South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Denis Ejulu
Support Peace Initiative Development Organization (SPIDO) has launched a program to carry out public consultations and civic education at the grassroots level in a bid to disseminate content of the Constitutional Making Process Act, 2022.
Wodan Saviour Lazarus, Executive Director of SPIDO noted during the launching ceremony on Monday in Juba, that the Constitutional Making Process Act, 2022 provides opportunities for different stakeholders such as the National Constitutional Review Commission (NCRC), faith-based organizations, civil society and the media to engage the people at the grassroots level on the process.
“This Constitutional Making Process, when you look at its core principles such as the supremacy of the people of South Sudan and also issues of federalism and democratic systems, is a guarantee for peace and security. So the moment others are left out of this process, we will not make the constitution that represents the will of the entire people of South Sudan,” said Saviour during the launching ceremony held at Land Mark Hotel.
Dr. Riang Yer Zuor, Chairperson of the National Constitutional Review Commission, said that the 2018 Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS), provides mandate to the NCRC and civil society organizations to carry out civic education and public consultations with the aim of seeking people’s views into the permanent constitution making process.
“There are two ways to ensure that the Constitutional Making Process is owned by the people of South Sudan, and the first of these is by us going to the people of South Sudan through civic education exercise and public consultation, where the views of the people will be collected so that they form the basis of the drafting of the first constitutional draft text,” said Yer.
He added that the second alternative would be to convene a national constitutional conference, bringing together all the sectors of the South Sudanese society to express their views on the constitution they want.
Yer disclosed that they plan to first educate the people on the constitutional making process, and then proceed to educate the people on the constitutional issues of relevance due to the fact that a range of constitutional issues will come up.
“It is the responsibility of those who go for public consultations, and civic education to educate the people on those constitutional issues so that when they make decisions they make informed decisions,” he said.
Yer praised SPIDO for taking the lead on dissemination of the Constitutional Making Process, adding that the views collected from the grassroots level by civil society organizations will ease the work of NCRC.
“Now that SPIDO has taken this initiative to launch the dissemination of the content of the Constitutional Making Process Act, 2022, we see it as the beginning of making our work easier as the Commission because there are quarters where we will not be able to go to,” he said.
Yer noted that the information collected at the grassroots level by civil society organizations like SPIDO will be submitted to NCRC, hence making it easier for the NCRC to explain people’s views in an articulate and coherent manner.
The dissemination project of the Constitutional Making Process Act, 2022 being undertaken by SPIDO is funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under it’s Access to Justice, Security and Human Rights Strengthening Program.
