The Center for Global Community and World Law (CGCWL) has been training a representative from the Sudan Council of Churches for a Track II approach to peace in the Sudan. The Track II initiative, The Peacebuilding Process of Reconciliation to Develop Political Will (PPR), is closely coordinated with Track I initiatives. There are short-term mediation and coexistence initiatives planned for before and after the January 2011 elections. Long-term reconciliation initiatives have been planned as well.
A Reconciliation Provision in the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement that had never been utilized (Article 1.7) inspired The PPR, delivered in the Reconciliation Leadership (RL) model through the Sudan Council of Churches, and commended in the United Nations Security Council on November 16, 2010 by the Chairperson of the African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP), The Honorable Thabo Mbecki.
The PPR offers a societal response that complements and strengthens the United Nations' response to conflict. Reconciliation Leaders are mindful of the links between individual and systemic development, human rights and global ethics to secure greater ecological, economic, and integrity. Virginia Swain, Co-Founder and Executive Director of CGCWL, conceived and delivered the PPR as part of the Global Mediation and Reconciliation Service (GMRS) since 1992 in international settings. She has 25+ years of experience as a mediator, ombuds, consultant and trainer in organization development and peacebuilding on five continents. Swain developed a research protocol that required the organization of A Celebration of the Children of the World: A Model for Building Global Community, held at the United Nations fostering reconciliation among its participants by building a sense of equality, dignity, worth, community and capacity building among representative members of all the sectors of the United Nations. The PPR emerged out of all of those experiences.
Sudan, Africa’s largest country, has a tremendously diverse population. In spite of all the hardships of Sudan, it currently has one of the fastest growing economies in the world based on the discovery and development of its oil industry.
In 2005, Sudan ended much of the internal violence through the development of a peace agreement called the Nairobi Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which granted Southern Sudan autonomy for six years, to be followed by a referendum about independence. On January 9, 2011, the people of Sudan will vote on the independence referendum, which would allow South Sudan to secede from Sudan as an independent state.
The United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) was established under the Security Council Resolution 1590 in March 2005. Its mandate is to support implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and to perform functions relating to humanitarian assistance and protection and promotion of human rights. In 2007, the United Nations and African Union created a hybrid peacekeeping force (UNAMID) to help within Sudan.
Locally, the African Union (AU) continues to be involved in negotiations within Sudan. The African Union in conjunction with the United Nations and United States government are supporting Sudan to implement a peaceful election process in the historic Referendum and Abyei Protocol vote.
The global community needs to continue to support this fragile country from escalating into a full scale civil war.
