sudan in the upcoming constitution making process. It is premised on the conviction the process of constitution making is as important as the final substance.

In Southern Sudan liberation struggles have been the foundation of the people’s identity over the last five decades.  Much of the thinking behind these liberation movements was in opposition to a status quo that was unjust. There were also philosophies developed by the SPLM and its leader the late Dr John Garang, defining the vision of a ‘New Sudan’. However the collective identity at the common man’s level was often an identity of unity against the enemy, rather than unity in a common vision for the future. In the new socio-political dispensation, determining a common identity is going be the most important process to ensure sustainable social-political stability in Southern Sudan. This can only be done through an inclusive and participatory citizen’s dialogue that is internally driven and considerate of the historical and political context.

Justice Africa’s constitutional review component of the Civil Project, will be focussed at two levels:

• Providing technical support to ongoing civil society processes aimed at generating and consolidating recommendations for inclusion into the transitional and permanent constitution.
• Public dialogue across the South on the making of a permanent constitution of the Republic of Southern Sudan.