GI-ESCR and partners gather more than 40 civil society organizations to evaluate the new Constitution of Chile
The objective is to build quality evidence taking advantage of the experience and expertise of civil society organizations towards the exit referendum.
The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) together with Fundación Ciudadanía Inteligente, Amnesty International Chile and Fundación Avina, are presenting "The Constitution is Ours", an open, collaborative and collective platform that seeks to reclaim the citizen power present in the New Constitution. From there the project seeks to contribute to the dissemination of top quality information to encourage informed voting in the exit referendum next September.
Based on evaluations of the articles included in the New Constitution, the project seeks to analyze the potential impact that the regulations would have on people's quality of life, progress in relation to human rights, social and economic justice agendas; and the connection of the resulting regulations with the longstanding demands of citizen and social movements.
To this end, analysis methodologies were developed and shared with renowned national and international experts.
“The people of Chile have a WONDERFUL opportunity to voice their approval for democratic and inclusive norms of human rights and a progressive society by voting in favor of this proposed constitution.”
Among those who have joined this evaluation are Chilean organizations such as FIMA, Humanas, Educación 2020 and TECHO-Chile, among others, as well as international experts such as Michael Stein from Harvard University, Meghan Campbell from the Human Rights Center of the University of Oxford and Valeria Esquivel of the International Labor Organization.
“Constitutions are not frozen in time, but are living trees that evolve in response to changing circumstance. Thus, the question is really whether the seed of a dynamic living tree is planted in this proposed constitution. With respect to the right to equality in thinking about acceptance or rejection, the explicit textual guarantee of substantive equality is incredibly exciting and has strong potential to be a fruitful branch of a living tree constitution.”
The project was initially announced on 10 May, at a breakfast that brought together more than 30 civil society organisations, which were able to learn about the project's objectives and enroll in the evaluation of topics of interest to them. This instance was also followed by a workshop to evaluate the article on the right to health, which on 17 May brought together more than 20 people belonging to health professionals and workers unions.
“Through this project we have found that recognized international experts are very attentive to what is happening in Chile and have been following the constitutional process with hope. Their analyzes indicate that the proposed text is highly aligned with international human rights standards and the most progressive norms of social justice and environmental protection. Due to a negative campaign by some media outlets and misinformation on social networks, citizens sometimes have an unfounded negative assessment. We therefore believe that the independent expert voices convened in this project can help shed light on the real content of the text and its potential.”
The project, which is still under development, will be publicly launched on 30 June, thus anticipating the official release of the final text of the New Constitution, which will be submitted to a popular vote in an exit plebiscite that will take place in Chile on 4 September.