Peacemaking Customary Laws and Institutions in Dārfūr

The present paper goes over the usually uncodified or unwritten local customary laws ('urf) and the related institutions, developed to address disputes, enmities, and crimes at the grassroots levels in Dārfūr. The paper tries to meet four objectives: (1) to understand how the different norm-related institutions currently operate in the local communities in Dārfūr; (2) to dig deeply into the factors of continuity and change within the local norms and their institutions, especially during the past few decades; (3) to search for the type and nature of legitimacy of local norms and institutions; (4) to identify the level of efficiency of these norms and institutions in the peacemaking process in Dārfūr. The paper has been based on a field study, which implemented a qualitative research methodology, using primary and secondary sources of data. The primary sources of data included in-depth interviews with key informants and focus group discussions with local leaders, elders and youth organized in North, West and South Dārfūr. The secondary data collection method was limited to reviewing relevant documents.