The body charged with making a new ‘people driven’ constitution has came under fire from civil society, notably the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and the Independent Constitution Monitoring Project (ZZZICOMP).
ZICCOMP said in a recent statement that it was worried by the lack of transparency of drafting process. But COPAC co-chairman, Douglas Mwonzora said civil society would be allowed to have input during the drafting stage of the process.
“It is not true that civil organisations have been excluded,” he said.
“We have chosen three drafters and they are Justice Chinhengo, Mrs Priscilla Madzonga and Mr Brain Crozier. The other 15 are yet to be chosen and announced.”
He said the drafting process would be open to everyone and civic society or organisations will be allowed to observe and monitor.
ZZZICOMP, which has been monitoring the process, said it would continue doing so in order to judge how democratic and transparent it was, and whether it accurately reflected the input of broad and diverse popular participation.
Civil society believes the constitution-writing process should be subject to scrutiny by members of the public so as to foster a culture of human rights and constitutionalism in Zimbabwe.
ZZZICOMP said COPAC needed to be reminded that the process was not a political process but belonged to the citizens of Zimbabwe.
“We insist on greater transparency and continue to pressure for the availability of information, monitoring of the drafting stage and other subsequent events leading to the referendum.”
Post published in: News