South Sudan National Women Conference on Constitution Making Process 6th – 10th May 2013
by nationalwomenconference
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
- 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.
- Consensuses built and the women concerns included in the Permanent Constitution.
- 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
South Sudan National Women Conference on Constitution Making Process 