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8 - Burundi

The Search for Constitutional Peace

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2022

By
Didace Kiganahe  and
Yuhniwo Ngenge
Edited by
Tom Ginsburg  and
Sumit Bisarya
Tom Ginsburg
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
Sumit Bisarya
Affiliation:
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
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Summary

In August of 2000, after the intervention of international mediators, the government of Burundi and seventeen political parties signed the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement for Burundi with a constitution finally being signed in 2005. Burundi’s iterative cycles of ethnic violence and the underlying mistrust between the minority Tutsi, which controlled the military, and the majority Hutu are the backdrop on which the constitutional process was set. The entire process, based on the Peace of Arusha, was plagued by anxiety and insecurity, and the country to this day has not managed to find stable footing. From the debates over parliamentary apportionment to more recent struggles of the CNDD-FDD party to erase or rewrite the agreements made at Arusha, questions remain over the constitution’s initial intentions as well as its future.

Keywords

Burundipeace processsconstitutionpower-sharing
Type
Chapter
Information
Constitution Makers on Constitution Making
New Cases
 , pp. 252 - 276
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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