Foundation facilitates dialogue on draft constitutional amendments for Chapters 5 to 9 of the Somali Provisional Constitution.
The Max Planck Foundation, together with its local partner, the Somali Center for Rule of Law and Good Governance (SomLaw), supported the Somali constitutional review bodies, i.e. the Constitutional Oversight Committee (OC), the Independent Constitutional Review and Implementation Commission (ICRIC), and the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs (MoJCA) in organising and facilitating an interregional conference with representatives from the Somali Federal Member States. The conference was the second of its kind and was aimed at presenting and discussing suggestions for constitutional amendments on Chapters 5 to 9 of the Somali Provisional Constitution.
The interregional conference was held from 10 to 12 February 2025 and brought together high-level delegations from the Somali Federal Member States, which included the chairpersons and members of the Constitutional Affairs Committees of the Somali Federal Member State Legislatures, Ministers of Constitutional Affairs as well as other Ministers from the Federal Member States, the Benadir Regional Administration and SSC Khaatumo. The Second Deputy Speaker of the House of the People, Abdullahi Omar Abshirow, opened and closed the conference.
During the three-day conference, participants reviewed and commented on the draft constitutional amendments and accompanying drafting report that the ICRIC had developed on Chapters 5 to 9 of the Somali Provisional Constitution. The participating delegations, divided into working groups, discussed the proposed constitutional amendments on important topics such as the federal system, the organisation of the bicameral federal legislature, the executive, and the judiciary.
Feedback and comments from the working groups were collected and discussed in plenary and then recorded for further processing and consideration of the OC and ICRIC.
The interregional conference was held in the framework of the European Union funded project `Strengthening the Role and the Impact of the Somali Federal Parliament in the Somali Constitutional Review Process`.