Interpeace–Cleary Gottlieb Meeting
7 December 2006
BACKGROUND
Interpeace and International IDEA are partnering on a project aimed at supporting national actors to
design and implement a constitution-building process (CBP). Despite the critical conflict resolution,
democracy-building and peacebuilding role a process of constitutional review or reform plays, currently
no practical guide exist for designing and/or supporting CBPs (unlike those available for electoral
assistance) in transitional or post-conflict contexts.
This project intends to fill this critical gap in democratization, peacebuilding and conflict prevention
practice. The primary aim of the project is to develop a handbook and website to assist national actors,
their constitutional advisors, and international organizations and donors supporting the process to make
informed decisions about the design and structure of a CBP.
The main outputs of the project will be:
 A handbook of options for CBPs (both processes for making constitutions and the choices for
their substantive contents) that may be updated on the Website and will also be placed on a CD
ROM which will also contain key annexes and examples of constitutional materials.
 A Website that will not only contain the handbook but also additional materials and tools,
examples of constitution-making documents (e.g. material used in civic education campaigns or
rules of procedure for debating a draft constitution, a range of examples of constitutional articles
related to the protection of minorities and minorities rights, decentralisation and autonomy,
political party regulation etc) in several languages, links to rosters of constitutional experts, and
materials and expertise.
 A resource library (to be shared widely with key actors, such as the UN and also with
practitioners) composed of relevant materials used in CBPs (reports of constitutional
commissions, civic education materials, rules of procedure for assemblies, codes of conduct for
commissioners, work plans for how to analyze thousands of submissions generated during a
public consultation process, etc).
 A bibliography of published and unpublished sources.
The project will hold a series of consultative workshops with experts and practitioners on key issues
related to CBPs, the outcomes of which will feed into the various chapters of the handbook. The
participants will vary depending on the issue and the project will strive to have a cross fertilization of
ideas from various disciplines as well as from different regions and backgrounds.
CONTRIBUTION OF CLEARY GOTTLIEB TO PROJECT
Cleary Gottlieb’s pro bono assistance supports the project primarily in three ways:
1) development of a bibliography of published and unpublished sources on CBPs;
2) researching and drafting on key CBP issues; and
3) collection of sample materials used in CBPs.
Bibliography. Reviewing primary and secondary materials for sources related to CBPs. Currently there is
no comprehensive bibliography on process-related issues in constitution-building, and Cleary Gottlieb’s
support to the project will help produce this critical resource.
 The attorneys will be divided into regional groupings (Africa, Asia, Latin and South America,
Eastern Europe and the Middle East) as well as a comparative/thematic group. Those in a regional
group will be responsible for searching for sources on countries in that region as well as the
literature/scholarship coming out of that region.
 Interpeace has developed a coding sheet to guide the literature review.
 The coding sheets will feed into the creation of a database which will allow a search function
based on the annotations and will form a component of the website.
Research and drafting. Conducting research and drafting concise memoranda on key CBP issues such as
participation, role of international actors, balancing national and international agendas, peace negotiations
and its link to CBPs etc. This research will feed into the drafting of the chapters of the handbook and
outstanding memoranda may be placed on the website as additional resources.
The work on producing the annotated bibliography will assist those interested in researching and drafting
memoranda on key CBP issues, and during the course of research and drafting, more sources will likely
be discovered to add to the bibliography.
Collection of sample materials. Examples of materials and documents used in CBPs are an important
resource for national actors embarking on their own CBP. Some of these materials should be available on
the Internet. Several countries that have undergone CBPs have archived these materials online.
Additionally, research institutions, think tanks and NGOs provide links to some of these materials. A
broad web search should yield some of these materials and Interpeace will assist with other means to
obtain the additional documents.
Some key materials and documents we are interested in collecting are:
 Peace agreements or negotiations on the CBP
 Legal frameworks setting up the CBP
 Rules relevant to selection of constitution drafting body (e.g., election, selection etc)
 Documents relevant to the constitution drafting body (e.g., rules of procedure, induction program,
budget, work plan, schedule of lectures/workshops, technical sub-committees etc)
 Civic education materials (e.g., pamphlets, booklets, posters etc)
 Consultation and dialogue materials (e.g., questionnaires, public input submissions, reports
analyzing submissions etc)
 Documents relevant to deliberating bodies (e.g., rules relevant to selection of the deliberating
body (election/selection), budget, rules of procedure, induction program, codes of conduct,
program of work, reports etc)
 Materials relevant to adoption (e.g., materials used in civic education on content of final
constitution, laws on adoption or referendum process etc)
AGENDA
Interpeace–Cleary Gottlieb Meeting
7 December 2006
1. Introduction of project
2. Website
3. Bibliography
4. Research and drafting on key constitution-building process issues
5. Collection of sample materials
6. Q&A