GI-ESCR together with partners launches platform for the evaluation of the constitutional proposal
Chile now has the final text of its new Constitution. The proposal, drafted by a Constitutional Convention elected by the Chilean people, the first with parity in the world and with reserved seats for indigenous peoples, was handed over in an official ceremony, held in the former Chilean National Congress, on Monday morning, July 4 2022, to President Gabriel Boric.
Thus begins the final road to the exit referendum, to be held on September 4 2022, where Chilean citizens will decide whether to approve or reject the new constitutional text.
It is in this context that The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights together with Fundación Ciudadanía Inteligente, Amnesty International and Fundación Avina, developed the "The Constitution is Ours" project, an open, collaborative and participatory platform, which brings together more than 50 civil society organisations, as well as international academics, in order to evaluate norm by norm, with the aim of understanding how this new text will affect people's daily lives.
The platform "The Constitution is Ours" was launched on Thursday 30 July and made available to all those who want to find information on the new rules contained in the constitutional text.
Thus, this tool aims to be a "commented Constitution" raised from a different place than the Constitutional Convention, the political parties and the usual analysts. To this end, we set out to bring together the diversity of knowledge and experiences of experts from academia and social organisations that are actively involved in the territories and have been fighting for rights for decades, in order to contribute to the discussion and analysis in the communities, leading to an informed vote.
Women and gender, fiscal policy, housing, property, health, the fight against corruption, education, democracy, retirement, children's rights, environment, equality, non-discrimination and human rights are some of the issues that were evaluated by civil society organisations with a long history in Chile, in addition to experts in these areas. Articles were selected in the areas of social rights, nature rights and democratic strengthening. Each of these was assigned "quality seals" to measure their contribution in: development, human and nature rights, security and certainty, equality, innovation and sustainability, decentralisation, participation and anti-corruption.
The platform is already available to the public with more than 62 evaluated norms, with the commitment to analyse 142 articles in total, in order to achieve a better understanding of each one.
In a context of disinformation campaigns and fake news that distances citizens from a dialogue based on democratic foundations, it is essential to strengthen the debate with truthful information about the constitutional proposal.
From "The Constitution is Ours" we seek to connect and amplify the voice and experience of civil society throughout Chile, as well as around the world. This platform responds to the need for quality information, but at the same time is connected to people's daily lives.