GI-ESCR and Chilean partners enhance participation and inclusion in the constitutional process through native-language material

GI-ESCR, Consti TU+YO and Ahora Nos Toca Participar have developed joint material explaining the fundamentals of the constitutional process in accessible language and in 4 indigenous languages Aymara, Mapuzungun and Rapa Nui, as well as Creole, in order to raise awareness on the constitution process in the most inclusive manner.

The documents, created with the support of the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), explain what the fundamental elements and the importance of the constitutional process, in a way accessible to all audiences.

This training material will be used by our local partner Ahora nos Toca Participar in various civil-society participation workshops that will be held in the coming months throughout the country.

December 2020 was a milestone in the Chilean constituent process. Congress passed a law that allowed 17 seats to be reserved for indigenous peoples in the constitutional convention.

For the first time in Chilean history, the participation of indigenous peoples in national decision-making will be made official.

Seven of these seats will be occupied by representatives of the Mapuche people, two seats by the Aymara people and one by the Rapa Nui people. The remaining seven seats will be distributed among seven other indigenous peoples.

 This citizenship training material could potentially impact 1.9 million people who claim to belong to the Mapuche, Aymara and Rapa Nui peoples.

The material also aims at encouraging the 185,000 people who have migrated from Haiti to Chile in recent years and whose mother tongue is Creole to participate in the constitutional process;