Somali parliamentarians to be trained by UN on constitutional issues

Around 250 Somali Members of Parliament will start a six-day United Nations training seminar today to prepare the ground for a new federal constitution in the East African Country, which has lacked a working government ever since the collapse of President Muhammad Siad Barre’s regime 15 years ago.

The seminar on Federalism and Constitutional Affairs taking place in Baidoa, the interim seat of Government, has been organized by the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) “to stimulate a dialogue on the Transitional Federal Charter, to help members understand how federal government works and to enhance their legislative and policymaking capacity,” according to a news release issued in Nairobi.

A new constitution must be drafted within two and half years and adopted by popular referendum in 2009, the last year of the transitional period, according to the Transitional Federal Charter that was approved by the 2004 National Reconciliation Conference. That landmark event also created the Transitional Federal Institutions that include the Parliament, which held its first extraordinary session on 26 February of this year.

For the seminar, UNPOS has commissioned experts to make a comparative analysis of federal systems and explain to the Somali parliamentarians how legitimate power is shared.

The seminar is one of six Trust Fund projects recently approved by the UN Department of Political Affairs to back peacebuilding and reconciliation efforts in Somalia by supporting civil and political leadership, demobilizing militias, preventing the re-emergence of large-scale conflict among militia groups and resuming commercial and income generating opportunities, UNPOS said.