South Sudan Women Constitutional Conference Recommendations

The Women’s National Constitutional Conference.

Conference Resolutions  6^th – 10^th May, 2013 At Juba Grand Hotel,South Sudan

Preamble

We the members of the Women National Constitutional Conference of the South Sudan gathered in Juba, South Sudan on 6 -10 May 2013, at the Juba Grand Hotel, Central Equatoria under the theme “Our Nation, Our Constitution: Women’s participation in Constitutional Development is Key”.

REMEMBERING our martyrs who sacrificed to liberate us from the bondage of slavery, culture of human rights abuse by offering their lives for our freedom and liberty,

GRATEFUL to the Almighty God for having given us this great Nation,

MINDFUL of the Transitional Constitutional provisions and for the years of transitional period;

HAVING considered the current Constitution review process in developing a constitution for the Republic of South Sudan,

GRATEFUL for the opportunities and guarantees for citizens participation in the constitution review process,

DEEPLY concerned that there exist gaps in the current 2011 Transitional Constitution, that negates women’s participation and leadership,

FURTHER considering that the views collected from women (and men) in all the ten states and fully represented here today to deliberate and consolidate on the issues that will have an impact on the lives of women and the Nation of South Sudan,

RECOGNIZING the seriousness of these gaps towards Nation Building,

RECALLING commitments made by the President to have a constitution that reflects citizen’s views and aspirations,

MINDFUL of the mandate of the National Constitutional Review Commission and principles of the Convention of the elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),

BUILDING on the theme of the Conference ‘Our Nation, Our Constitution: Women’s Participation in Constitution Development Process is Key’,

HAVING considered the recommendations of the Women’s National Constitutional Conference,

WE THE WOMEN DO HEREBY make the following Resolutions:

SOUTH SUDAN AS A NATION

1-    That Republic of South Sudan borders remain as they were in 1956 including the Abyei area.

2-    Each Political Party shall ensure that if the chairperson is male, the vice should be a female and vice versa

3-    English shall be maintained as an official language and all South Sudanese languages be considered national languages, taught, developed and promoted. Arabic is proposed to be a second official language.

4-    Promote knowledge and use of sign language to benefit people with special needs.

BILL OF RIGHTS

1-    Article 15, Marriageable age for both sexes shall be 18 years and above.

2-    A “Women affairs Commission” should be established to monitor the implementation of Affirmative action at all levels of government.

3-    An Inheritance Act to second Article 16 should define who exactly the legal heirs of a deceased person are.

4-    Article 18 should identify the said inhuman and degrading treatment.

5-    Article 21 should mention that no human being is to be used to compensate the family of the murdered one (child compensation)

6-    Article 29 Should provide for special rights to education for girls and boys with special needs

CITIZENSHIP AND NATIONALITY

1-    No naturalized citizen should be deprived of his or her acquired full human rights

JUDICIARY

1-    Article 5 should clearly specify the customs and traditions that abuse human and women’s rights, and declare the null and void. Customary laws should be developed for reference purposes.

2-    Women should have full human rights and status to also stand surety or act as guarantors in courts of law.

3-    Judiciary to give special consideration to training for female judges.

4-    Each state should be facilitated to review its customary laws to ensure they conform with  the constitution

EXECUTIVE

1-    Articles 100 should spell out the Presidential term limits to be 2 terms, and a term should be 4 years.

2-    That all presidential appointees have 35% women representation

NATIONAL LEGISLATURE

1-    Article 55 – Should provide for the national legislature to be consulted and approval sought before removal of elected governors and dissolution of state assemblies.

2-    The State shall enact laws to protect women rights and address matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance. We propose a family law.

3-    Article 56 – 1(b) (read and amend as): The national elections laws shall determine the number and composition of members of the National Legislature with at least 35% representation of women.

4-    That Article 56 (b, c) (be deleted from the constitution and read as): the National Legislature shall compose of only elected members.

5-    That a member of the Parliament shall not be a member of the Council of Ministers.

6-    That at all levels of local government, there shall be 35% representation of women and its implementation be overseen by the Local Government Board.

INDEPENDENT INSTITUTIONS AND COMMISSIONS

1-    That a “Women Affair Commission” be formed to monitor the implementation of the affirmative action quota for women.

2-    Article 142(4) should specify that incase the commission chairperson is male, the vice chairperson should be female and vice versa

SECURITY

1. Adoption of international and regional instruments on women rights (CEDAW)
2. Establishment of child care homes for children with convicted mothers, and juvenile centers to accommodate convicted children.
3. Women to be given roles in higher positions and at least 35% of all forces should be women.
4. Enforcement of policies to protect women against all forms of violence.

WOMEN AND ELECTIONS (proposals)

1-    The government shall allocate resources and provide security to female candidates.

2-    Political parties shall implement the quota system of 35% women representation.

3-    Every eligible female candidate shall have the right to contest in her constituency of birth or marriage.

WOMEN ECONOMICEMPOWERMENT (Proposed to be inserted in Constitution)

1-    The Central Bank shall develop policies to empower women through grants and loan schemes to uplift the standard of women.

2-    All levels of government shall allocate budget for capacity building of women through training programs including adult literacy for women.

3-    The government shall allocate at least 5% of its national budget for women empowerment programs.

South Sudan National Women Conference on Constitution Making Process 6th – 10th May 2013

Theme:“Our Nation, Our Constitution”Women Participation in Constitution Development Process is Key:

Introduction

A group of women Civil Society Organizations(Voice For Change, South Sudan Women General Association, South Sudan Women Empowerment Network, South Sudan Democracy Monitoring Program, South Sudan Network for Democracy and Elections and End Impunity Organisation); got together in February with an intention to collaborate and join efforts on their advocacy on the constitution making process. The women CSOs have realized the importance of coming together and unite their voices in regards to the constitution. A gender analysis of the transitional constitution was conducted, gaps and weakness were identified. A strategic plan was developed as a result of women discussion forums and extensive state awareness campaigns and dialogues carried out countrywide in the past months that carried a common recommendation for a national women conference to be convened, in order for women to consolidate their views into one document for submission to the National Constitution Review Commission.

The National Women conference will convene South Sudanese women from all works of life (women civic groups, CSOs, academia, activists, politicians, government officials and ordinary citizens) in one forum to agree on the issues that came up as a result of their workshops, meetings, trainings, dialogues on women’s constitutional issues and how they wish to participate in the constitution making process.

The conference will provide women a platform for national dialogue on constitution making and forge a common vision that recognizes minority aspirations, with an intention to advocate for provisions that enhance gender-sensitive legislation, democratic practices, accountability, culture of the rule of law and inclusive decision-making.

Background

The independence of South Sudan came with various forms of expectations and hope for better future for all South Sudanese through democratic governance, gender equality and stronger voices and participation of all groups of people in policy making and governing bodies of the new country. This, however, has not been realized as there still lacks peace and justice for vulnerable groups, especially women who were both victims and combatant actors during the long liberation battles. There has been no adequate representation of women right from the time of the transitional constitution development to the current process of developing the permanent constitution for South Sudan. The Women CSOs Coalition intends to rally women, build their capacity and strengthen their advocacy and voices towards meaningful participation in the development of a gender sensitive and friendly constitution that embraces the rights of women and other vulnerable populations.

Gender equality is recognized in Republic of South Sudan’s (RSS) key governance instruments, including the Transitional Constitution (2011) as central pillars for building lasting peace and sustainable development. However, a number of challenges still stand on the way to women’s social, economic and political empowerment. Some of the key challenges noted in the governance instruments include lack of democratic space for dialogue, low level of engagement between civil society and parliamentarians, lack of wider political participation, Mirrored in all these is also the poor integration of the regional and international human rights instruments into the Bill of rights that has undermined women participation and leadership capacities in the various governance structures in the Republic of South Sudan.

The Government of South Sudan committed itself to review the Transitional Constitution of South Sudan and develop a new Constitution by January 2013.  The National Constitutional Review Commission (NCRC) has been created to accomplish this task. The NCRC will seek inclusive participation and engagement with the people of South Sudan in the drafting of the Future Constitution through broad consultations. Particular provisions of the Transitional Constitution have been earmarked for review, and a Constitutional Conference will be organized following state level consultations. Moreover, the work of the Commission has commenced and the process has been extended to December 2014. This creates space and time for civil society organizations to continue with awareness creation increasing advocacy about the process, and developing concrete strategies for engagement with the Commission.

The overall objective is to consolidate and collate all the women views collected from the 10 States and to build consensus about their recommendations to be presented to the National Constitutional Review Commission.

Specific Objectives

a) Identifying potential women to participate in the National Constitution Conference

b) Create a common platform for women from all 10 states of South Sudan to connect, organize, strategies, and advocate for issues of gender equality, peace building, human rights and build consensus on issues to be lobbied for inclusion in the permanent constitution

c) Explore opportunities for collaboration of all South Sudan Women Rights activists and organizations

d) Enabling information sharing in regard to lessons learned in the transition constitution, advocate and lobby for the inclusion of women’s views in the permanent constitution.

e) Expose the ordinary citizen to the key issues and challenges that affect women

f) Explore ways of empowering women to ably participate in the constitution making Process

Expected Outcome

1. Women will be better able to advocate for a permanent constitution that is people driven and inclusive of their views, aspirations and identity of the people of South Sudan.
2. Consensuses built and the women concerns included in the Permanent Constitution.
3. Advocacy messages on women concerns  submitted and incorporated in the larger process .Share recommendations submitted to the NCRC with women at county, payam and Boma level in preparation for participation in the National constitutional conference and public consultations