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Original contribution by Cornelia Glinz, Ass. iur., PhD candidate at the University of Bremen under the supervision of Prof. Manfred O. Hinz; researching at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg.
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Since independence in 1990, Namibia has been transformed from apartheid rule to a State based on democracy, rule of law and justice for all. The Constitution of 1990, which was produced under the watchful eyes of the international community and won unanimous approval from the Constitutional Assembly, was appraised as a great achievement by providing modern standards as a firm basis for the latter transformation process. Today, it can be said that much has been achieved over the last 20 years, however many challenges still remain for the Constitution to be fully and meaningfully implemented and to prevent it from being downgraded to a mere facade. |
I. Introduction
With independence in 1990 the Namibian people gave themselves a modern Constitution which provides the fundamentals of the rule of law in all of its aspects. In the drafting process all political parties showed a deep commitment to codify rule of law standards. Thus at independence and in the following few years, the document was highly respected and produced great expectations for the realisation of its transformational character compared to the previous illegitimate apartheid rule (see Wiechers 2010). But in the longer term it has become apparent that the implementation of the Constitution has been facing major challenges. One problem is that the political elite is tempted and often subordinates the upholding of rule of law requirements in favour of the pursuit of its own political goals (see Diescho 2009). Equally there is virtually no discussion of constitutional principles at civil society level (Amoo 2008: 37). Finally over 20 years after the adoption of the Constitution the process of transformation to meaningful implementation of the rule of law has not yet been completed.
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