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Senate postpones decision on constitutional reform

Feb 2007

The text of the constitutional reform bill that would allow Chile to accede to the Statute of the ICC was scheduled for discussion at the plenary meeting of the Senate on January 16, 2007. Nevertheless, because the parties of La Concertación did not have the required number of votes (23), and were aware of the opposition parties’ position to not support the constitutional reform bill agreed to at the end of 2004, they chose to withdraw the constitutional reform initiative from the agenda.

One of the opposition parties’ arguments against the approval of the constitutional reform bill is that war crimes and crimes against humanity should be incorporated into national legislation by Chile prior to accession of the Rome Statute. Although the former president Lagos presented the constitutional reform proposal, the opposition insists that the current government must present an initiative taking war crimes and crimes against humanity into consideration before voting on the Rome Statute. The government is currently preparing a study ordered by the Presidency regarding the best way to accomplish this.