About Us

Dustur al-Shaab attempts to trigger and strengthen a debate on the constitution which is currently being written; firstly by supplying the necessary information to have such a debate and secondly by inviting opinion pieces to inspire and provoke a discussion.

Following the events of June 30, based on a roadmap presented by General Abdelfattah Sisi and a constitutional declaration by the interim President Adly Mansour, the 2012 constitution will be revised by two councils. This revision and the following referendum are supposed to be completed in a total of four months. There are some good arguments why this procedure needed to be this brief. As a side effect however, the opportunity for public consultation, input and discussion will be limited.

We believe that the constitution is central, as it is the basis for further political developments. We also believe that popular input is very important, because optimally a constitution should be a social contract reflecting the society as a whole. As a result of the convictions we decided to build Dustur al-Shaab to contribute positively to this process.

Dustur al-Shaab is the idea of Hend and Moritz. We felt, we needed a space to discuss and interact about the new constitution. Therefore the most important part of Dustur al-Shaab are the comments and discussions. We only hope to offer a stage for that. Therefore your feedback on the running of the site is essential and your input is always welcome. Please get in touch with us by email (info@dustur-al-shaab.org), or on Facebook or Twitter.

A majority of the articles in the basic information section, all articles in the issues section and the interviews with various activists on the referendum were written by Ahmed el-Hawary. The articles with opinions from the street were written by Ayaat el-Habbal. We thank both of them for their help and cooperation.

The site itself and the moderation are run by volunteers and we will attempt to do our best, but the period of writing the new constitution is short and the process was not announced in advance. In consequence, what we do on this site is not planned out in detail. We are trying to figure it out, as we move along. Therefore expect us to make mistakes and to take wrong decisions. So please be patient with us.

Please be aware, that while we try to be as accurate as possible, we can not guarantee that any information on the site is correct. We thank IMS for their small financial contribution, which helps us to cover to technical and administrative costs.