The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), based in The Hague, made public the Arbitration Agreement between The Government of Sudan and The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM) on Delimiting Abyei Area dated 7 July 2008. The agreement specifies that the PCA arbitration shall be final and binding.

The agreement between the Parties follows an eruption of violence in May in the area of Abyei, threatening the fragile 2005 peace agreement. According to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended 21 years of civil war in South Sudan, the fate of the oil-rich Abyei area is to be determined through a referendum in 2011. Until then, the region is to be administered by a joint administration which has yet to be implemented.

On 8 June 2008, the Sudanese government and the SPLM agreed on a roadmap setting out a series of measures including an interim administration and the return of internally displaced persons. However, the parties failed to reach an understanding on the actual Abyei boundaries and resolved to submit the dispute to an arbitral tribunal.

The mandate of this tribunal is to decide “whether or not the ABC [Abyei Boundaries Commission] experts had […] exceeded their mandate which is to define and demarcate the area of the nine Ngok Dinka Chiefdoms […]. If the tribunal determines […] that the ABC experts did not exceeded their mandate, it shall […] issue an award for the full and immediate implementation of the ABC Report. If the arbitral tribunal determines […] that the ABC experts exceeded their mandate, it shall […] proceed to define (i.e. delimit) on map the boundaries of the area of the nine Ngok Dinka Chiefdoms”.

The tribunal will consist of five arbitrators, two to be nominated by each party and a fifth to be nominated by the designated arbitrators.

Press Release