Constitutional Process in Chile: Unprecedented Inclusiveness and Participation
Constitution making can be instrumental in conflict prevention, peacebuilding and the promotion of human rights, the rule of law and sustainable development. Constitutions drafted or revised through inclusive, participatory and transparent processes enjoy stronger legitimacy. Chile is currently engaged in a constitution making process considered widely inclusive, with the meaningful participation of different sectors of society, particularly women, youth, linguistic, religious, and ethnic groups, sexual and gender minorities and persons with disabilities. The results of this landmark process, set to culminate within one year, are eagerly anticipated.
In October 2019, Chile experienced an unprecedented wave of social mobilization — including incidents of civil unrest — demanding action to address inequalities that persisted despite the country’s considerable socio-economic progress. In the wake of the demonstrations, the leading political parties reached a landmark agreement in November 2019, and the President of the Republic launched a constitutional process to address many of the grievances.
As part of this process, an overwhelming majority of Chileans — 78% — voted on 25 October 2020 in favor of drafting a new constitution. A Constitutional Convention was inaugurated on 4 July 2021, and its composition sent a clear message of inclusion and representation:
78 men and 77 women make up the new body, with 51% of all candidates to the convention being women. The convention also set aside 17 seats for representatives of indigenous peoples elected in a parallel ballot also designed to guarantee gender parity. The average age of elected members is 45 years. At least six convention delegates identify as members of the LGTBIQ+ community. The elected members represent almost the entire socio-economic spectrum. The party lists also provided a quota for persons with disabilities. The 155 members come from across the country; they include women’s rights and environmental activists and others fighting for greater inclusion. On 4 July, members elected a woman from the Mapuche peoples, Elisa Loncon, as president of the Constitutional Convention.
Innovations introduced in voting procedures assured not only unprecedented gender parity and collective representation of indigenous peoples, but also the election of a majority of representatives with no party affiliation, thus challenging long standing political coalitions.
This diverse Convention will have to draft a new constitution within one year. The success of the process rests not only on the ability to draft a text that will be ratified at the ballot box, but that is perceived by a significant majority of the country as legitimate; a new social contract where all people can feel included. A two-thirds majority is required for the approval of the new charter.
The UN has been providing support to the constitutional process, primarily in the form of assistance to the country’s electoral management body geared towards increased political and electoral participation, including among traditionally less represented groups. Though it was launched after the start of Chile’s process, the UN Guidance Note of the Secretary-General on UN Constitutional Assistance lists a set of principles and strategies to guide the Organization in providing assistance to such efforts. Ideally, constitution making should foster peacebuilding and sustainable human development; ensure national ownership and reflect local context; promote international norms and standards, and support inclusivity, participation and transparency, among other criteria.
“The Guidance Note of the Secretary-General represents an important and most welcome tool for the work of UNDP”, Claudia Mojica, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Chile said. “In Chile, it is particularly timely, as the country has embarked on a historic process to draft a new Constitution and, within the UN system, we are ready to support this process”.
With DPPA’s support and in collaboration with UN Women, UNDP launched a website — “Women and the Constitution” — featuring training material and videos to support a broader discussion on gender equality, women’s rights and the constitution-making process.
Marcela Riquelme, a first-time candidate reflected on the significance of the training for her: “[…] I am thankful for this opportunity to see other women and know that we are not alone in this endeavor, and that we will make history “.
DPPA also supported UNDP efforts — in partnership with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) — to promote a broad discussion on indigenous peoples’ rights and the new constitution. The current constitution does not include references to indigenous peoples but the introduction of 17 reserved seats for indigenous peoples opens the possibility for the adoption of international human rights standards in a new constitutional draft. The website “Indigenous peoples and the constitution” was created to disseminate information regarding international human rights standards and the way in which the rights of indigenous peoples have been included in other constitutions. The website includes information about the election process for the Constitutional Convention and the candidates of each of the ten indigenous groups participating. It also showcases an explanatory video that was shared on social media over 260,000 times.
On 19 July, members of the UN country team met with Elisa Loncon, President of the Constitutional Convention and Vicepresident Jaime Bassa to express the UN’s readiness to support the constitutional process in areas that members of the Constitutional Convention deem necessary.
To promote the participation in the electoral process, UNDP launched the ‘Bring out the vote’ campaign, targeting female voters as a priority. The UNDP-designed strategy included a massive media campaign ‘Vota por Todas” (Vote for All of Us Women) which focused on women as mobilizing agents. The campaign got 1.7 million views in social media and reached up to 5 million people through radio in only one month. It also considered direct community involvement and citizen education, in cooperation with a consortium of over 700 CSOs with presence throughout the country. UNDP also provided training for 3,500 civil society leaders who became constitutional educators in all 16 regions of the country.
Several activities to promote women’s involvement in the constitutional process were organized, including the inclusion of women’s rights and gender issues in the discussion of the new constitution. Virtual training workshops for female candidates to the Constitutional Convention, aiming at building capacities to run their campaigns and to play an effective role as political actors, were organized reaching over 150 women.
More than 150 women participated in the virtual sessions of training for candidates to the Constitutional Convention led by UNDP and UN women.
