South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Denis Ejulu
Support Peace Initiative Development Organization (SPIDO) has held civic awareness workshop to enlighten civil society organizations, religious leaders, politicians and media in Western Equatoria State on the Constitution Making Process Act, 2022.
Wodan Saviour Lazarus, Executive Director of SPIDO, encouraged participants to disseminate the contents of the constitutional Making process Act, 2022 to the grassroots.
“I know many of you may not be aware of this document; this document is a legal document which will guarantee the permanent constitutional making process,” Saviour said during the workshop that was attended by 50 participants on June 20th, 2024.
He noted that people’s views were not sought by authorities during the process of making the interim constitution 2005 and the Transitional Constitution 2011, adding that this time the government and development partners want people’s views reflected in the upcoming permanent constitution making process.
When you look at the principles of the permanent constitutional making process within the Act, it talks about the supremacy of the people of South Sudan, it is also talking about the federal and democratic system of governance which is a guarantee for peace and security, that is why today we are here to brief you as stakeholders, we have different stakeholders in this meeting, each of us are very important in this process,” Saviour said.
He disclosed to the participants that SPIDO is among civil society organizations working under the recently established National Constitutional Review Commission (NCRC) to disseminate the constitutional making process Act, 2022.
Saviour noted that SPIDO will start conducting training in July 2024, on the permanent constitutional making process for stakeholders in Western Equatoria State.
John Bariona, Minister for Cabinet Affairs of Western Equatoria State, said that the permanent constitution making process is crucial to pacify the country.
“For peace to be realized in any country, there must be a constitution and therefore, the constitution is critical in bringing peace and good governance, and today we are trying to come up with a constitution that will govern us in our State and also to guide us in the upcoming general election,” Bariona said.
He noted that permanent constitution making process should have taken place earlier, as stipulated in the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS).
The peace agreement provided 24 months for the process to be undertaken to prepare the country’s transition towards democratic governance.
“This is why we are suffering, and that’s why there are a lot of doubts on whether the upcoming elections will be free, fair and credible,” Bariona said.
Lotto Alkai, a Representative of the Azande Kingdom, emphasized that the people’s views should this time be captured and reflected in the permanent constitution.
“The 2011 constitution was enacted without the people being consulted, but today we want to make the permanent constitution where everyone’s views will be accommodated, this constitution making process is about seeking the views of the people at the grassroots because it would not be good if their views are disregarded,” Alkai said.
Lucy Elundah, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Security Specialist for Access to Justice, Security and Human Rights Strengthening Program, said that that the country needs a permanent constitution regardless of whether elections take place as planned or not.
“People are asking questions whether elections will take place, of course the constitution should be there before elections, but a constitution must be there whether there is elections or not, we need this constitution, as we are saying it is a process and we have to begin from somewhere and we should not narrow our minds on the constitution and elections,” Elundah said.
She noted that the establishment of the National Constitutional Review Commission demonstrates that the government is committed to ensuring the constitutional making process leads to the enactment of the permanent constitution.
“We are moving somewhere, because already the NCRC has been established, despite the fact that there are funding issues but at least there is something, we should really appreciate the fact that the government is really putting in effort to do something,” Elundah said.
SPIDO is being funded by UNDP’s Access to Justice, Security and Human Rights Strengthening Programme to disseminate the Constitutional Making Process Act,2022 in Greater Equatoria region.
