Constitution Commission Chairperson and world renowned Constitution expert Professor Yash Ghai shared this today after he updated media personnel on preliminary works to be undertaken by the commission.

Professor Ghai, whilst making his first official public statement said that the the commission members would be travelling throughout Fiji to enable all Fijians to air their views on the new constitution and reach them on a mechanism that will soon be established. This includes establishing a database that would contain all submissions received by the commission.

“We also hope to receive written submissions from organised groups, lawyers, other professions, political parties and civil societies and we’ll be more than happy to meet with them on the basis of their submission,” Professor Ghai said.

He added that the Constitution Commission had intentions to set up a unit that would be responsible for the analysis of views on Fiji’s new constitution.

“This unit will provide guidance to us as we draft the constitution and we also have certain principles that underline the whole process, the principles outlined by the Prime Minister is also fairly universal so the Commission will be guided by that as well,” Professor Ghai said.

Highlighting the importance of the process of forming a new constitution, Professor Ghai said that in keeping with the notion that the sovereignty of a country lies with the people, the Commission will take seriously all the submissions that will be made to them.

The Commission is expected to advertise soon the positions for the core staff with appointments likely to be made in early June.