For those of us who have struggled for 40 years to have a new Constitution in Chile, the moment we are living today is profoundly significant. We have been saying for a long time that we need a new Constitution because the current one is anti-democratic, both in its origin and in its content.
By Tomás Hirsch
For those of us who have struggled for 40 years to have a new Constitution in Chile, the moment we are living today is profoundly significant. We have been saying for a long time that we need a new Constitution because the current one is anti-democratic, both in its origin and in its content.
In its origin, because it was created by a small group of Pinochet’s friends, without any possibility of debate, without citizen participation, without the possibility of presenting different options and voted on without electoral registers or citizen control. In other words, it was imposed in an absolutely illegitimate and fraudulent plebiscite. But it is also, and above all, anti-democratic in its content: because, although some articles have been modified over the years, it still maintains an authoritarian conception, which concentrates power in the hands of a few, and which does not guarantee a society of rights, in which everyone can live with dignity. It is a Constitution in which the State is absent, as a mere spectator of inequalities, prevented from playing a leading role in the search for greater equity and social justice.
In addition to the above, and beyond its illegitimate origin, the current Constitution does not take into account the issues, challenges and demands that have emerged over time and that are fundamental to face the 21st century: the rights of indigenous peoples; gender equality; respect and appreciation of sexual diversity and dissidence; the climate crisis; the dramatic water crisis and the unsatisfied demand for this basic human right; decentralisation that allows the regions to develop with greater equity.
All these issues and many others were not present 40 years ago, nor were they even contemplated in Chile. The fact that these issues have now been incorporated into a Constitution allows us to face the challenges of the current times in a better way. That is why it is important that these issues, and the rights associated with them, have been included in the new Constitution.
In the exit plebiscite on 4 September, it will be at stake whether we approve a new constitutional text generated in democracy and parity or whether it is rejected, maintaining the Constitution of the dictatorship, but it will also be on the table whether we are going to face the 21st century by placing the challenges that this new era brings at the centre of our fundamental charter. By approving this text, we will be placing ourselves at the forefront of the world with a modern Constitution that, for the first time, places issues that were ignored in the last century at the centre.
This will be the first Constitution in the world generated with parity, by an exactly equal number of men and women, with the participation of all the native peoples of our country, with a process of citizen participation expressed not only in the election of the Convention members, but also with the presentation of hundreds of motions, with more than two and a half million signatures on issues of citizen interest to be considered by the Convention, many of which were taken up and incorporated as articles of the new constitutional text.
Is everything we want in this new constitution? Of course not. Any text can be improved and in the future, once it is fully in force, new rights will undoubtedly have to be incorporated, new articles that take into account how society is evolving, changing and demanding new rights. We have to continue to deepen the decentralisation and deconcentration of power in all its forms: political, economic, social, racial, generational and geographical. These are all challenges ahead of us and, of course, this new text allows us to move forward in the incorporation of new rights.
For all these reasons, we need to move towards a new Constitution by approving the proposal of the Constitutional Convention in the exit plebiscite on 4 September. I have no doubt that by approving Chile will be at the forefront of fundamental rights, not only in Latin America, but also worldwide. Incorporating these rights in the new Constitution will allow us to move towards a fairer, more democratic, more humane society, with a better quality of life for all.
