UC: Social organizations debate the results of participation in the constitutional process
Representatives of civil society organizations met with the Secretariat of Citizen Participation (SPC) to learn the details of the report that was sent to the Constitutional Council and which gathers the opinion of nearly 270,000 people regarding the preliminary draft presented by the Expert Commission.
The objective of this instance was “to return the learning and reflections that emerged from the citizen participation process so that organizations can carry out advocacy work in this constitutional process,” said Manuel Sepúlveda, in charge of alliances at the Participation Secretariat, entrusted to the University of Chile and the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. “We want to have a joint reflection to see what strategies can be developed to ensure that this citizen’s voice effectively reaches the Constitutional Council,” added Cecilia Domínguez, in charge of training.
The objective of this instance was “to return the learning, the reflections that emerged from the citizen participation process so that organizations can do advocacy work in this constitutional process” – Manuel Sepúlveda, in charge of alliances at the Participation Secretariat
Workshop for organizations
After the presentation of the data, a workshop was held where the organizations chose the most important topics for them, learned how to disseminate them in their environment and discussed how to include this information in their work.
“We have, within the draft, a section that talks about the role of teachers, so, more than seeing the contrasts, the educational mission is essential to respond to all the other challenges that arise within this process,” said Verónica Cabezas, director executive of Choose Educar , as a conclusion to the day.
Martín Corvera, director of Intelligent Citizenship projects , spoke about the challenges ahead: “From the articulation of organizations of ‘The Constitution is ours’, we managed to get ten Popular Initiatives of Norma to enter the constitutional debate through the signature and today our role is that these ten initiatives have an impact.”
“The organizations are interested in hearing precisely the results and hopefully they can push on the issues that concern them, from the citizen opinion, not only for a mere perception, but based on what we have collected from these almost 270,000 people who participated in the process” – Ignacio Irarrázaval, executive secretary of the SPC
Results return process
The executive secretary of the SPC, Ignacio Irarrázaval , evaluated the meeting as very positive, because the organizations “are interested in hearing precisely the results and hopefully they can push on the issues that concern them, from the citizen opinion, not only for one mere perception, but based on what we have collected from these almost 270,000 people who participated in the process”.
Along the same lines, Carlos Rilling, also executive secretary of the Secretariat, added that “civil society organizations are agents of participation in their own spaces, they gather ideas and channel topics of interest in this and other processes. For this reason, it is very important to us to be able to continue accompanying them from our citizen training approach to be able to close the advocacy process and that this Constitution belongs to everyone.
“Civil society organizations are agents of participation in their own spaces, they gather ideas and channel topics of interest in this and other processes. For this reason, it is very important to us to be able to continue accompanying them from our citizen training approach to be able to close the advocacy process and that this Constitution belongs to everyone.” Carlos Rilling, executive secretary SPC.
This seminar is part of the incidence stage of the Participation Secretariat, a phase in which various instances will be generated to deepen the incidence of the citizen voice with think tanks, regional universities, social organizations, concluding in September with a final seminar.