Most countries that have experienced conflict have been through some form of peace or transition process. However, to prevent conflict recurring, peace and transition processes need greater capacity.
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Constitution-making is often integral to achieving a new political settlement after conflict and in fragile settings. However, the process fails with relative frequency, in that actors cannot agree on a new text or the finalized text is not approved or ratified. While failure may be temporary—the process may resume after a period of time—it can also be costly.
Federalism is a constitutional mechanism for dividing responsibilities between different levels of government in a country. It grants constituent units (i.e. substate territorial entities that may be called states, regions, provinces, Länder or cantons) a certain degree of autonomy (or self-rule) in regulating some policy areas.
The participants of the third annual Women Constitution-Makers’ Dialogue explored comparative constitutional design approaches to legal pluralism and reconciling tensions between customary/religious systems and guarantees of gender equality and non-discrimination.
International IDEA condemns in the strongest possible terms the extra-legal executions of four democracy defenders in Myanmar, which mark yet another shocking escalation of the violence perpetrated by the military junta. International IDEA associates itself with the wide condemnation of these executions by the international community and the Myanmar national organizations, including the National Unity Government (NUG).
On 1 February last year, the Myanmar military abruptly took control of the central state institutions and arrested the elected President, many senior officials and political leaders.
Public participation has become a core element of modern constitution-building. Robust participation is credited with a range of benefits—from improving individual behaviours and attitudes to democracy to shaping elite bargaining dynamics, improving constitutional content, and strengthening outcomes for democracy and peace. Yet it is not well understood whether and how public participation can achieve these ends.
Modern constitutions typically contain a variety of provisions on language.
Countries often amend their constitutions or enact new ones following major political events, such as the founding of newly independent states, the fall of an authoritarian regime or the end of violent conflict.
Significant constitutional reform at a crucial moment is often a high-stakes process because a constitution regulates access to public power and resources among different groups.
International IDEA’s Annual Review of Constitution-Building provides a retrospective account of constitutional transitions around the world, the issues that drive them, and their implications for national and international politics.
The inclusion and participation of combatants in constitution-building processes raises a number of distinctive issues.
Constitutional INSIGHTS No. 5 examines the rationales for including combatants in constitution-building, the challenges this presents and some of the mechanisms that might be used to support their participation in constitution-building processes.
Direct public participation is a feature of almost every exercise in constitution-building in the 21st century.
This issue of Constitutional INSIGHTS examines three different forms of direct public participation in constitution-building—consultation, deliberation and decision-making—and identifies ways to promote inclusive and meaningful direct public participation.
The Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Constitutions Assessment Tool helps users to analyse a constitution from the perspective of indigenous peoples’ rights.
Parliaments and Crisis: Challenges and Innovations is the new Parliamentary Primer produced by the INTER PARES project, funded by the European Union and delivered by International IDEA. Written in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, the Primer looks at how democratic parliaments play a crucial role in making good decisions and protecting citizens’ rights during a crisis.
COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented pressure on countries and states as to whether to hold or postpone scheduled elections, amid controversies in either case.
International law is an increasingly relevant consideration in constitution-building.
It is therefore helpful for a constitution to prescribe the effect of international law in domestic law. If all or some international law has automatic effect, it is helpful for the constitution to describe its position in the hierarchy of domestic law.
The increased prevalence of political transitions following internal conflict has seen heightened attention given to both transitional justice and constitution-building as fields of study and intervention.
A federation consists of at least two levels of government, each of which has a degree of autonomy that is protected by a constitution.
Countries with a federal system of government share powers between these levels in different ways, which affects their decision-making processes. The primary focus of this Constitution Brief is the division of legislative power, which typically raises the most difficult questions.
This Primer discusses independent regulatory and oversight institutions. These are public bodies, politically neutral and independent from the three main branches of government, whose purpose is to ensure the integrity—and improve the quality and resilience—of democratic governance.
When elections take place in countries transitioning from authoritarianism to democracy, from deep political crises to stability, or from war to peace, their significance is greater than usual.