Chile’s new constitutional draft presents opportunity to exalt rights of indigenous people

The process of creating Chile's new constitution has ended as the final votes were held by the 154-member, gender-equal constitutional convention. As the draft was finalised, the delegates hugged each other and cheered at the former Congress building in Santiago, The Guardian reported. The draft constitution will be formally presented at a ceremony on 4 July. 

After the draft's formal presentation, all the people of Chile aged 18 or above will vote in a nationwide plebiscite on 4 September to either accept the draft constitution or reject it. As per The Guardian report, the new draft constitution will make the state responsible for providing services, ensuring social and cultural rights as well as guaranteeing gender parity in the government and public sector. The new draft also proposes a path for the autonomy of Chile's Indigenous peoples, who were promised to have representation in the constitutional convention. The process of drafting the new constitution involved negotiations and occasional bitter infighting for a year. 

The drafting of the new constitution moves Chile away from the current constitution, which was written without democratic input by a group of the dictator General Augusto Pinochet's close aides. Tiare Aguilera, a delegate representing Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, called it "fitting" to end the process like this and stressed the process of drafting the new constitution involved tight deadlines and a lot of uncertainty as they tried to address the "turbulent political process" of Chile. 

Nearly 80% people of Chile voted for a new constitution

Even though the process of replacing the constitution began long back, however, the process gained momentum in 2019 when millions of Chileans took to the streets to express their discontent over the political forces that were governing them, as per the news report. The movement resulted in a peace accord which had Chile President Gabriel Boric as a signatory. Around 80% people of Chile voted to draft a new constitution in a nationwide plebiscite held on 25 October 2020. The process to draft the constitution involved the participation of citizens to endorse articles and debate legislation at assemblies.

Image: AP