■ Issue papers

International assistance

The role of international or external support for national processes of constitution building has an instrumental impact on the design of these processes and the institutional choices that ultimately are framed in constitutions.

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Training programme

The new Constitution Builders CONNECT Resource – is an interactive training tool that reinforces sharing experiences as a means to building the capacity of practitioners to solve some of the dilemmas that they face in constitution building.

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Handbook

The Handbook reviews and discusses some of the institutional and procedural design choices that practitioners have recently considered during contemporary constitution building.

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Issue papers

Selected issues are considered at length based on emerging and ongoing dialogues among practitioners and specialists.

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Multimedia

A collection of multimedia resources from and about constitution-building processes.

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Web links

The web links provide a comprehensive list of relevant organizations and partners working in constitution building and related subjects.

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Constitution building processes allow a number of critical subjects to be addressed for societies emerging from transition or undergoing conflict. In this section, selected issues are considered at length based on emerging and ongoing dialogues among practitioners and specialists. Users will find and issues papers that address common constitution building themes such as inclusion, participation, human security, economic welfare, capacity building, institution building, peace building, gender equity, and conflict management. Issues papers have been commissioned or submitted by partners in constitution building.
The Role of Constituent Assemblies in Constitution Making

What is a constituent assembly? What role does it play in the process of constitution making? How is it established? What is its structure and composition? How does it differ from other deliberative bodies with sovereign and constituent powers such as the legislature? With the increase in constitution making around the world and the prominence of constituent assemblies as the primary and most common mode for making constitutions, this paper seeks to answer these questions. Among others, it draws on various experiences such as the American Convention and the French Assembly of the 1790s the Kenyan National Constitutional Conference 2001-4 and the Transitional National Assembly of Iraq 2005

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Making Presidentialism Work: Sharing and Learning from Global Experience

Responding to this dynamic, International IDEA and the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) hosted a workshop in Mexico City in February 2008 on the theme of “Making Presidentialism Work”, bringing together a broad group of experts, ranging from academics and lawyers to political activists and political commentators involved in debate and work on political reform.

This overview summarises the global comparative discussions which arose from the individual presentations at the workshop, a compendium of which is also published by UNAM and IDEA.

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Public Consultation on a Draft Constitution: With Particular Reference to Women in Nepal

This paper is directed at the non-specialist member of the public who has the opportunity tocomment on a draft constitution proposed for adoption in their country. It assumes that itis probably worthwhile to take the trouble to respond and it suggests why and how you as acitizen might respond. It will, we hope, be especially useful to previously marginalized sectionsof society and their members, with special emphasis on women.

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Constituent Assembly Procedures from a Gender Perspective

This paper raises issues about how the Constituent Assembly will work, and how its procedureswill have an impact both on the way in which women members will be able to play a part in itswork, and on how women’s issues will dealt with in the new Constitution which it is thepurpose of the Constituent Assembly to draft. This paper does not deal with public participation– which is the topic of the next paper in the International IDEA Gender Folder. Most of theprocedures of the Constituent Assembly will be laid down in its Rules, a draft of which iscurrently before the relevant committee.

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The Constituent Assembly of Nepal: An Agenda for Women

Nepal is making a new constitution, which will be a culmination of the People's Movement, and thus must be based on the aspirations of the people of Nepal. However gender-friendly Constitution may seem, it will not automatically lead to an increase in gender equality, but the process of constitution making creates an opportunity for women to make some significant progress towards the realisation of their rights. Women should not miss this chance.

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