South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Simon Deng
About 140 participants drawn from the States in Greater Equatoria region are attending a two-day workshop on constitutional making process organized by the Support Peace Initiative Development Organization (SPIDO).
The Executive Director for SPIDO, Wodcan Saviour Lazarus said on Monday said that the training workshop will help to create awareness on the constitution-making process that will lead to the enactment of the permanent constitution.
“Basically what we are doing is to create awareness on the dissemination of the Constitution Making Process Act 2022, we are trying to educate the participants on the contents of the constitution making process Act,” Lazarus said during the opening of the training workshop at Landmark Hotel in Juba.
SPIDO has already organized similar workshops in Western Equatoria State and Eastern Equatoria State.
Lazarus revealed that they are aiming to link the functions of the National Constitution Review Commission (NCRC) with the grassroots people on issues of the permanent constitution making process.
“The revitalized peace agreement has given opportunity for the NCRC to carry out public consultations and to gather views on the constitution making process, we are expecting the general public to give their views on what they think should be in the permanent constitution,” he said.
Lazarus also said that they are looking at collective public views on federalism and good governance, adding that such views from the general public will be incorporated in the permanent constitution.
“We are looking at the permanent constitution which reflect aspirations of the people of this country and must be public driven, not like the 2005 and the 2011 transitional constitution which was written by few elites,” he said.
The two-day workshop on the constitution making process is also being attended by the national parliament, members of human rights commission, academia and faith-based groups.
SPIDO is being funded by United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) Access to Justice, Security and Human Rights Strengthening Program to disseminate the Constitution Making Process Act 2022 in Greater Equatoria Region.
