© UNHCR A Study of Statelessness in South Sudan - 2017 A South Sudanese boy waiting for his relative who is applying for South Sudanese nationality at DNPI in Juba. 1 Introduction 1.1 Background After decades of civil war, the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement set the stage for a referendum on the independence of South Sudan from Sudan.6 In preparation for the referendum, there was a need to frame South Sudanese nationality for the purpose of determining voter eligibility. However, the question of nationality in South Sudan was and remains complex, in particular given the longstanding divisions between the predominantly Arab North and the African South, and the decades of marginalisation suffered by the latter at the hands of Khartoum. For the purposes of the referendum, the Interim Constitution of Southern Sudan of 2005 described a South Sudanese as follows: “Any person whose either parent or grandparent is or was a member of any of the indigenous communities existing in Southern Sudan before or on January 1, 1956; or whose ancestry can be traced through agnatic or male line to any one of the ethnic communities of Southern Sudan; or any person who has been permanently residing or whose mother 6 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Government of the Republic of the Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Sudan People’s Liberation Army (2005), see https://peaceaccords.nd.edu/sites/default/files/accords/SudanCPA.pdf 10