Constitution and Legislative Reform

Context

“I used to be afraid to give my opinion, but now I tell people about complex issues like politics, women’s rights and the Constitution. I feel strong,” says 24-year-old Amani Thawabta, a law school graduate from Palestine. Although she speaks about lobbying for women’s rights as powerfully as a lifelong advocate, that wasn’t always the case. Amani is from the small Palestinian village of Beit Fajjar in the central West Bank, where the conservative culture makes it hard for young women to take part in public life or claim their rights.

Women organisers of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) are advocating reforms to their party constitutions to allow for more women to seek political office.

Such reforms, according to the women organisers, must also include the amendment of their constitutions to ensure that more women contested in their parties’ strongholds.

The WANA programme was launched in 2011 after the revolutions that swept many countries in the region.  Since that time 10 countries in the region have amended, replaced or reconsidered their constitutional frameworks.  In these countries, some progress has been made in the struggle for democratization, however significant challenges remain.   International IDEA continues to support constitution building across the region through the provision of support to constituent assemblies, members of the legal community, academics and others.

Female members of parliament -- a distinct minority -- are more active about introducing legislation than their male counterparts, according to the civil network OPORA.

To view the full article published on 6th February 2015, please click here.

After a series of workshops and consultations on the constitution, held beginning in 2013, the Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace (LWPP) launches a Charter of Libyan Women’s Constitutional Rights. The LWPP has been working on building consensus about the constitution’s most controversial issues, such as the role of sharia and international conventions in the constitution, as well as charting women’s priorities and rights.