Helping to Form A New Bolivia
Imagine having the opportunity to participate in the re-foundation of a country. After 500 years of domination by Western influence, Bolivia's majority indigenous population will finally have the opportunity to re-write the rules. From 2006 to 2007, Bolivians will participate in a process to write a new national constitution. This constitutional assembly process is seen both nationally and internationally as a national peacebuilding effort, as the Bolivian people have been calling for a more equitable and culturally sensitive constitution for many years.
Participants in the final stage of the project vote on specific proposals for the new Constitution.
Popular demand for a new constitution dates back several previous presidential administrations. Current President Evo Morales promised a constitutional assembly during his campaign in late 2005. Various social actors were on the brink of calling for continued social conflict, violence and road blockades if the constitutional assembly process was not started in 2006. As a first step in the official constitutional assembly process, on July 2, 2006, Bolivians voted for 256 constituyentes, elected representatives who will, over a 12-month period, design a new Bolivian constitution.
In early 2005, the national Bolivian Social Pastoral-Caritas began to implement a national peacebuilding project called "Toward the Constituent Assembly: What Kind of Country Do We Want and How Shall We Bring it About?" The project's overall objective is to promote public participation in the process of the country's constituent assembly, through information and education aimed at strengthening initiatives and skills for presenting proposals, with special attention to consensus-building and a culture of dialogue.
The Bolivian Social Pastoral-Caritas has worked in all nine Bolivian departments to gather proposals for ideas to be included in this new constitution from individuals, civil-society organizations, local authorities and grass roots organizations, exceeding goals set out in the original project. The results of this first phase of the project were published in seven thematic documents: autonomy and decentralization; strategic natural and nonrenewable resources; rights, responsibilities and guarantees; social, health and education systems; land, environment and diversity; economic systems; and structure of the state. These documents were delivered to the vice president of Bolivia, as well as to several ministers, departmental governors, major city mayors, particular members of Parliament, and to the press. The second phase of the project gathered actors in departmental meetings, in a first attempt to consolidate the many local proposals. CRS supported the first two stages of the process with $108,900.
The final national phase will bring together 252 participants from the nine departments to consolidate in one document the national demands of the seven thematic areas, which will be presented to the 256 constituyentes as demands of Bolivian society. The principal activity of the project is a two-day national workshop in Sucre, the nation's capital, facilitated by the Bolivian Social Pastoral-Caritas and community leaders.
A review of the demands that resulted from the national workshop is a lesson in political science, as they touch on basic issues of civil rights as well as how the government should work. Examples include:
- The right to prompt, timely, fair and efficient justice.
- The right to citizen security, food security, dignified housing, work and water.
- The president, vice president, mayors and governors will be elected by direct vote of 50 percent plus 1 vote. If no canidate receives at least 50 percent plus 1 vote, the top two candidates will compete in a second election, with the candidate receiving the most votes being named the winner.
- The state recognizes "community justice," once it is established by law, respecting the authority and customs of local communities.
- Social security for all.
- No death penalty. Maximum penalty is life imprisonment.
