Constitutional Review and Implementation Oversight Committee completes internal review of the Somali Provisional Constitution
From the 27th of May to 4th of June the Max Planck Foundation facilitated a working retreat for the Constitutional Review and Implementation Oversight Committee of the Somali Federal Parliament (The Oversight Committee). The Oversight Committee has the critical task of preparing and guiding the Somali constitutional review process.
The specific objective of this retreat was to finalise the comprehensive review of the Somali Provisional Constitution. The Oversight Committee considered, discussed and identified issues and problems in the provisional constitutional text and then proceeded to develop concrete suggestions for constitutional adjustments and amendments for the remaining seven chapters under consideration.
Completing the internal review of the entire Provisional Constitution represents an important milestone in the work of the Oversight Committee and enables the Committee, together with national partner institutions, to undertake the next phase of the constitutional review process. The Oversight Committee was joined by legal experts and research fellows from Max Planck Foundation’s Sub-Saharan Africa team who provided facilitation and substantive comparative options on the many legal questions raised during the review process.
The retreat also offered a useful opportunity to formulate the next steps to be taken by the Oversight Committee to progress the constitutional review process further. Following discussions, the Oversight Committee adopted a working plan detailing its activities in the next phase. The working plan will guide the Committee and will be presented to the Office of the Speaker, colleagues in the Somali Federal Parliament and partner institutions in Mogadishu.
The Max Planck Foundation will continue to provide technical assistance and capacity building to the Oversight Committee under the ongoing project funded by the European Union.