Constitutionalism

Though CHRI's Constitutionalism program has a national focus, it was born out of an advocacy conference at Harare (January 1999), where a diverse group of human rights activists and civil society groups gave a mandate to CHRI to develop a position paper on best practices of constitution-making.

CHRI's campaign through constitutionalism programme, of public awareness and education for citizens' initiative for good governance is already underway in states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The regional media, national media, elected representatives, NGO's and other opinion making sections of the society were brought on to a platform to chalk out a strategy of citizens' participation in ensuring Electoral Reforms.

The prime objective of the work is to inform the public of constitutional values, particularly in the area of right to know, participation and good governance. This programme has held numerous workshops in different states with citizens and formed media monitoring bodies, and advocacy groups of elected representatives to generate a demand for transparency and accountability in the system. CHRI has settled for the role of a facilitator and catalyst.

It has published pamphlets and articles in the press in this regard. It has also brought out a book on Voters Guide: Right to Know, both in English and Hindi which have been disseminated widely.

CHRI, working in tandem with other civil society groups has created a large and ever-growing network of citizen's groups able to monitor elections, protest the fielding of criminal candidates, Do voter education and monitor the performance of local representatives.