President Presents National Council on Citizen Participation and Strengthening of Civil Society
President of Chile Michelle Bachelet, accompanied by Minister Secretary General of Government Marcelo Díaz, presented the National Council on Citizen Participation and Strengthening of Civil Society in the Patio de Las Camelias at La Moneda Palace.
The entity seeks to shape a broad and participatory national dialogue on the state of involvement of the public in the nation and to develop a bill to reform Law No. 20.500 on Associations and Citizen Participation in Public Administration. The bill covers, among other things, the institutionalization of the Council on Citizen Participation and the Strengthening of Civil Society.
The council will be led by academic Gonzalo de la Maza and will be comprised of 24 members of civil society.
During her remarks, President Bachelet stated that the council seeks to “effectively include citizens and the enormous diversity of citizen organizations in public life. There is a need to build the best instruments to help and strengthen the process of associativity in collaboration with civil society and its organizations. In this way, we also can strengthen citizen advocacy in the areas that directly affect the people and are discussed in this country.”
The President also stated that the first task will be to travel the country to work with the public to define the new institutional structure that is needed and adequate mechanisms for supporting participation in Chile.
The initiative will propose changes to Law 20.500 on Associations and Citizen Participation in Public Administration in order to strengthen it, secure its financing and support, and make it effective at various levels of government, including the local level.
This comes in addition to the development and dissemination of a report designed to promote the right to participation that includes best practices and standards in this area from the perspective of having a citizen participation entity that can identify the progress made as well as existing challenges.
“In other words, we are looking to install citizen participation permanently and organically in the management of public affairs, understanding it as an enforceable right and providing standards and instruments that support that effort,” she added.
As she finished her remarks, the President highlighted the stage of citizen participation in the constituent process.
“We would like to invite the public and social organizations as well as political entities, public and private institutions, and local governments to take part in this dialogue. I am referring to the dialogue on participation, and of course the constituent process, too,” she noted.