Chile: Social cohesion and gender equality at the centre of the future constitution

On 25 October 2020, following a year of social and political protests in Chile, an overwhelming majority (78%) of Chilean citizens decided to give the country a new Constitution. It will replace the current basic law adopted under Alfonso Pinochet (1973-1990). This extensive democratic project now underway is also an opportunity to carry out a model process that could become an international reference.

In this context, Expertise France – via the Gender equality policies component of the EUROsociAL+ programme funded by the European Union – will support Chile’s constitutional process by developing specific activities with national institutions and the academic community in the country.

“Chile-EU Dialogues”: exchanging experiences on both sides of the Atlantic

A cycle of debates, the “Chile-EU Dialogues”, has already been launched through the Chilean National Library of Congress and the Delegation of the European Union to Chile. This cycle is central to the “Chile-European Union Forum” initiative, which aims to facilitate exchanges of experience on both sides of the Atlantic on constitutional processes and the common elements in the constitutions of European Union Member States, in particular in terms of social cohesion, access to a social protection system and the establishment of a sustainable development model.

Expertise France, through EUROsociAL+, will also participate in the organisation of conferences on gender, mini-courses on the constitutional process and the establishment of a system to support women candidates for the Constitutional Convention.

Social cohesion as a cornerstone of Chile’s new Magna Carta

The “Chile-EU Dialogues” webinars are based on six panel discussions and are launching the roadmap for the support from EUROsociAL+ to Chile’s constitutional process. The objective of the discussions is to identify the crucial issues faced by all constitutional processes today and address the key issues in the public debate in Chile.

During the opening ceremony of the series of webinars, the speakers – including Adriana Muñoz, President of the Senate of Chile, León de la Torre Krais, EU Ambassador to Chile and Diego Paulsen, President of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile – outlined the key milestones of the next stages in the constitutional process:

• The election of a Constitutional Convention;(1)

• The drafting of the new text;(2)

• The approval or rejection of the new basic law by referendum.(3)

One of the major challenges identified has been the need to strengthen social cohesion in the new text. In this respect, Josep Borrell, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said “We all [European Union Member States] have a strong common denominator: we have a socioeconomic model that ensures a high level of social cohesion (...) We would like to work together in these spaces for dialogue to redefine the current [Chilean] model based on the extensive experience of our European Union.”
 

The first panel discussion, which was held on 21 January 2021, focused on the constitutional process, democratic principles, citizen participation and political parity. During this session, Senator Isabel Allende said “The new Constitution will necessarily have to adopt a gender perspective and move towards a parity democracy.” She immediately added that “The Convention already has this characteristic” and that “gender inequalities (…) result from an arbitrary cultural construction that must be changed.”
 

Five other panel discussions will be organised: the second will look at social protection models, one of the focus areas of the entire process. The third will refer to economic, environmental and technological development and sustainability. The following one will concern the institutional order and the forms of State and government. The fifth discussion will be based on gender as a cross-cutting issue. Finally, the last panel discussion will look at fundamental freedoms, which are the very essence of all Constitutions.

During these various debates, a number of both successful and, on the contrary, less successful European examples will be presented. The ultimate objective is to provide models, ideas, arguments and European experiences that may prove useful and relevant in the case of Chile, whose Constitution will be “unprecedented by its citizen, parity-based and inclusive nature” – as stated by the President of the Senate of Chile, Adriana Muñoz, during the opening ceremony of the seminar cycle.
 

Towards the establishment of a parity-based and inclusive Constitutional Assembly

The text of Chile’s new constitution will be drafted by a Constitutional Convention, i.e. an Assembly whose members will be fully elected by the people on 11 April 2021. The next stage will begin in May 2021 with the start of the work of the Constitutional Convention. It will last for an initial period of nine months, with an extension, if necessary, for a maximum of twelve months.

The Convention will be composed of indigenous peoples and will necessarily be parity-based, thereby demonstrating the importance that Chile attaches to gender equality. It will be tasked with translating into action the hopes for change, which are in particular supported by Chilean feminist movements and trade unionists. In this respect, during the opening ceremony of this cycle of conferences, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borell, said that the EU “will help to create broad spaces for dialogue within the framework of this process, which […] will culminate in a new Constitution, the result of extensive political and economic, intergenerational and territorial consensus.”  
  

EUROsociAL+ working alongside Chile

The Ministry of Women and Gender Equality and certain universities in Chile have requested support from the EUROsociAL+ programme to more effectively mainstream gender issues in a cross-cutting manner into the process to create Chile’s new constitution.

Firstly, the ministry is planning to organise consultation meetings next March with women candidates for the Constitutional Assembly. On this occasion, EUROsociAL+ will mobilise European and/or Latin American experts to share experience and reflection that can make an effective contribution to mainstreaming the gender approach into the future constitution.

Secondly, EUROsociAL+, in partnership with a series of Chilean universities, will contribute to the organisation of debates in the form of nine mini-courses. The objective? Promote an informed debate between citizens on issues related to the constitutional process: education, health, employment, regional planning, decentralisation, the political regime, water resources management and gender.

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