Constitution Making in Nepal
The new Nepali Constitution will be based on a federal structure to address to end discrimination based on class, caste, language, gender, culture, religion and region by restructuring the centralized and unitary form of the state. However, there are serious implementation issues that need to be addressed.
For many, public consultation and inclusion are important tests of the legitimacy of the process. Perhaps even more importantly, the validity of the new Constitution will depend on how effectively it will be implemented and the degree to which it will improve common Nepali citizen’s lives.
Therefore the initiative to raise awareness by UNDP Support to Participatory Constitution Building Project (SPBCN) and Centre for Constitutional Dialogue has been important in the endeavor to make this a true People’s Constitution. The Democracy Dialogues in all the 3,915 VDCs of the country, as well as in 240 electoral constituencies, are an effort to include and educate all the citizens about the details of the CA concept papers that have been produced to-date and other contentious issues.
Nepal is going through one of the most important phases in its history, and is therefore important to document for the posterity and history the process, the debates, the discussion and the people’s participation in the drafting of a new constitution.
This film documents the process of SPCBN Democracy Dialogues and Federalism Dialogues held in different locations and convey the spirit of the process and people’s voices, their hopes and dreams in the new constitution.
