War-Torn Syria Is Drafting New Constitution, Process Begins This Week

Co-chairs from Syrian government and opposition on the Syrian Constitutional Committee have agreed to draft new constitution, UN envoy says

New Delhi: The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria said on Sunday the Syrian Constitutional Committee’s co-chairs from the government and the opposition have agreed to draft a new constitution for the country.

The committee has 45 representatives of Syria’s government, opposition and civil society, and it is tasked with preparing and drafting a new basic law leading to UN-supervised elections.

Speaking to the media Sunday after a meeting in Geneva, UN envoy Geir O. Pedersen said: “The two Co-Chairs now agree that we will not only prepare for constitutional reform, but we will prepare and start drafting for constitutional reform.”

This is for the first time that committee co-chairs Ahmad Kuzbari, the Syrian government representative, and Hadi al-Bahra from the opposition side met Pedersen together, according to a report on the UN News website. 

The members are in the Swiss city for their sixth round of talks in two years, which begin Monday, the report said. 

Their last meeting was held in January, but ended without progress.

Pedersen has been negotiating between the two parties on a way forward.

"...the new thing this week is that we will actually be starting a drafting process for constitutional reform in Syria," he said Sunday. 

'Substantial and frank discussion'

Pedersen said the Syrian Constitutional Committee is an important contribution to the political process, but it will in itself not be able to solve the Syrian crisis. “So we need to come together, with serious work, on the Constitutional Committee, but also address the other aspects of the Syrian crisis.”

The Syrian Constitutional Committee was formed in 2019, comprising 150 men and women as the government, the opposition and the civil society nominated 50 people each.

This group then established the 45-member smaller body, comprising 15 representatives each from the three sectors.

Pedersen described his Sunday’s meeting with the co-chairs as "a substantial and frank discussion on how we are to proceed with the constitutional reform and indeed in detail how we are planning for the week ahead of us".

The UN said it will continue to support efforts towards a “Syrian-owned and led political solution” to end more than a decade of war that has killed over 3.5 lakh people and left “13 million in need of humanitarian aid”.