Two-day constitutional review engagement meeting concludes in Mogadishu

A constitutional review engagement meeting at a national convention held in Mogadishu and attended by Members of Parliament, religious leaders, civil society and international partners concluded today.

At the two-day constitutional engagement meeting forum, stakeholders pledged financial and political support to the process to ensure the country gets a new Constitution by the end of next year.

The minister for Constitutional Affairs of the federal government of Somalia, Salah Ahmed Jama, who attended the two-day meeting, said that there was a need to finalize the constitutional process to unify the country, promote economic growth and above all deliver a new document for posterity.

“As we gather here, people around the world whether it is in Africa, Asia, and the entire world, they are also gathering and discussing their wife. It has happened in Sudan and Egypt. Ethiopia has those ambitions. Iraq and Afghanistan have pursued that line. Our neighboring Kenya just got a new constitution not long ago. We are not different from those people” said Salah Jama

Somalia is currently governed by a Provisional Constitution, adopted on August 1, 2012, after years of conflict. The federal and state governments plan to have a new document ready ahead of the one-person-one-vote elections scheduled for 2020.

The federal and state governments plan to have a new document ready ahead of the one-person-one-vote elections scheduled for 2020.

The process of drafting Somalia’s constitution began in 2000 in Djibouti and later moved to Nairobi, Kenya, before the eventual adoption of a Provisional Constitution in 2012 through a constituent Assembly.

Stakeholders at the meeting stressed the need to revise Somalia’s constitution and electoral laws to provide a unique window of opportunity to enable responses to the challenges faced by women and girls, empowering them to fully contribute to efforts to build sustainable peace and development.

The two-day convention comes as the Horn of Africa nation prepares to move towards one-person, one-vote elections in 2020/2021 in which the National Independent Electoral Commission (NIEC) is working to achieve this.