Print logo

Launch of Civic Education Factsheets with LAC
Civil Society's Renewed Role in Law Making in Namibia

Windhoek, 21 June 2018: Together with the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), the Hanns Seidel Foundation Namibia (HSF) launched a series of factsheets, aimed at capacitating civil society organizations, the general public and policy makers with the information to make informed decisions concerning the Namibia’s democracy. The three-factsheet series are titled Know Your Government,Advocacy in Action, as well as Law in Namibia, aimed at making anyone who has read them feel like a lawyer.

 

Windhoek, 21 June 2018: Together with the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), the Hanns Seidel Foundation Namibia (HSF) launched a series of factsheets, aimed at capacitating civil society organizations, the general public and policy makers with the information to make informed decisions concerning the Namibia’s democracy. The three-factsheet series are titled Know Your Government,Advocacy in Action, as well as Law in Namibia, aimed at making anyone who has read them feel like a lawyer. 

 

There is a crucial need for the role of civil society and active public participation in influencing the law and policy as well as government actions in Namibia. The launch of this factsheet series will enable various civil society organizations or interested citizens to conduct meaningful advocacy and provide a comprehensive overview of the Namibian law, government and democracy. This was the theme of the discussion at the launch event, the panel featured representatives from the Cabinet Committee on Legislation (CCL), a Member of Parliament (MP), the Namibia Institute for Democracy (NID)  & the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC). The discussion touched on what the current law-making process is and what the amendments will be to the 1993 directive as ordered by the Prime Minister. One of the key changes will be the emphasis on gathering and analyzing sound public participation data on proposed bills before they are passed. 

 

 

Dianne Hubbard from LAC, remarked that after a period of downtime for civil society’s role in democracy there has been a new burst of energy and with this comes the will to influence law and policy. She also pointed out the need to institutionalize the relationship between the public & parliament to ensure its effectiveness is enhanced. The perception that civil society organizations are not important needs to be done away with and efforts to strengthen the current relationship between the government should be made a priority in order to put the collaboration to better use. Civil society is everyone and we all need to take responsibility in the role we play in our democracy. 

 

 Naita Hishoono, the director of the Namibia Institute for Democracy (NID), added that that engaging the youth is crucial to fostering broader public understanding on good governance and their right to engage with the government. She highlighted their efforts at NID with the launch of their civic education taskforce that is currently going into schools to reach learns and equip them with the basic skills to raise their awareness on public issues. 

 Ms Anel van der Vyver, Secretarty to the Cabinet Committee on Legislastion said efforts are underway to provide increased public input in the government law-making process, by amending the current directive of 1993. The amendment will ensure that proposed laws will have to be presented with qualitative public input before they can proceed to be passed to become law.  

Civil society plays a critical role in providing input into issues encountered by government officials during their duty on a daily basis such as, gender-based violence, land, corruption, access to information and poverty alleviation to name a few. During his closing remarks, the Head of Country Office of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, Dr Clemens von Doderer, emphasized how civil society needs to strengthen its ground and put themselves out there as a source of knowledge that key policy should make use of when drafting policies and evaluating proposed bills. 

 

At its conclusion, participants were presented with the first series on factsheets on Law in Namibia. Visit our website at www.namibia.hss.de to read or download the series. Hardcopies are available at the House of Democracy.