Closure of UNMIS
UNMIS wound up its operations on 9 July 2011 with the completion of the interim period agreed on by the Government of Sudan and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed on 9 January 2005.
The mission ended its six years of mandated operations the same day South Sudan declared independence, following a CPA-provided referendum on 9 January 2011 that voted overwhelmingly in favour of secession.
In support of the new nation, the Security Council established a successor mission to UNMIS – the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) – on 9 July for an initial period of one year, with the intention to renew for further periods as required.
18 Mar
2010
As part of ongoing efforts to promote good governance and the rule of law in Southern Sudan, representatives of the University of Juba, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Joint Donor Team (JDT) attended a meeting at the UNDP's regional office on 8 March to discuss the return of the university's law faculty to the Southern Sudanese capital.
The university moved its operations to the national capital of Khartoum in 1989 as fighting in the country's second civil war intensified, and UNDP officials have been working with the institution of higher learning to complete its move back to Juba.
JDT head of office Michael Elmquist stressed the importance of reestablishing the law faculty in Southern Sudan.
"Studying the law in Khartoum and then applying it in Southern Sudan is not practical because they use different legal systems," said Mr. Elmquist, a lawyer by profession.
The university's vice chancellor Prof. Aggrey L. Abate described the meeting as timely because of a recent acceleration in the rate at which its schools and faculties have been returning to Juba.
"We want to be part of the process of transformation (of Southern Sudan)," Prof. Abate said. "We do not want to be non-participants."
He declined to give a specific timetable for the return of the law faculty, saying that it would depend on the availability of funding.
"We must support the building of institutions in Southern Sudan," said Joe Feeney, the UNDP head of office in Southern Sudan.
"A key element is third-level education institutions that will train highly qualified people to work and develop Southern Sudan.