Rwanda 2003
Rwanda's new constitution is intended to prevent the resurgence of ethnic violence that devastated the country in the early 1990s. In November 2000, a 12-member Legal and Constitutional Commission was set up to draft the initial text pursuant to the Arusha Peace Accords and a law adopted in 1999. The Commission's members were selected by the transitional National Assembly to represent the country's 12 regions. The Commission carried out consultations in various parts of the country. It sponsored a national conference of 700 people to review its draft. An information campaign began in 2001 to sensitize the public to the constitution-writing process. An average of 90,000 people participated in each province. The Legal and Constitution Commission itself sponsored a national conference of 700 people to review its draft. A lengthy questionnaire was administered to 50,000 persons, but appeared to be designed for the elite and only 7% of the questionnaires were analyzed. A referendum campaign was sponsored by the Electoral Commission, but some observers pronounced it superficial and inadequate.
Final authority to approve the Commision's draft rested with the Transitional National Assembly. This 74-member body had been appointed in 1994 for a 5-year term (later extended to 9). Each party to the Arusha Peace Accords was allocated a share of the seats in the Assembly and the political parties named members to fill the seats. The draft constitution was approved unanimously by the 68 Assembly members present It was then submitted to the public in a referendum in which 93.42% voted approval. The turn out for the vote was 89.86%. Elections under the new constitution took place in 2003 immediately after adoption.
Notes: The broad limitations on certain kinds of political activity in the new constitution have attracted concerns from human rights groups and the European Union. The constitution making process took place in an atmosphere of intimidation. Although there was a formal commitment to pluralism, there were widespread complaints of harassment from civil society groups, journalists, and others. Many Hutu moderates and Tutsi dissidents were forced out. While there were no significant boycotts during the constitution writing process, much of the Hutu opposition was in exile giving rise to "Hutu Power", reborn as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) with 15,000 armed men in the Congo.