 |
|
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
AFGHANISTAN: Commission to review preliminary draft constitution
KABUL, 5 May 2003 (IRIN) - Afghanistan's constitutional review commission on Sunday introduced its board to review the preliminary draft constitution prepared by the constitutional drafting committee. Their efforts will make it ready for broad public consultations country-wide.
"The review commission is mandated to conduct public consultation on the preliminary draft of the constitution in all 32 provinces of the country, Iran, Pakistan and, where possible, in other countries," Prof Abdul Salam Azimi, the deputy chairman of the constitutional review commission, told IRIN in the capital, Kabul.
The review commission replaced the drafting committee, which was established on 3 November last year to draft a new constitution. The nine-member committee, which was headed by Afghan Vice-President Ne'matollah Shahrani, prepared a preliminary draft of the document and submitted it to constitutional review commission.
"We will undertake broad discussions and consultations on the preliminary draft of the constitution with experts, researchers, lawyers, analysts, as well as all the people of Afghanistan," Azimi said.
According to the constitutional review commission, for the time being, a preliminary draft with 172 articles and 12 chapters has been prepared to be shared with the people of the different groups and classes making up Afghan society.
"The articles may increase or decrease after having collected the viewpoints of the people," Azimi said, explaining that the commission would use different ways and means of explaining the contents of the preliminary draft to very local Afghans of all classes.
"In fact, in a country where the education level of the people is not that high, it is difficult to expect all the people to give viewpoints on the contents of the constitution," Azimi pointed out, noting that the commission had worked out questions to ask the people on different aspects to ascertain their wishes and aspirations for the future.
"We will ask them questions and make them talk on various aspects so that we can strengthen the contents of the new law," the deputy chairman said, emphasising that the new constitution would be a broad and nationally accepted law, which would survive for generations.
Shahrani now chairs the 35-member review commission, which includes seven women.
"The review commission members are people from different stratums, tribes and categories of Afghan society composed of knowledgeable individuals, intellectuals, clerics and experienced, recognised figures," Shukria Barekzai, a commission member, told IRIN, noting that female representation on the commission was a good sign of women's participation in the formation of the nation's new constitution. "It is hoped that these seven female members can incorporate the needs and rights of women in the constitution," she said.
The commission also has 60 provincial and regional staff, who are conducting public education and awareness campaigns aimed at preparing the ground for the commissioners to engage in public consultations.
"The 60 trained staff are now deployed in all of the provinces, and will soon establish their offices in the eight regional provinces of Jalalabad, Gardez, Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-e Sharif, Konduz, Bamian and Kabul," Faruq Wardak, the director of the commission's secretariat, told IRIN, noting that most of the provincial staff had been elected members of the Emergency Loya Jirga, or grand assembly, and enjoyed influential, tribal and intellectual credibility within their communities.
Azimi said the review commission would become actively operational on 1 June, and delegations, each comprising three commissioners, would be sent to every province for discussions and consultations on the preliminary draft of the constitution, and would subsequently bring the people's comments and viewpoints to the capital for further consideration.
Themes: (IRIN) Governance
[ENDS]
The material contained on this Web site comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post any item on this site, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All graphics and Images on this site may not be re-produced without the express permission of the original owner. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
