La participación ciudadana en el proceso constituyente de Colombia de 1991. El derecho a la educación

During the constituent process in Colombia of 1990 to 1991, specific participatory mechanisms were established in order to allow the citizenship to present initiatives in regard to those subjects that they considered, at the moment, as the most relevant in both social and political spheres; initiatives that at the same time were to serve as an input for the framing of the new Constitution. As the specialized literature has been holding, the majority of initiatives presented during that time were related with education and not with the right to peace. Before the installation of the National Constituent Assembly, two institutional mechanisms were created with the objective of receiving the proposals presented by the citizenship: The Regional Working Tables and the Preparatory Commissions. At the same time, the non-governmental organizations presented their own initiatives to the National Constituent Assembly hoping that they were taken in consideration during the different debates that were held within their sessions. These proposals, along with the ones presented to the Regional Working Tables and the Preparatory Commissions, constitutes what we call the “citizen participatory agenda” in the Constitution-making process of 1990 to 1991. Then, having done the revision and analysis of this agenda, we were able to establish the influence of the citizen participation, as far as the participatory mechanisms are concerned and regarding the educational matter, in the drafting of the 1991 Political Constitution of Colombia.