Somali Parliament Approves Two New Members for Constitutional Review Commission

MOGADISHU — Members of Somalia’s House of the People have approved two new members to fill vacant positions on the Independent Constitutional Review and Implementation Commission, with 124 MPs voting in favor, 21 against, and two abstaining.

The vote took place during a parliamentary session in Mogadishu, completing the membership of a body that has been central to Somalia’s long-running constitutional review process. The Commission operates alongside the Parliamentary Oversight Committee to guide and harmonize the review of the Provisional Constitution.

Background on the Constitutional Review Commission

The Independent Constitutional Review and Implementation Commission (ICRIC) was established under Article 134 of the Provisional Constitution. It is a body of legal and technical experts responsible for drafting proposed constitutional amendments under the political supervision of the parliamentary Oversight Committee.

The Commission has been central to the constitutional review process, with the Speaker of the House of the People convening high-level meetings with the Constitutional Review committees to receive draft revisions for various chapters of the Constitution.

In March 2024, the Commission developed a Digital Platform for Public Consultations on Constitutional Review, launched by the Speaker of the House of the People, to serve as a tool for engaging with the public and gathering feedback on proposed constitutional amendments.

The Commission has also organized consultative sessions bringing together representatives from the Federal Government of Somalia, Federal Member States, and the Banadir Regional Administration, alongside legal experts and constitutional affairs officials, to discuss proposed amendments to key chapters of the Constitution.

The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, alongside the Commission, has also hosted diaspora consultations in cities including Bristol, United Kingdom, as part of efforts to ensure inclusive participation in the constitutional review process.

A Decade-Long Process Without Resolution

The constitutional review process has now stretched well over a decade without reaching its conclusion. The Provisional Constitution of 2012 tasked the 9th Parliament with establishing federal member states, holding elections, and reviewing the constitution. That Parliament produced a report but failed to adopt its recommendations. The 10th Parliament started the process anew and produced its own review, but the review remained incomplete.

An analytical report on the review process, published by FTL analysts in 2020, noted that the reviewed draft constitution consisted of approximately 150 proposed articles. Of these, no changes were proposed in 23 articles, while 74 articles required only technical amendments with little or no political importance. Only 18 articles were identified as potentially contentious and requiring political attention. Among the articles flagged for political consideration were the allocation of powers, the national court structure, the Judicial Service Commission, and the Constitutional Court.

The 2020 analysis also recorded that the dominant narrative at the time held that the constitutional issues were “so many and so difficult so as to make resolution almost impossible,” and that resolution would require a great deal of consultation and would be best deferred to the next government. The report described that narrative as “a myth that is most unhelpful,” noting that none of the views contained in the Oversight Committee report had been contested and that there was no clearly identified list of contentious issues.

On March 4, 2026, a joint session of the two chambers of Somalia’s federal parliament approved amendments to 11 chapters of the Provisional Federal Constitution, as well as articles in Chapters 2 and 4. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud signed the amendments into law on March 8, 2026. However, the Provisional Constitution still requires endorsement through a public referendum to become permanently adopted.

Critical Note

The approval of two new members to the Constitutional Review Commission reflects the ongoing effort to complete Somalia’s constitutional review process. Filling these vacancies is a procedural step that allows the Commission to continue its work on remaining constitutional matters. Yet the fact that vacancies require filling more than a decade after the process began illustrates the pattern that has defined this project: intermittent progress, recurring delays, and a tendency to defer difficult decisions to subsequent parliaments.

The historical record is instructive. The 9th Parliament produced a review and failed to adopt it. The 10th Parliament started from scratch and reached the point where only a small fraction of articles required political attention, with the majority needing only technical improvement. The 2020 analysis warned that postponing the review would render the investments of the previous eight years futile, leave federal member states without constitutional foundation, and undermine the rule of law. Those warnings proved prescient. The process continued, but the referendum required to adopt the permanent constitution has still not been held.

The risk now is the same as it was in 2020: that the completion of the review is repeatedly treated as a task for a future parliament rather than a present obligation or used for political gain. The March 2026 amendments represented genuine progress. Filling the Commission’s membership keeps the process alive. But political consensus and the referendum remains the decisive milestone, and has not been scheduled. Until Somalia’s leaders treat the constitutional process as a binding commitment rather than an open-ended project, the country’s legal foundation will remain provisional, and the federal project will continue to rest on political arrangements rather than constitutional anchoring.