Constitution Building Training Programme

Inclusive constitution building processes are a powerful means for giving competing political forces and previously marginalized or excluded groups – including women and minorities – a vested interest in the political process. At the same time, most people engaged in constitution building processes are doing so for the first time, with little knowledge or experience of constitutional design or constitution building processes. ACCESS (Achieving Constitutional Capacity Through Experience Sharing and Support) is part of a comprehensive programme focused on providing resources and support to those engaged, or seeking to engage, in constitution building processes. 

ACCESS is designed for practitioners involved in constitutional processes, including:
Decision makers - Those who make decisions about the content of a constitution and the process of creating it - including elected representatives and members of constituent assemblies.
Implementers and technicians - Those who implement decisions and administer constitutional processes, including state officials, lawyers, drafters, administrative staff, and those who run public education and participation programmes.
Advocates - National and non-state actors, members of NGOs such as human rights groups, and others who seek to influence the constitutional process and decisions.
International actors - Members of the international community who provide support, technical assistance, and funding for constitutional processes.

ACCESS is an interactive, problem-solving resource based on comparative global experience and active experience-sharing from participants. It provides constitutional options to decision makers, drafters and implementers and uses activities to generate discussion, analysis and decision making.

Currently, ACCESS Resource covers the following learning modules:

Introduction to constitution building

Constitution building norms, principles and values

Constitution building mechanisms and practices

Constitution building for a human rights culture

Building a culture of human rights: Ethnicity, religion and constitution building

Constitution building for equality: Gender in post-conflict contexts

The dynamics of power sharing and constitution building

Governance for natural resource management