SOLVING STATELESSNESS no recognition of the right to challenge this withdrawal and raised the bar for those who might wish to apply for naturalisation. Among the new criteria were 10 years “lawful and continuous residency” and the conduct of lawful employment or livelihood, conditions that seemed to be particularly intended to exclude communities living on the margins. Although the legislation at one level seemed to clarify the situation – no one who had a claim to South Sudanese citizenship could retain Sudanese citizenship – it simply added fear to the confusion. There was no guidance on how those claims might be determined or refuted, notwithstanding a context in which myriad legal questions arise, including the constitutionality of the law itself. For example the current Constitution is unequivocal that “[e]very person born to a Sudanese mother or father shall have an inalienable right to enjoy Sudanese nationality and citizenship” (article 7 (2)). The precise scope of South Sudanese citizenship law is also a complex matter. Regulations governing the implementation of the new law had not been issued at the time of our research. Further, although the President of Sudan took an overtly public stance that all those from South Sudan must leave or “regularise” their status by April 2012, there was no clarity on how regularisation could be accomplished.36 In fact, the status of nationals across borders in both Sudan and South Sudan has created a significant amount of insecurity for groups of people living in both countries.37 Concerns increased when the grace period afforded southern Sudanese to regularise their status lapsed on 9 April 2012; the situation was further exacerbated by statements made by State governors and political leaders threatening to expel all southern Sudanese.38 In late September 2012, after a series of negotiations, Sudan and South Sudan signed the ‘Framework Agreement on the Status of Nationals of the Other State and Related Matters between the Republic of Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan’ (Framework Agreement).39 36 37 38 39 Khartoum urges its citizens in South Sudan to regularize stay, South Sudan Tribune, 27 February 2012, http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article41732. See, IRRI and Darfur Refugees Association in Uganda, Darfurians in South Sudan: Negotiating belonging in two Sudans, Citizenship and Displacement in the Great Lakes region, Working Paper 7, 2012. See, for example, J. Copnall, The dispossessed: the South Sudanese without a nationality, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), 6 April 2012, http:// www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17624075. Agreement between The Republic of the Sudan and The Republic of South 91