The Southern Sudan Referendum Law, endorsed by the National Parliament and signed by the President of Sudan in December 2009, provides a legal framework for the crucial aspects of the Referendum.

Detailed and more in-depth Referendum rules and procedures are to be drafted by the Referendum Commission.

The law gives the people of South Sudan the right of self-determination to decide or determine whether the South should remain part of the Sudan or become an independent country.

The Referendum Law on Abyei gives the Ngok people of Abyei the right to determine their future in terms of whether they would continue to be part of Northern Sudan and Southern Kordofan State or return to Southern Sudan where their administration was transferred to Kordofan in 1905.