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Know Your Constitution

The Hanns Seidel Foundation in collaboration with the Legal Assistance Centre launched the third re-print of the 1990 version of the ‘Know Your Constitution’ booklet. This revised version provides readers with a summary of the most important aspects and the recent amendments to the Namibian Constitution.

The Hanns Seidel Foundation in collaboration with the Legal Assistance Centre launched the third re-print of the 1990 version of the ‘Know Your Constitution’ booklet. This revised version provides readers with a summary of the most important aspects and the recent amendments to the Namibian Constitution. 

The launch of the booklet took place on Friday, 16 November 2018 at the House of Democracy.  Mr John Walters, Ombudsman, did the opening and during his remarks he called on skilled lawyers to help Namibian citizens gain more access to the courts through doing more pro bono work. He drew on Article 25 of the Namibian constitution, which deals with the Enforcement of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and the work that the Ombudsman is doing to help aggrieved people to approach the courts. Unfortunately, in most cases the accused often ends up dropping their claims due to all the red tape they have to go through to even begin the process let alone actually get the matter taken to court. He urged that more support be given to such aggrieved persons to help them get justice. 

Ms Dianne Hubbard began her address by highlighting the fact that this was the first re print of this booklet since it launched in March 1990. She was thrilled to be a part of refreshing some aspects of the booklet and updating the amended laws. She emphasised that every Namibian should be able to confidently call their leaders to question with facts/ laws drawn from the constitution. She urged that everyone be inclined to really understand the constitution, so they can properly enforce it. She ended her remarks by stating that civil society is every one of us, not just organisations and that we all have a civil duty to uphold our constitution. 

Kindly email info(at)hsf.org.na for the collection of copies.