New digital platform brings together Fiji’s constitutions, constitutional drafts, commission reports, laws, court decisions, historical records, comparative analysis and civic education in one accessible place.
Suva, Fiji, 16 October 2026
The Centre for Democracy & Dialogue has launched the Fiji Constitution Hub, a comprehensive new digital platform designed to give Fijians a single, accessible source of information on the country’s constitutional history, the current constitutional review process and any future referendum.
The Hub has been developed in response to a major gap in public access to constitutional information as Fiji moves through a fast-moving constitutional reform process.
At present, key constitutional documents are scattered across different websites, reports, archives and institutions, while some important materials can be difficult for members of the public to locate.
CDD Chief Executive Officer Nilesh Lal said meaningful participation in constitutional reform depended on people being able to easily access and understand the documents under discussion.
“Fijians should not have to search across multiple websites, contact officials or rely on somebody having a copy of a document in order to access something as important as a proposed constitution,” Lal said.
“Only last week, we saw a Deputy Prime Minister publicly offering to email copies of the Government Draft Constitution to people who wanted one. That, in itself, demonstrates why a central public resource of this kind is needed.”
The Fiji Constitution Hub brings together Fiji’s major constitutional texts and constitutional drafts, including previous constitutions, the current 2013 Constitution, the 2012 Ghai Draft, the 2026 Constitution Review Commission Draft and the Government Draft currently before Parliament.
It also contains commission reports, legislation, court decisions, historical records, timelines, referendum materials, explanatory resources and CDD’s own independent constitutional analysis.
Lal said the Hub was designed to go beyond simply storing documents.
“A constitution cannot be properly understood by looking only at the final text. How a constitution was developed, who participated, what commissions recommended, how governments responded and what happened during the political and parliamentary process are all part of the constitutional story,” he said.
The Hub therefore includes detailed sections tracing Fiji’s major constitution-making processes, including the processes that produced the 1997 Constitution and the 2013 Constitution, as well as the ongoing 2026 constitutional review.
Users can examine consultation processes, submission numbers, commission recommendations, key political developments and the steps through which different constitutional texts emerged.
A comparative section also allows users to examine the 1997, 2013 and 2026 processes side by side, including differences in consultation, institutional arrangements, treatment of commission recommendations and the routes through which constitutional proposals progressed.
“The purpose is not to tell people what to think,” Lal said.
“Our objective is to give people access to the documents, the history, the evidence and the context so that they are better able to understand the issues and form their own views.”
The Hub also includes a growing civic education component aimed at explaining complex constitutional and referendum issues in plain language.
This includes material explaining constitutional amendment procedures, referendum processes, constitutional choices and other key issues arising from the current reform process.
CDD said the Hub will continue to be updated as the constitutional process progresses, including as new parliamentary material, legal developments and referendum information become available.
“Meaningful public participation requires meaningful access to information,” Lal said.
“People cannot properly participate in a constitutional process if they cannot easily find the relevant documents, understand what is being proposed, compare different drafts and place the present process within Fiji’s wider constitutional history.”
CDD described the Hub as a digital constitutional library, historical archive, research platform and civic education centre for Fiji.
The organisation said it expected the platform to be useful not only during the present constitutional review, but as a permanent public resource for journalists, researchers, students, teachers, civil society organisations, policymakers and members of the public.
“Our hope is that long after the present constitutional debate is over, this remains a resource through which future generations can understand Fiji’s constitutional history and the processes through which its constitutional arrangements were shaped,” Lal said.
The Fiji Constitution Hub is now available at:
ENDS
