DOCSLIB.ORG

Constitutional Reform in Times of Transition Constitutional Reform in Times of Transition

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Constitutional Reform in Times of Transition Constitutional Reform in Times of Transition CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM IN TIMES OF TRANSITION CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM IN TIMES OF TRANSITION EDITORS ÁLVARO VASCONCELOS GERALD STANG BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM IN TIMES OF TRANSITION EDITORS ÁLVARO VASCONCELOS GERALD STANG © 2014 Arab Reform Initiative. All Rights Reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the Arab Reform Initiative. Arab Reform Initiative 71 rue Fondary, Paris 75015, France Arab Reform Initiative c/o The Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, Sadat Tower, Tenth floor, PO Box 55-215, Leon Street, Ras Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon www.arab-reform.net The Arab Reform Initiative does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented in this publica- tion do not necessarily reflect the views of the Arab Reform Initiative. Any statement, opinion or view in relation to any person or organisation which is not specifically attributed to the Arab Reform Initiative may not necessarily reflect that of the Arab Reform Initiative. Composition by Metropolis Design Partners Cover image (Tab59) Flickr Translation by Wael Sawah ISBN 979-10-93214-00-9 May 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS 06 FOREWORD BASSMA KODMANI 08 INTRODUCTION: PRIORITISING THE LEGITIMACY OF THE PROCESS ÁLVARO VASCONCELOS 15 CHAPTER SUMMARIES 20 THE MAKING OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION RADHA KUMAR SOUTHERN EUROPE IN THE 1970S 26 LOCAL AND REGIONAL GOVERNANCE IN THE PORTUGUESE CONSTITUTION: A CASE STUDY IN DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION EDUARDO CABRITA 37 CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM AND CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS IN SPAIN NARCIS SERRA LATIN AMERICA STARTING IN THE 1980S 46 BRAZIL: THE CONSTITUTION-MAKING PROCESS AND THE POLITICAL SYSTEM PEDRO DALLARI 54 CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM PROCESSES IN LATIN AMERICA: KEY ISSUES OF COMPARATIVE INTEREST ALEXANDRA BARAHONA DE BRITO CENTRAL EUROPE IN THE 1990S 70 CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA DENISA SARAJLIC-MAGLIC THE ARAB WORLD TODAY 76 ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS IN THE NEW TUNISIAN CONSTITUTION AZZAM MAHJOUB AND SALWA HAMROUNI 82 THE EGYPTIAN CONSTITUTION: PROCEDURAL PROBLEMS AND A CRISIS OF CONTENT AMR EL-SHOBAKI 97 WRITING THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION: BETWEEN SOCIAL CONTRACT AND POLITICAL CONTRACTING YASMINE FAROUK 113 CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM: THE CASE OF SYRIA NAEL GEORGES CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM IN TIMES OF TRANSITION FOREWORD BASSMA KODMANI EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE ARAB REFORM INITIATIVE This collection of essays offers narratives of constitutional moments in eight different countries. They present a wide spectrum of experiences from nations with diverse social, political and cultural histories: from Latin America to Southern Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Constitutional Reform in Times of Transition is part of the larger Arab Reform Initiative project, Living Constitutions. The proj- ect focuses on knowledge building and policy dialogues with diverse voices to foster awareness that a constitution is a living document owned by the citizenry, from the drafting phase to the imple- mentation, and needs periodic amendment to adapt to changing realities in a democratic system. The drafting of a constitution mobilizes political, social, economic forces, as well as the groups with coercive power on the ground (military and security institutions). All groups are aware that the re- sulting document will lay the foundations for governing relations between social, ethnic, religious, cultural and regional communities, between men and women, and between social classes and in- terest groups. But a constitution is only step one in a democratic transition. In the aftermath of the drafting process, societies discover that the constitution is only one body of laws which, though essential for framing key issues and defining a path, is a mere first step. Many laws that follow are also important in their capacity to affect the political and social system and relations between state and society. As Álvaro Vasconcelos indicates in his introduction, and as the country studies illustrate, the con- stitution-drafting process is a transformative exercise. Some groups, especially those that triggered the political transition, enter the process thinking they have a blank slate before them. As the pro- cess unfolds, they realize that they need to reconcile opposing interests and accommodate differ- ent traditions, beliefs, principles and values. They learn that compromising to build consensus is the most precious part of themselves that they need to nurture. The outcome is invariably very dif- ferent from what was sought at the start. The best indicator of a successful constitutional process is when it transforms the actors themselves. In effect, many admit that it is a rich learning process for them. Living Constitutions draws on several projects conducted by the Arab Reform Initiative over the last eight years. A first project was conducted in Egypt in the immediate aftermath of the 2011 revolu- tion when the process of constitution-drafting was still in its first phase. The studies and dialogues organized then were among the first efforts to involve multiple stakeholders in the discussion of the drafting process. 6 BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM IN TIMES OF TRANSITION Prior to the Arab revolutions, the Critical Dialogue project led to a sustained dialogue over two years between political forces with different ideological backgrounds on state and religion, freedom of expression, the rights of women, minority rights and social agendas of political parties. Representa- tives of political forces sought to develop common ground and explore ways of building coalitions to oppose authoritarian regimes. These were the very same actors who participated two years later in the constitution drafting processes in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen. Another ARI project is the multi-country project entitled Governance of Diversity launched in 2010. It addresses the critical issue of ethnic, religious and cultural diversity within Arab societies and sets the issue at the centre of state responsibilities. It designates diversity as a criterion for good governance and identifies benchmarks for ensuring sound management of diversity through con- stitutional provisions, laws, institutions and public policies. Last but not least, the project entitled Securitocracies and Security Sector Reform in the Arab World tackled the very nature of the authoritarian systems and shed light on the importance of enshrining basic democratic principles to govern the security sector in the constitution. These different lines of work over the years seemed to converge when the constitutional debates began to engage multiple actors in the aftermath of the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen. Other perspectives were also brought in, including those engaged in a gradual process of constitu- tional reform, such as Morocco, and Syrian opposition groups concerned with the future constitu- tion for a democratic Syria. The Arab Reform Initiative, as a process driven organization, remains committed to Living Constitu- tions for Arab citizens building their democratic environment. I would like to thank the Ford Foundation in Cairo, the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa, the Open Society Foundations in Amman and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund for making this project possible. BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS 7 CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM IN TIMES OF TRANSITION INTrodUCTION: PRIORITISING THE LEGITIMACY OF THE proCESS BY ÁLVARO VASCONCELOS “Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people” Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War The Arab Reform Initiative (ARI) conducted a project entitled Living Constitutions which addressed constitutional reform in times of democratic transition with the goal of contributing to the debates on democratic consolidation in the Arab world. The project used comparative analysis to address both substantive constitutional issues and the processes of constitution building. The work was enriched by a research conference in Ankara, Turkey organised in cooperation with the Economic Policy Re- search Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV). This text is intended as an introduction to the project, collect- ing a number of basic ideas from the individual country papers, the 2012 kick-off conference in Ankara and discussions about the main findings at follow-up meetings in Tunis and Cairo. The project was directed by Álvaro Vasconcelos with the assistance of Gerald Stang. One of the most important and polarising topics for the on-going democratic transitions in the Arab world has been the process of creating new constitutions. Constitutional processes can be especially important for democratic transitions because they are critical in the construction of national con- sensus and democratic political legitimacy, particularly after a revolution. Comparative analysis of different constitutional processes can enrich the debate in counties going through these processes. At the time of publishing, Tunisia had just achieved its goal of finalising a democratic constitution. It was approved with wide political consensus and is considered quite advanced on commitment to international norms guaranteeing human rights, women’s rights, the protection of religious freedom, freedom of conscience and social rights. Each democratic transition is unique and lessons may be learned from studying multiple cases. The project studied democratic transitions in southern Europe in the
Load more

Recommended publications
  • History of Djibouti
    History of Djibouti Nomadic herds people have inhabited the territory now belonging to Djibouti for millennia. The Issas and the Afars, the nation’s two major ethnic groups today, lived there when Arab traders introduced Islam to the area in the ninth century AD. Arabs at the port of Adal at Zeila (in modern-day Somalia) controlled the region until Adal’s collapse in 1543.Small Afar sultanates at Obock, Tadjoura, and elsewhere then emerged as the dominant powers. Frenchman Rochet d’Hericourt’s 1839 to 1842 exploration into Shoa marked the beginning of French interest in the region. Hoping to counter British influence on the other side of the Gulf of Aden, the French signed a treaty with the Afar sultan of Obock to establish a port in 1862. This led to the formation of French Somaliland in 1888. The construction of the Franco-Ethiopian Railway from Djibouti City to Ethiopia began in 1897 and finally reached Addis Ababa in 1917. The railroad opened up the interior of French Somaliland, which in1946 was given the status of an overseas French territory. By the 1950s, the Issas (a Somali clan) began to support the movement for the independence and unification of the region’s three Somali-populated colonies: French, British, and Italian Somaliland. In 1960, British and Italian Somaliland were granted independence and united to form the nation of Somalia, but France retained its hold on French Somaliland. When French president Charles de Gaulle visited French Somaliland in August 1966, he was met with two days of protests. The French announced that a referendum on independence would be held but also arrested independence leaders and expelled their supporters.
    [Show full text]
  • Looters Vs. Traitors: the Muqawama (“Resistance”) Narrative, and Its Detractors, in Contemporary Mauritania Elemine Ould Mohamed Baba and Francisco Freire
    Looters vs. Traitors: The Muqawama (“Resistance”) Narrative, and its Detractors, in Contemporary Mauritania Elemine Ould Mohamed Baba and Francisco Freire Abstract: Since 2012, when broadcasting licenses were granted to various private television and radio stations in Mauritania, the controversy around the Battle of Um Tounsi (and Mauritania’s colonial past more generally) has grown substantially. One of the results of this unprecedented level of media freedom has been the prop- agation of views defending the Mauritanian resistance (muqawama in Arabic) to French colonization. On the one hand, verbal and written accounts have emerged which paint certain groups and actors as French colonial power sympathizers. At the same time, various online publications have responded by seriously questioning the very existence of a structured resistance to colonization. This article, drawing pre- dominantly on local sources, highlights the importance of this controversy in study- ing the western Saharan region social model and its contemporary uses. African Studies Review, Volume 63, Number 2 (June 2020), pp. 258– 280 Elemine Ould Mohamed Baba is Professor of History and Sociolinguistics at the University of Nouakchott, Mauritania (Ph.D. University of Provence (Aix- Marseille I); Fulbright Scholar resident at Northwestern University 2012–2013), and a Senior Research Consultant at the CAPSAHARA project (ERC-2016- StG-716467). E-mail: [email protected] Francisco Freire is an Anthropologist (Ph.D. Universidade Nova de Lisboa 2009) at CRIA–NOVA FCSH (Lisbon, Portugal). He is the Principal Investigator of the European Research Council funded project CAPSAHARA: Critical Approaches to Politics, Social Activism and Islamic Militancy in the Western Saharan Region (ERC-2016-StG-716467).
    [Show full text]
  • RECORDS CODIFICATION MANUAL Prepared by the Office Of
    RECORDS CODIFICATION MANUAL Prepared by The Office of Communications and Records Department of State (Adopted January 1, 1950—Revised January 1, 1955) I I CLASSES OF RECORDS Glass 0 Miscellaneous. I Class 1 Administration of the United States Government. Class 2 Protection of Interests (Persons and Property). I Class 3 International Conferences, Congresses, Meetings and Organizations. United Nations. Organization of American States. Multilateral Treaties. I Class 4 International Trade and Commerce. Trade Relations, Treaties, Agreements. Customs Administration. Class 5 International Informational and Educational Relations. Cultural I Affairs and Programs. Class 6 International Political Relations. Other International Relations. I Class 7 Internal Political and National Defense Affairs. Class 8 Internal Economic, Industrial and Social Affairs. 1 Class 9 Other Internal Affairs. Communications, Transportation, Science. - 0 - I Note: - Classes 0 thru 2 - Miscellaneous; Administrative. Classes 3 thru 6 - International relations; relations of one country with another, or of a group of countries with I other countries. Classes 7 thru 9 - Internal affairs; domestic problems, conditions, etc., and only rarely concerns more than one I country or area. ' \ \T^^E^ CLASS 0 MISCELLANEOUS 000 GENERAL. Unclassifiable correspondence. Crsnk letters. Begging letters. Popular comment. Public opinion polls. Matters not pertaining to business of the Department. Requests for interviews with officials of the Department. (Classify subjectively when possible). Requests for names and/or addresses of Foreign Service Officers and personnel. Requests for copies of treaties and other publications. (This number should never be used for communications from important persons, organizations, etc.). 006 Precedent Index. 010 Matters transmitted through facilities of the Department, .1 Telegrams, letters, documents.
    [Show full text]
  • Alphabetique Des Sujets
    CONTENTS FOREWORD ................................................................................................................. 2 SUBJECT ALPHABETICAL INDEX ..................................................................................... 3 Geographical divisions .............................................................................................................. 47 Formal divisions ........................................................................................................................ 53 SUBJECT SYSTEMATIC CLASSIFICATION ....................................................................... 55 General works ........................................................................................................................... 56 Philosophy and psychology ....................................................................................................... 57 Religion ..................................................................................................................................... 58 Social sciences ......................................................................................................................... 59 Politics ...................................................................................................................................... 60 Economics ................................................................................................................................ 62 Law ..........................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Abdallahi Ibn Muhammad, 139 Abdelhafid, Sultan of Morocco, 416
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-48382-7 — Learning Empire Erik Grimmer-Solem Index More Information INDEX Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, 139 extension services, 395 Abdelhafid, sultan of Morocco, 416 horticulture, 47 Abdul Hamid II, sultan of the Ottoman Landflucht, 43 Empire, 299 livestock, 43, 55, 72, 229, 523, 564 Abyssinia, 547 maize, 155, 229 acclimatization question. See tropics milling, 70, 240 Achenbach, Heinrich, 80–81 oil seeds, 55 Adams, Henry, 32, 316 peasants, 55–56, 184, 272–73, 275, Adana, 363, 365 427, 429, 433, 559–60 Addams, Jane, 70 reforms of, 429 Addis Ababa, 547 rice, 88, 105, 529 Aden, 87, 139, 245, 546 rubber, 408–9, 412, 414, 416, 421, Adenauer, Konrad, 602 426, 445 Adrianople, 486, 491 rye, 55, 273, 279, 522, 525 Afghanistan, 120, 176, 324 sugar, 55, 78, 155, 204, 380, 385, Africa, German 411–12, 416, 423, 445 See also Cameroon, East Africa; tea, 412 Herero and Nama wars; Maji tobacco, 76, 152, 204, 379–80, Maji rebellion; Southwest 412–14, 416, 423, 445 Africa; Togo wheat, 43, 46–47, 49–50, 53, 55, 59, Agadir Crisis (1911), 376, 406, 416–17, 69, 71, 229, 520, 522, 525, 528, 437, 456–57, 479, 486, 500 561, 579 Agrarian League (Bund der Landwirte), See also colonial science; cotton 469, 471, 473, 477 industry; inner colonization; agriculture rubber industry; sugar industry; barley, 47, 55, 523 tobacco industry cacao, 152, 155 Ahmad bin Abd Allah, Muhammad, 139 coconuts, 218 Alabama, 378 coffee, 145, 152, 155, 204, 273, 412 See also Calhoun Colored School; copra, 218 Tuskegee Institute cotton, 67, 74–75, 151, 158, 204,
    [Show full text]
  • The Haratin and the Mauritanian Roadmap to Combat Slavery
    A Roadmap To Where? The Haratin and the Mauritanian Roadmap to Combat Slavery UNREPRESENTED NATIONS AND PEOPLES WORKSHOP LEWIS & CLARK LAW SCHOOL PORTLAND, OREGON Disclaimer This report is not intended to be legal advice to any person or entity. The report is a scholarly analysis of the legal issues involved in the report prepared by law students studying law at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. The authors are not licensed to practice law in the United States or any other country. Any person or entity who reads the report should consult his or her own legal counsel for legal advice. A ROADMAP TO WHERE? The Haratin and the Mauritanian Roadmap to Combat the Aftermath of Slavery Editors: Shannon Garcia Samantha MacBeth Contributors: Aaron Baxter Shannon Garcia Christina Gonzalez Samantha MacBeth George MacDonald Jason (Jong Sun) Park Annie Szvetecz Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Workshop Lewis & Clark Law School, 2014 Table of Contents Preface............................................................................................................................................. v Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................... vi Map of Mauritania ........................................................................................................................ vii SOCIALLY CHAINED BY THE “CONSEQUENCES” OF SLAVERY ..................................... 1 History of Mauritania.................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Reality: India's National Interests and Multilateralism
    Back to Reality: India’s National February 2014 Interests and Multilateralism Radha Kumar Dr. Radha Kumar is the director general of the Delhi Policy Group and a specialist in ethnic conflicts, peacemaking, and peacebuilding. A senior fellow in peace and conflict studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York from 1999 to 2003, Dr. Kumar has also been executive director of the Helsinki Citizen’s Assembly in Prague and an associate fellow at the Institute for War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. She is currently on the boards of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research and the Foundation for Communal Harmony (India). Dr. Kumar is a member of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific and an associate fellow of the Asia Society in New York. She was one of three of the government of India’s interlocutors for Jammu and Kashmir. Dr. Kumar holds a Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi and an M.A. and B.A. from Cambridge University, United Kingdom. Achal Malhotra Ambassador Achal Malhotra is the former director of planning at the Delhi Policy Group and a former member of the Indian Foreign Service. Indian foreign service officer, Ambassador Malhotra held important assignments at headquarters as well as at Indian missions abroad. His last few assignments include ambassador to Armenia and Georgia, dual charge as deputy per- manent representative to the United Nations and International Organizations in Vienna, and deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Vienna. Ten years ago, the United States and other great players viewed begun to breed cynicism, and the economic downturn that India’s potential global role with excitement.
    [Show full text]
  • Mr. António Costa, Prime Minister of Portugal Rua Da Imprensa, No
    Mr. António Costa, Prime Minister of Portugal Rua da Imprensa, no. 2 – Estrela 1250 – 126 Lisboa Portugal Brussels, 13.08.2020 Subject: Crew changes in Covid-19 times – Save our Seafarers, call for action Dear Prime Minister, We, the European and international social partners for maritime transport together with our maritime partners, would like to thank you for the efforts Portugal is making to facilitate crew changes. We however call for more to be done to relieve seafarers and facilitate crew changes, which are currently happening at a rate of only 30% of what is needed. Over a quarter of a million seafarers currently need to be relieved, and this number rises with every week that passes. Some of these seafarers have now spent 15 months or more continuously on board. An equal number are awaiting to join ships. This is a humanitarian crisis that must be solved in order to protect seafarers that have been on ships for far too long. We are also concerned that any interruption to the flow of trade could have devastating consequences for the recovery phase. We acknowledge that all stakeholders in the industry, as well as IMO, ILO and the European Commission, have been working ceaselessly over the past months to enable crew changes to happen. While we welcome all these actions, we consider it is now time for the immediate involvement of the Heads of States and Governments. We are therefore writing to EU Member States at the highest political level in order to call for urgent action nationally and in partnership with other countries.
    [Show full text]
  • (CMF) and the Djibouti Code of Conduct (DCOC) Aimed at Maintaining Maritime Security in the Area of the Western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden
    World Maritime University The Maritime Commons: Digital Repository of the World Maritime University World Maritime University Dissertations Dissertations 11-3-2020 A comparative study of the Combined Maritime Force (CMF) and the Djibouti Code of Conduct (DCOC) aimed at maintaining maritime security in the area of the western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden Abdullah Mohammed Mubaraki Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.wmu.se/all_dissertations Part of the Defense and Security Studies Commons, and the Law of the Sea Commons Recommended Citation Mubaraki, Abdullah Mohammed, "A comparative study of the Combined Maritime Force (CMF) and the Djibouti Code of Conduct (DCOC) aimed at maintaining maritime security in the area of the western Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden" (2020). World Maritime University Dissertations. 1386. https://commons.wmu.se/all_dissertations/1386 This Dissertation is brought to you courtesy of Maritime Commons. Open Access items may be downloaded for non-commercial, fair use academic purposes. No items may be hosted on another server or web site without express written permission from the World Maritime University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WORLD MARITIME UNIVERSITY Malmö, Sweden A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE COMBINED MARITIME FORCE (CMF) AND THE DJIBOUTI CODE OF CONDUCT (DCOC) AIMED AT MAINTAINING MARITIME SECURITY IN THE AREA OF THE WESTERN INDIAN OCEAN AND THE GULF OF ADEN By ABDULLAH MOHAMMED MUBARAKI KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA A dissertation submitted to the World Maritime University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the reward of the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in MARITIME AFFAIRS (MARITIME SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ADMINISTRATION) 2020 Copyright Abdullah Mubaraki, 2020 Declaration I certify that all the material in this dissertation that is not my own work has been identified, and that no material is included for which a degree has previously been conferred on me.
    [Show full text]
  • State of Play of EU-Mauritania Relations
    DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR EXTERNAL POLICIES POLICY DEPARTMENT IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS State of play of EU-Mauritania relations ABSTRACT Mauritania, an important ally of the EU in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel, faces several inter-related development challenges: ensuring an efficient use of the revenue derived from natural resources, economic diversification and improved governance. The severity of these development challenges is increased by difficult political relations between the three main ethnic groups in the country, the dominant group being the Arab-Berber Bidhan. They constitute less than one-third of the country’s population, but dominate economically and politically. The Haratin, the largest group in the country, is made up of descendants of black Africans enslaved by the Bidhan (freed or still enslaved). The third group in the country is the West Africans or Black Mauritanians. Mauritania’s post- independence history is marked by repeated attempts by this group to assert its non-Arab identity and claim for a more equitable share of political and economic power. The tension that these divisions create is a problem in itself, but they can also be appropriated by violent Islamist insurgencies in the region. The urgency of this challenge is further complicated by the likelihood of increased climate change effects that the country is currently not adequately prepared for. This study therefore discusses the main political, economic and development challenges that contemporary Mauritania is faced with, illustrating how these challenges can only be properly grasped with consideration to their historical evolution. Based on this, the study investigates the current basis for EU-Mauritania relations and suggests a select number of policy areas for consideration, as this relationship continues to evolve around issues of mutual concern such as security and development.
    [Show full text]
  • Memorandum on Combating Racism and Violence Against Women in Portugal
    Country Memorandum Memorandum on combating racism and violence against women in Portugal 1. The memorandum was prepared on the basis of regular monitoring work by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights (hereinafter, “the Commissioner”) and online exchanges held with representatives of the Portuguese authorities and of civil society organisations between 15 and 17 December 2020, replacing a country visit initially planned for November 2020, which had to be postponed owing to COVID-19-related constraints.1 2. The memorandum addresses the increasing level of racism and the persistence of related discrimination in the country and the response of the Portuguese authorities to this situation. It also covers the persistent problem of violence against women and domestic violence and the measures taken by the Portuguese authorities to combat such phenomena. 3. Online exchanges included meetings with the Minister of Justice, Francisca Van Dunem; the Minister of State and of Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva; the Minister of State and for the Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva; the State Secretary for Citizenship and Equality, Rosa Monteiro; the High Commissioner for Migration, Sónia Pereira; the President of the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality, Sandra Ribeiro; and the Minister of Internal Administration, Eduardo Cabrita. In addition, the Commissioner held talks with the Ombuds, Maria Lucia Amaral, and meetings with representatives of several civil society organisations. The Commissioner would like to express her appreciation to the Portuguese authorities in Strasbourg and in Lisbon for their kind assistance in organising and facilitating her meetings with officials. She is grateful to all the people in Portugal she spoke to for sharing their views, knowledge and insights.
    [Show full text]
  • (Governo Define Limita\347\365Es De Desloca\347\343O E
    Notícias Página Inicial > Comunicação > Notícias 2020-03-19 às 18h05 Governo define limitações de deslocação e iniciativa económica O Primeiro-Ministro, António Costa, afirmou que a reunião do Conselho de Ministros «concentrou-se exclusivamente na elaboração de um decreto de regulamentação das limitações dos direitos de deslocação e da liberdade de iniciativa económica», na sequência da entrada em vigor do estado de emergência. O decreto será publicado posteriormente. António Costa marcou presença na conferência de imprensa acompanhado pelos membros do Governo que constituem o gabinete de crise: os Ministros de Estado Pedro Siza Vieira, Augusto Santos Silva, Mariana Vieira da Silva, e Mário Centeno, e os Ministros da Defesa Nacional, João Gomes Cravinho, da Administração Interna, Eduardo Cabrita, da Saúde, Marta Temido, e das Infraestruturas e da Habitação, Pedro Nuno Santos. Em conferência de imprensa após a reunião, o Primeiro-Ministro referiu que foram tidas em conta duas prioridades essenciais: «Assegurar a máxima contenção e o mínimo de perturbação». Direitos de deslocação António Costa diferenciou as limitações aos direitos de deslocação em três situações: as pessoas que estão doentes ou em situação de vigilância ativa, as pessoas que constam de grupos de risco e a restante população. Ao primeiro grupo «fica imposto o isolamento obrigatório, seja por internamento hospitalar ou por internamento domiciliário, constituindo crime de desobediência a violação desta norma». Às pessoas que constam de grupos de risco, «designadamente com mais de 70 anos ou com morbilidades» (doenças, nomeadamente, graves), «é imposto um dever especial de proteção, pelo qual só devem sair das suas residências em circunstâncias muito excecionais e quando estritamente necessárias, para assegurar ou a aquisição de bens, ou para ir ao banco, aos correios ou aos centros de saúde, pequenos passeios higiénicos, ou para passear animais de companhia».
    [Show full text]