Retreat of the Constitutional Review and Implementation Oversight Committee

Max Planck Foundation facilitates another retreat to support the Somali constitutional review process

From 20 to 24 January 2019, the Max Planck Foundation facilitated the first retreat of the Somali Constitutional Review and Implementation Oversight Committee (OC) under the project “Legal Capacity Building and Technical Support for the Somali Federal Parliament” in Nairobi, Kenya. All members of the OC were in attendance, including the appointed delegates from the Federal Member States. Upon invitation of the Chairman of the OC, also four Commissioners and the Secretary General of the Independent Constitutional Review and Implementation Commission (ICRIC) and five representatives from the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs (MoCA) participated in the retreat. The UNDP Somalia Constitutional Review Support Project facilitated the attendance of two legal advisers of each, the OC and ICRIC and was represented itself at the retreat alongside a political affairs officer from UNSOM.

As per request of the OC, this retreat was organized as an internal review meeting of the comprehensive constitutional review report, which the predecessor OC had developed during the previous parliamentary term from 2012-2016. The topics which were addressed during the retreat, were “Independent Commissions”, “Civil Service”, “Public Finance”, “Peace and Security” and “Final and Transitional Provisions” as regulated in Chapters 10-15 of the Somali Provisional Constitution. The Max Planck facilitators introduced each Chapter by presenting the suggestions developed by the predecessor OC, which was followed by comments and further explanations from the ICRIC Commissioners. Afterwards the participants discussed the constitutional review suggestions and developed their own ideas on how to utilize these suggestions. On the basis of this discussion, the OC will now develop concrete drafting instructions for ICRIC to develop draft constitutional amendments for Chapters 10-15 of the Somali Provisional Constitution.