South Sudan women want input in the transitional constitution
May 15, 2011 (JUBA) – South Sudanese women from across the ten states of the region held a joint conference in Juba from Saturday to Sunday and demanded significant participation in the next stage of the constitutional process.
The consultative conference came a week after the draft of the transitional constitution of the would-be Republic of South Sudan was presented to the parliament for endorsement by 8 July 2011.
The document shall be signed into law by the president on 9 July 2011, the day of the official declaration of independence, and shall be the supreme law of the land for the next four years. The women raised concerns over their insignificant participation in the drafting of the document.
However, they pointed out that it was not too late for the their input in the document, before it is finally passed by the legislative body.
The director for SSWEN and one of the main organisers, Lillian Riziq, said the voice of the women could not be ignored given the fact that they are the majority in South Sudan.
Olivia Lomoro, undersecretary of the ministry of health in the Government of South Sudan (GoSS), in her statement during the conference added that women should also lobby for the key positions currently held by men at the state and GoSS level.
The draft constitution has stipulated that women shall be represented by at least 25% in government. Currently seven out of 32 (22%) GoSS ministers are women and the most senior position held by a woman is held by Awut Deng Acuil in the ministry of labour and public services.
The transitional constitution was passed in its first reading by the legislative assembly on the 7 May. It has been referred to various specialised committees in the parliament in order to study it article by article and section by section and recommend any necessary amendments necessary during the second reading.
The public is equally advised to forward to their respective constituency representatives constituencies in the parliament their views for consideration. Several other political parties have criticised the constitutional powers given to the president, including the power to fire elected governors and dissolve elected parliaments.
The document is expected to be tabled before the parliament in the first week of July for final reading.
(ST)
Lang
South Sudan women want input in the transitional constitution
Ok now it’s the women, tomorrow it will be disabled people.
monyluakkur
South Sudan women want input in the transitional constitution
The South Sudan’s women league must urge for a peaceful calm in the entirety regions:Instead they would be recognized by the Goss because they are majority in populations in the nation.The South Sudan’s women should stop asking for enough positions to be allocated to them while they would urge our South Sudan’s government for a peacful security we need in our own Country.The South Sudan’s women claim to have been given some enough posts in the Goss,but they should not really claim that they are majority, which is why they would be given what they have claimed.I don’t admit their claims rightly because they shouldn’t claim much in the national government at this momentous before we are henceforth with the transitional democracy in the South Sudan yet.Well,I can say they have right to be given some government’s positions in the States level and its Counties as well as in locals Bomas so that they should possibly learn much about the current policies of the South Sudan.Especialy,the other ethnicities women should remain sullen instead they would be fooled enough by the so called Equatorians’women who think they are the best of other tribes’women in term of educations in the South Sudan that could give some majority of their women a chance to represent any Goss positions allocated to the South Sudan’s women.