Publication Summary
On 4 August 2022, the Parties to the Revitalized Peace Agreement agreed to extend the Transitional Period for 24 months. The Parties, led by the Council of Ministers, acted under article 8.4 of the Agreement which provides a three-stage procedure for amending the Agreement. The three stages include: (1) approval by two-thirds of the Council of Ministers, (2) consent by two-thirds of the members of the Revitalized Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission, and (3) ratification by the Transitional National Legislature. This Weekly Review discusses the implications of this extension and its proposed Roadmap. We argue that the government's extension meets the first stage but fails short in the case of the last two for a valid amendment to be attained. We, however, contend that the Revitalized Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission's (RJMEC) consent is only procedural, so skipping it does not render the changes invalid provided the parliament finally ratifies them.
Mading Gum is a constitutional lawyer and the managing partner for Mading & Co. Advocates. He is a law lecturer and head of Private Law Department at the School of Law of the University of Juba. He holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Juba, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Institute of Legal Practice and Development (ILPD, Rwanda), and a Master of Laws degree (LL.M) in Law, Governance and Democracy from the University of Nairobi School of Law. He is also a member of the South Sudan Bar Association.
Joseph Geng Akech is a passionate South Sudanese human rights lawyer. He holds Diploma in community development, (KISWCD, Kenya), Bachelor of Laws (BU, Uganda), LLM in human rights and democratisation in Africa, with distinction (Pretoria, South Africa) and PhD (doctoral) researcher on constitution building in fragile states. His research interests are in constitutional law, human rights, transitional justice and peace building. Joseph's doctoral research is entitled 'foreign influence and the legitimacy of constitution building in South Sudan' which interrogates international involvement and the legitimacy of resulting permanent constitution in the world's newest nation. Joseph has published numerous articles and chapters in books on constitutionalism and peacebuilding. He can be reached on josephgakech@gmail.com.
Peter Garang Geng is a practicing lawyer and an experienced humanitarian worker. He holds an LLM in international law, with concentration on human rights from Sharda University, India. His research interest focuses on the rule of law and governance, human rights and gender, and humanitarian law. He may be reached on e-mail: garanggengakot@gmail.com