Chile Constitutional Updates (Oct. 1, 2021)
Chile's Constitutional Convention approved its general procedural rules this week, and advanced in approving commission rules.
Delegates approved a rule that requires two-thirds approval for constitutional norms, despite an attempt by leftist coalitions and Indigenous delegates to lower the requirement to three-fifths. Tellingly, the measure was passed by simple majority -- it obtained 96 votes, below the 106 threshold that constitutional norms will now have to reach. The norm will force factions to reach agreements in order to pass constitutional norms, as no group has a supra majority.
However, next week delegates will decide whether to include a bylaw that would permit Chileans to weigh in -- vía plebiscite -- on measures that don't reach that threshold, but obtain more than three-fifths support.
(La Bot Constituyente, La Tercera, CNN)
As delegates embark on the meat of their task, the convention is starting to become more moderate, according to The Economist, which highlights "a broad dealmaking nucleus that is starting to emerge. They are likely to become increasingly influential as the convention grapples with the big issues." Among these issues is likely to be a list of constitutional rights that include pensions and housing; a possible move to a semi-parliamentary system; and, likely, stricter environmental standards.
Delegates approved a list of topics that commissions must cover moving forward, an important indicator of the new constitution's likely priorities, reports La Bot Constituyente. They include: plurinationality and free determination of Indigenous peoples, approval and recall referendums, right to reparation for victims of human rights violations committed by government agents, right to sport, right to water and the constitutional statute of water, digital rights, good life, glaciar and cryosphere statute, and the right to participate in cultural life, among others.
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Former Brazilian environment minister Marina Silva discusses feminist lessons for policy making, like Amazon protection program she developed in collaboration with rainforest stakeholders, that continued after her tenure because "it had an intrinsic force, a life of its own, it was operated by many hands and supported by adequate, transparent and easily accessible legal frameworks and institutional processes." She urges Chile's constitutional delegates to not give up political innovation, "not to renounce the differentiated look that our individual and collective female experience gives us, to deeply understand that this experience is only legitimized with the inclusion of ethics, truth, transparency, link with society in open, inclusive processes, with “excess of democracy”." (El País)
Chile's national police fired an officer who aggressively detained Tiare Aguilera, convention delegate, who broke into her apartment after being locked out. A widely shared video on social media shows a uniformed officer violently grasping Aguilera's neck, spurring an internal Carabinero investigation. (EFE)