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HANDBOOK

• Foreword
• Overview
• Acknowledgments
• How to use this handbook
• Impacts of adherence to guiding principles
• Need for and purposes of this handbook
• Some emerging guiding principles
• Part 1: Introduction to constitution-making processes
• 1.1 The role of a constitution
• 1.1.1 Increase in constitutions
• 1.1.2 Importance of, but difficulty in implementing, constitutions
• 1.1.3 Constitutions as symbols and manifestos, and as legal rules
• 1.1.4 Constitutions as contracts among people or peoples
• 1.1.5 Orientation of new constitutions
• 1.1.6 Choices for constitution-makers
• 1.1.7 Constitutionalizing responsibilities and duties
• 1.2 Issues of process
• 1.2.1 Changing ideas and practices of constitution-making
• 1.2.2 Can the constitution-making process be designed?
• 1.3 Key components and issues of the constitution-making process
• 1.3.1 The importance of a design
• 1.4 Tasks and responsibilities in constitution-making
• 1.4.1 Resources
• 1.4.2 Sequencing the process
• 1.4.3 Deadlines
• 1.4.4 Agreeing on an agenda for constitutional reform
• 1.4.5 The form of the agreement
• 1.4.6 Scope of reform: Interim, minimal, or complete?
• 1.4.7 Actors and public participation
• 1.4.8 Deadlock-breaking mechanisms
• 1.4.9 Drafting the constitution
• 1.4.10 Debating the draft constitution
• 1.4.11 Enacting the constitution
• 1.4.12 Implementing the constitution
• 1.5 Assessing the impact of the constitution-making process
• 1.6 Who does what? A table
• Part 2: Tasks in a constitution-making process
• 2.1 Tasks—starting a process
• 2.1.1 The constitutional starting point
• 2.1.2 Deciding if a process is needed
• 2.1.3 Starting a process: The law and the politics
• 2.1.4 Design
• 2.1.5 Timetables
• 2.1.6 Legal basis for the design
• 2.1.7 Preparing the constitution-makers
• 2.1.8 Guiding principles for the process
• 2.1.9 Interim constitutional arrangements
• 2.1.10 Starting over when a process has “failed”
• 2.2 Public participation
• 2.2.1 Introduction to public participation issues
• 2.2.2 Preparing the public to participate: Civic education
• 2.2.3 Public consultation
• 2.2.4 Receiving and analyzing the people’s views
• 2.3 Administering and managing the process and its resources
• 2.3.1 The core tasks of administering and managing a process
• 2.3.12 “Managing” relationships with the international community
• 2.3.13 Making the rules of procedure and decision-making— when and who?
• 2.3.14 Dealing with problems in the process
• 2.3.2 Strategic and operational planning
• 2.3.3 Financial management
• 2.3.4 Personnel
• 2.3.5 Capacity development
• 2.3.6 Foreign advisers
• 2.3.7 Making a historical record of the process
• 2.3.8 Keeping records
• 2.3.9 Translation and interpretation services
• 2.3.10 Security
• 2.3.11 The media
• 2.4 The agenda of constitutional issues and generating ideas on the issues
• 2.4.1 Determining the agenda of constitutional issues
• 2.4.2 Generating ideas on the constitutional issues
• 2.5 Debating and deciding the issues
• 2.5.1 Procedures and rules for debating and deciding
• 2.5.2 Dealing with divisive issues
• 2.6 The constitutional text: Coherence and drafting
• 2.6.1 Ensuring coherence in the constitutional provisions
• 2.6.2 Drafting the constitutional text
• 2.7 Adopting and implementing the constitution
• 2.7.1 Adoption, ratification, and promulgation
• 2.7.2 Implementation
• Part 3: Institutions, groups, and procedures
• 3.1 Institutions with multiple roles
• 3.1.1 Introduction
• 3.1.2 Constitutional assemblies
• 3.1.3 National conferences
• 3.2 Institutions that develop proposals about which final decisions are made elsewhere
• 3.2.1 Parties to peace processes
• 3.2.2 The roundtable
• 3.2.3 Constitutional commissions, committees, and other specialist bodies
• 3.3 Administrative management bodies
• 3.4 Specialist or technical input institutions
• 3.4.1 Experts
• 3.4.2 Electoral management bodies
• 3.4.3 Government departments and agencies
• 3.4.4 Courts
• 3.5 Referendums and plebiscites
• 3.5.1 Approving and ratifying the constitution
• Part 4: Guide to key external actors in the process: Civil society, the media, and the international community
• 4.1 Civil society and the media
• 4.1.1 Promoting or organizing for constitutional change or reforms
• 4.1.2 Informing and educating the people about electoral issues related to constitution-making
• 4.1.3 Civic education
• 4.1.4 Public consultation
• 4.1.5 Submissions to the constitution-making body
• 4.1.6 Research
• 4.1.7 Lobbying
• 4.1.8 Monitoring a process
• 4.2 Guidance for the international community
• 4.2.1 Common pitfalls of processes led or heavily influenced by the international community
• 4.2.2 Current guidance for the international community
• Preface
• Sample codes of conduct
• Sample code of conduct for a member of a constitution-making body
• Sample code of conduct for civic education providers
• Sample of code of conduct for members of a constitution-making body consulting with the public