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Autofahrer in Deutschlands Hauptstadt Berlin sind gewaltsam gegen Aktivisten der Klimagruppe «Letzte Generation» vorgegangen. Nach Beobachtung eines DPA-Fotografen zerrten sie am Freitagmorgen mit Gewalt Klimaaktivisten von der Autobahn und traten auf sie ein.

Credit: Martín Bernetti/AFP via Getty Images

By Inés M. Pousadela
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, May 19 2023 (IPS)

On 7 May, Chileans went to the polls to choose a Constitutional Council that will produce a new constitution to replace the one bequeathed by the Pinochet dictatorship – and handed control to a far-right party that never wanted a constitution-making process in the first place.

This is the second attempt at constitutional change in two years. The first process was the most open and inclusive in Chile’s history. The resulting constitutional text, ambitious and progressive, was widely rejected in a referendum. It’s now far from certain that this latest, far less inclusive process will result in a new constitution that is accepted and adopted – and there’s a possibility that any new constitution could be worse than the one it replaces.

A long and winding road

Chile’s constitution-making process was born out of mass protests that erupted in October 2019, under the neoliberal administration of Sebastián Piñera. Protests only subsided when the leaders of major parties agreed to hold a referendum to ask people whether they wanted a new constitution and, if so, how it should be drafted.

In the vote in October 2020, almost 80 per cent of voters backed constitutional change, with a new constitution to be drafted by a directly elected Constitutional Assembly. In May 2021, the Constitutional Assembly was elected, with an innovative mechanism to ensure gender parity and reserved seats for Indigenous peoples. Amid great expectations, the plural and diverse body started a one-year journey towards a new constitution.

Pushed by the same winds of change, in December 2021 Chile elected its youngest and most unconventional president ever: former student protester Gabriel Boric. But things soon turned sideways, and support for the Constitutional Assembly – often criticised as made up of unskilled amateurs – declined steadily along with support for the new government.

In September 2022, a referendum resulted in an overwhelming rejection of the draft constitution. Although very progressive in its focus on gender and Indigenous rights, a common criticism was that the proposed constitution failed to offer much to advance basic social rights in a country characterised by heavy economic inequality and poor public services. Disinformation was also rife during the campaign.

The second attempt kicked off in January 2023, with Congress passing a law laying out a new process with a much more traditional format. Instead of the large number of independent representatives involved before, this handed control back to political parties. The timeframe was shortened, the assembly made smaller and the previous blank slate replaced by a series of agreed principles. The task of producing the first draft is in the hands of a Commission of Experts, with a technical body, the Technical Admissibility Committee, guarding compliance with a series of agreed principles. One of the few things that remained from the previous process was gender parity.

Starting in March, the Commission of Experts was given three months to produce a new draft, to be submitted to the Constitutional Council for debate and approval. A referendum will be held in December to either ratify or reject the new constitution.

Rise of the far right

Compared with the 2021 election for the Constitutional Convention, the election for the Constitutional Council was characterised by low levels of public engagement. A survey published in mid-April found that 48 per cent of respondents had little or no interest in the election and 62 per cent had little or no confidence in the constitution-making process. Polls also showed increasing dissatisfaction with the government: in late 2022, approval rates had plummeted to 27 per cent. This made an anti-government protest vote likely.

While the 2021 campaign focused on inequality, this time the focus was on rising crime, economic hardship and irregular migration, pivoting to security issues. The party that most strongly reflected and instrumentalised these concerns came out the winner.

The far-right Republican Party, led by defeated presidential candidate José Antonio Kast, received 35.4 per cent of the votes, winning 23 seats on the 50-member council. The government-backed Unity for Chile came second, with 28.6 per cent and 16 seats. The traditional right-wing alliance Safe Chile took 21 per cent of the vote and got 11 seats. No seats were won by the populist People’s Party and the centrist All for Chile alliance, led by the Christian Democratic Party. The political centre has vanished, with polarisation on the rise.

 
What to expect

The Expert Commission will deliver its draft proposal on 6 June and the Constitutional Council will then have five months to work on it, approving decisions with the votes of three-fifths of its members – meaning 31 votes will be needed to make decisions, and 21 will be enough to block them. This gives veto power to the Republican Party – and if it manages to work with the traditional right wing, they will be able to define the new constitution’s contents.

 
The chances of the new draft constitution being better than the old one are slim. In the best-case scenario, only cosmetic changes will be introduced. In the worst, an even more regressive text will result.

People will have the final say on 17 December. If they ratify the proposed text, Chile will adopt a constitution that is, at best, not much different from the existing one. If they reject it, Chileans will be stuck with the old constitution that many rose up against in 2019. Either way, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to expand the recognition of rights will have been lost, and it will fall on civil society to keep pushing for the recognition and protection of human rights.

Inés M. Pousadela is CIVICUS Senior Research Specialist, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

 

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Landwirte in ganz Serbien haben zwei Tage lang gegen die niedrigen Milchpreise demonstriert. Vertreter mehrerer landwirtschaftlicher Verbände waren zuvor mit Regierungsvertretern zusammengetroffen.

Zunehmen, abnehmen, Jojo-Effekt. All dies kennt der Schweizer Schauspieler Leonardo Nigro (49). Wie seine Joghurtbecher-Diät funktioniert, erzählt er Flavia Schlittler in ihrer 2-Minuten-Show «Glamour & Gossip».

Gute Nachrichten für den FC Basel: Der künftige Trainer Timo Schultz dürfte seinen Wunsch-Assistenten erhalten.

he UK is discussing a data protection reform that would distance its regime from the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Meanwhile, the US has been working on an alternative standard for international data flows. We discuss these developments and...

Die EU-Verteidigungsminister werden am Dienstag die Liste der im Rahmen des ehrgeizigen PESCO-Programms gestarteten Verteidigungsprojekte überprüfen und aktualisieren. Es wird jedoch befürchtet, dass die meisten Projekte nie zum Abschluss kommen werden.

Fehlt es der Bundesregierung an Visionen für die Zukunft der Mobilität? Vincent Kaufmann (54), Professor für Stadtsoziologie und Mobilitätsanalyse an der EPFL, hat Lösungen.

Le ministre grec des Affaires étrangères, Níkos Dendias, a appelé les autorités albanaises à libérer Fredi Beleri, vainqueur des élections dans la municipalité d’Himarë, et a menacé de faire figurer cette question à l’ordre du jour du prochain Conseil des ministres des Affaires étrangères de l’UE.

Der griechische Außenminister Nikos Dendias forderte die albanischen Behörden erneut auf, Fredi Beleri, den Gewinner der Wahlen in der Gemeinde Himara, freizulassen, und drohte, das Thema auf die Tagesordnung der EU zu setzen.

Alec Baldwin darf sich über Nachwuchs in seiner Familie freuen. Seine Tochter Ireland ist erstmals Mami geworden. Sie hat eine Tochter zur Welt gebracht.

Schlecht angezündete Kohle, dreckige Grills, verbrannte Würste neben rohen Burgern etc.? Aber keine Sorge, unser Food-Experte Fabien Goubet sagt dir, was du vermeiden solltest.

Pozsonyban pénteken hajnalban röviddel 3:00 óra után egy Nobel utcai élelmiszerboltba történt behatolásról érkezett bejelentés a rendőrségre. A kiküldött rendőrjárőr tagjai a létesítményben egy robbanás által megrongált bankautomatát találtak.

Werden die Zinsen erhöht, wird weniger gebaut. Die Zinsschritte entfalten ihre volle Wirkung aber erst mit Verzögerung. Zu diesem Schluss kommt eine Studie der EZB. Das könnte Folgen haben.

Klima-Kleber haben in Berlin mit einer neuen Masche für noch längere Verkehrsblockaden gesorgt. Neu kleben sich die Aktivisten unter die Autos. Die Feuerwehr muss deswegen mit schwerem Gerät anrücken.

Nach dem grausamen Tod eines achtjährigen Kindes durch seinen Stiefvater hat Ministerpräsident Mateusz Morawiecki die Wiedereinführung der Todesstrafe wieder ins Gespräch gebracht. Mehr als die Hälfte der Polen befürwortet diese Idee, obwohl sie rechtlich nicht umsetzbar ist.

Avec plus de 250 tombes, les pyramides soudanaises sont bien plus nombreuses que leurs cousines égyptiennes, et vous pouvez vous promener parmi les ruines intactes sans croiser un seul touriste.

Die Schweiz hinkt beim Ausscheiden von Schutzflächen für die Biodiversität europaweit hinterher. Mit 10,8 Prozent ihrer Landesfläche unter Schutz bildet sie das Schlusslicht. Im EU-Durchschnitt stehen 26,4 Prozent der Flächen unter Schutz.

A Security Council meeting in progress. Credit: United Nations
 
Member Countries Can Keep Abusive Governments Off Important UN Bodies.

By Louis Charbonneau
NEW YORK, May 19 2023 (IPS)

Next month’s United Nations Security Council elections show why competition is important.

UN votes for seats on important bodies like the Security Council and Human Rights Council often make a mockery of the word “election.” They typically have little or no competition, ensuring victory for even the least-qualified candidates.

On June 6, the 193-nation General Assembly is scheduled to elect five members to the Security Council for 2023-2024. Delegations get to choose between Slovenia and Belarus for one Eastern European seat, and South Korea and Tajikistan for one Asian seat. The Western, African, and Latin American/Caribbean regional slates are all devoid of competition.

Many delegations and their regional groups prefer noncompetitive slates. They say all countries should have a chance to serve on UN bodies. But noncompetitive slates undermine the purpose of elections, which is to enable member states to choose the most qualified candidates over others.

Case in point: Belarus wants a seat on the Security Council, the UN body overseeing international peace and security. Despite its chronic dysfunction, it’s the UN’s most powerful body. It can authorize military force and impose sanctions.

Globally, it oversees numerous peacekeeping and political missions, whose staff includes hundreds of human rights officers that monitor and report on abuses.

Look at Belarus. At a May 16 UN debate with the ambassadors of Belarus and Slovenia, Belarusian Ambassador Valentin Ryabkov claimed to recognize the importance of human rights.

But within his country there’s an atmosphere of repression and fear, with widespread rights violations that may amount to crimes against humanity. Human rights defenders, including 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, have been imprisoned on bogus charges.

At the General Assembly, Belarus has opposed condemnations of Russian atrocities in Ukraine and aided efforts to whitewash China’s crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.

Tajikistan’s rights record has deteriorated amid a government-led crackdown on freedom of expression and the political opposition. In addition, both sides in Tajikistan’s border conflict with Kyrgyzstan have committed apparent war crimes with impunity.

Member countries can’t vote out Russia, China, or the other three permanent Security Council members. But when elections for rotating seats are competitive, member states can and should reject abusive governments. They should do that on June 6.

Louis Charbonneau is United Nations Director, Human Rights Watch
charbol@hrw.org | www.hrw.org
@loucharbon

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Zu Bildung einer Regierung in Bulgarien fehlen der ehemaligen EU-Kommissarin Mariya Gabriel fünf Stimmen im Parlament. Sie hat die Unterstützung von 116 Abgeordneten von GERB, DPS und ITN, muss aber bis nächsten Mittwoch die restlichen Stimmen aufbringen.