Government to hold seminar on international examples of constitution writing process

Barcelona (CNA).- Different experiences in which citizens had a key role in writing new constitutions will be analysed in a seminar organised by the Catalan Department for Foreign Affairs, International Relations and Transparency. The seminar, which will consist of eight sessions, will be open to the general public and be hosted at the Barcelona Centre of Contemporary Culture (CCCB). The first session, scheduled on the 9^th of March, will focus on the current trends of citizen participation in constitutive process while the others will share recent experiences in this field which took place in different countries in Europe and Latin America. In particular, the initiative will analyse the cases of Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile.

According to the Department for Foreign Affairs, International Relations and Transparency the aim of the seminar is not only to share recent experiences which took place in different parts of the world but also to focus on the most innovative examples of citizen participation in writing new constitutions.

The seminar will allow the general public to have a deeper understanding of what constitutive processes are and what the citizens’ role in designing new constitutional frameworks is. Thus, the initiative will present different methodologies and analyse the debate meeting points which allowed citizens in other countries to discuss different political projects, beyond their parliaments.

Moreover, the seminar aims to study concepts such as high-quality democracy, direct participative processes, citizen deliberation and using Information and Communication Technologies for democratic purposes.

The closing session, on the 15^th of March, will include the participation of the Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva.