Months of work to review and revise a draft constitution for the U.S. Virgin Islands concluded Jan. 30. An official serving on the Sixth Constitutional Convention recently outlined the next steps that could lead to approval by the government and adoption by the territory.
Sixty-two years have passed since the first attempt to establish a constitution for the territory in 1964. That effort, along with subsequent conventions, has faced the challenge of drafting a document that reflects the concerns of Virgin Islanders while meeting standards acceptable to Congress and the White House.
“The draft was completed on January 30th; we had a plenary session on January 31. It’s now in legal counsel for 30 to 45 days,” said convention Secretary Imani Daniel. “It will come back to the committee for us to work through his legal notes in 15 to 30 days which means (sic) the end of April, May we’ll be able to release it to the public.”
Six standing committees worked for 10 months to review and revise wording from the previous convention to cover, among other things, government structure, human rights, finance and public services, V.I. culture and heritage. As the October completion deadline bore down on those efforts, delegates petitioned the 36th Legislature to grant the convention more time to complete its work.
Lawmakers passed Bill No. 36-0201, which Gov. Albert Bryan later signed into law as an Act. No. 9060 — extending the date for submitting the draft to Feb. 28, 2027.
The measure also sets a referendum date of July 3, 2027, for the public to accept or reject the draft at the ballot box.
