Judiciary marks Constitution Day with exhibition |20 June 2015

Guests viewing the exhibition

The judiciary committee of Seychelles is hosting an exhibition at the Palais de Justice on Ile du Port as part of activities to mark Constitution Week which ended on Thursday.
The exhibition opened on Constitution Day in commemoration of the day the Constitution of the Third Republic was adopted – June 18, 1993.

The aim of the exhibition is to convey the main elements of that period 22 years ago, and the results achieved nationally since then.
It was officially opened by the president of the Court of Appeal Justice Francis MacGregor on Thursday evening. Guests present included President James Michel, former President James Mancham, Speaker of the National Assembly Patrick Herminie, acting Chief Justice Durai Karunakaran and other judges, ministers, Attorney General Rony Govinden and other lawyers, church leaders, present and past members of the National Assembly, political party leaders among many of the country’s top dignitaries, as well as members of the diplomatic corps
Judge MacGregor, who described the Constitution of Seychelles as “a living history”, guided the invitees through the contents of the exhibition which he summarised as “the evolution or story of the Constitution”.

Among the topics showcased are the sources of the Constitution, members of the Constitutional commission who drafted it, newspaper reports of the deliberations, cases brought before the Constitutional Court since 1993 as well as resulting judgments and the opinion of different persons on the Constitution.

On his part, lawyer Bernard Georges told the story of the Constitution which inaugurated the Third Republic and the effect it has had on the Seychellois people.

In his own words, he “put focus on the founders, those who sat, debated, drafted, fought, laughed, looked at each other suspiciously, formed friendships, challenged each other and preened themselves before the cameras,” under the patient guidance of the Commission’s chairman, now Judge Bernardin Renaud,

Referring to the American and French Revolutions, Mr Georges has qualified the Commission’s 22 members as “the founding fathers and mothers Seychellois equivalents of Jefferson and Franklin, of Montesquieu and Voltaire”.

“The exhibits on display are designed to identify the persons involved, to show them at work, to look at what the official press said about the Constitutional Commission, to remind us of that singular moment in our national life when our then leaders and a fortunate group of persons – chosen from diverse fields – debated our future before the cameras which brought them into our homes every night over several months. This was a seminal period, one not relived since, when the labour room was transported into our sitting rooms. The exhibition also displays another first – examples of public involvement in the process, which was crucial to the end result,” Mr Georges said.

He also paid tribute to the constitution’s draftsman, Francis Chang-Sam, Attorney-General at the time and who at the end of a day of deliberations with his team worked through the night to prepare a legal draft of the document.

The judicial committee of Seychelles had organised different activities during Constitution Week. These included an open debate on the Constitution which was held at the National House last Tuesday.

During Thursday’s opening ceremony, Nichol Gabriel acted as the committee’s rapporteur and presented a report of the discussions to guests present.
The judicial committee has expressed that as a result of the first Constitution Day celebrated in Seychelles, interest in the Constitution which the events have generated in the public may be sustained through the coming weeks and months.