The Technical Committee on Drafting the Zambian Constitution has just wound up the second session of meetings. During the first session, which took place from  December 1, 2011 to  December  9, 2011, the Technical Committee adopted the Rules of Procedure and the Programme of Work. In the second session, which ran from January 16 to February 14, 2012, the Committee considered the Working Document that had bee produced in preparation for the first draft Constitution. The Committee has thus completed assembling the contents of the first draft Constitution.

The work of writing the first draft Constitution has already begun. The drafting process will take longer than anticipated because there was an underestimation of the magnitude of the work in preparing the Working Document, and the extent/comprehensiveness of discussions during consideration of the Working Document.

The stakeholders are urged to exercise patience before production of the first draft Constitution so as to come up with a good product.  

Once the document has been drafted, the Technical Committee will convene for the third session of meetings to adopt the first draft Constitution, before it can be disseminated to the general public for comments. The first draft Constitution will, therefore, be ready towards the end of April 2012.

After the first draft Constitution is ready, some critical parts will be translated into seven major local languages namely Bemba, Kaonde, Lozi, Lunda, Luvale, Nyanja and Tonga. The same parts will also be transcribed into Braille, for the benefit of the sight challenged people.

The first draft Constitution will also be printed and distributed countrywide to enable the public to make comments.

After producing the first draft Constitution, the Technical Committee will send the document to local and international experts on Constitutional Law and Practice for their comments.
At the same time, the Technical Committee will develop and consider guidelines for Provincial, Sector Groups and National Constitution Conventions.

The Technical Committee will then facilitate Ten (10) Provincial and Sector Groups Conventions to validate the first draft Constitution.

The Technical Committee will receive comments from local and international experts on Constitutional Law and Practice for submission to the National Constitution Convention, eventually culminating into the second draft Constitution.

Before producing the final draft Constitution, the Technical Committee will take into account comments from local and international experts on Constitutional Law and Practice and Provincial, Sector Groups and National Constitutional Conventions.

The final draft Constitution will be ready in September 2012.

The Technical Committee wishes to take this opportunity to thank all stakeholders for the support they have rendered to the Constitution-making process thus far.


TECHNICAL COMMITTEE ON DRAFTING THE ZAMBIAN CONSTITUTION