09/01/2025
The Commemoration of the CPA and the Referendum Day: the 9th of January!
By: Atem Garang D. DeKuek
(1)
In the history of every nation, there are outstanding important events that are imprinted in the nation’s memoirs; and are commemorated annually for the impact they had had in shaping and determining the destiny of the people of the nation.
South Sudan has many important events that have changed the trend of our fate and destiny; from being oppressed and exploited by foreign occupiers to free and independent people. There are specific dates that carry historic importance, i.e. the first Armed Uprising in Torit on August 18, 1955; the Anya-Nya formation in September 1963; the second Armed Uprising in Bor on May 16, 1983; January 9, 2005 and 2011; and finally, the Independence Day on July 9, 2011. All these are important dates that have historical significance and itch.
The 9th January 2005 was the day on which the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed, in Kenya, ending the war of national liberation that raged in South Sudan for 21 years. Again, after six years of the implementation of the CPA, 9th January 2011 was the day designated by the agreement to conduct - after the necessary legislations - the referendum for South Sudanese people to determine their destiny; and they irrevocably voted for an independent country on that date.
(2)
January 9 every year therefore deserves to be celebrated as the ‘Referendum and Human Rights Day’: the day the CPA was signed in 2005 and on which the referendum was conducted in 2011. On the signing of the CPA, the late leader Dr. John Garang De Mabior outlined the following as a programme for comprehensive development of the (South) Sudan:
(a) ‘National unity through pluralism and democracy:
• Recognition of political diversity by guaranteeing full freedom for political pluralism. The entrenchment of the human rights and peoples’ rights in the constitution, the indepe
