Such institutions had to enshrine due process, the independence of the judiciary and an effective and impartial police and prison system.

But as we enshrine our human rights in a new Constitution, we know that our future cannot be determined in ink.

The new constitution will enshrine the ideas of any free people in its charter pluralism, democratic rights, federalism, human rights and civil liberties.

Constitutions frequently enshrine lofty principals, and nobly assure protection of fundamental rights. The question is whether those guarantees are given meaning on the ground.

In 1999, opponents of the peace accords orchestrated a successful public campaign to defeat a referendum to enshrine key aspects of the peace accords in the Guatemalan Constitution.

On the political front, proponents argue that TPP and TTIP will enshrine good, liberal rules for world trade. Lower barriers and greater transparency in regulation are generally good things.

For example, the Constitution had been revised to enshrine the principle of non discrimination on the basis of gender, but customary and religious practices recognized as discriminatory to women had been allowed to continue.

It was therefore logical to enshrine the right of such a State to make a declaration that it would not apply the draft protocol to operations conducted for the sole purpose of responding to a natural disaster.

I should like to recall that at the San Francisco Conference, in 1945, the provisions of the Charter that enshrine the right of veto of the permanent members were adopted by 30 votes in favour to 14 against.

These documents enshrine the facts of occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan by the armed forces of Armenia, the control of the Nagorno Karabakh region by the separatist forces and the perpetration of ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories.

When China's National People's Congress (NPC) concluded its annual meeting recently, it voted to enshrine protection of human rights and private property in the constitution. But other major changes in China's development strategies that appear to be taking place have attracted far less notice.

Although some Parties enshrine in their constitutions the right of their citizens to live in an atmosphere free of pollution (e.g. Chile), many pointed out that their existing environmental legislation needed to be updated to reflect the global concerns codified by international conventions such as the UNFCCC.

In 2004, UNIFEM supported efforts to secure or implement gender equality laws in Kosovo (Serbia and Montenegro), Moldova and Sierra Leone to formulate or strengthen gender equality plans or policies in Brazil, Burundi, Ecuador, Venezuela and Zimbabwe and to enshrine gender equality in the constitutions of Afghanistan, Bolivia and countries throughout Africa.

Germany s Foreign Ministry is preparing a policy on Russian German relations that will enshrine indifference to Putin s lawlessness as being in the national interest of the most powerful member of the European Union. But indifference becomes appeasement when it encourages Putin to pursue his lawless ways in the international arena, as in his current campaign to strangle Georgia s economy.

With the exception of what appears to be a covert effort to force EU countries to raise corporate taxes to French and German levels, there is ostensibly nothing unreasonable in the Competitiveness Pact. Raising the retirement age to 67, abolishing wage indexation, and compelling countries to enshrine a debt brake in their national constitutions are reasonable measures to enhance competitiveness and restore confidence in the euro.