The Syrian Constitutional Committee was a United Nations-facilitated constituent assembly process that sought, in the context of the Syrian civil war, to reconcile the Ba'athist regime of President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian opposition, by amending the current or adopting a new Constitution of Syria. The UN hopes that this would lead to negotiations which would subsequently lead to a peaceful end of the conflict, which had been raging for more than eight years by the time of the committee's formation. The Constitutional Committee was formed with the formal approval of both parties involved—namely the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic and the Syrian Negotiation Commission representing the opposition, with the facilitation of the United Nations.
It was described by UN Secretary-General António Guterres as part of a "Syrian-owned and Syrian-led" peace process. The decisions it took were not binding under Syrian law and the committee relies on the good faith of both parties for their implementation. The committee was also not bound by any deadlines or timetables.
The Committee had achieved no results by the time Assad was overthrown in December 2024. After Assad’s fall, the new Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, set up a domestic advisory committee that drafted a Constitutional Declaration of the Syrian Arab Republic.
Origins
The proposal for the creation of a committee to amend Syria's constitution can be traced back to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254, which was adopted in December 2015. The resolution provided a framework for the creation of such a committee, but its implementation was delayed until after the Geneva peace talks on Syria and then later delayed until a rough framework agreement was reached in Russia in January 2018.UN's Guterres announces Syria constitutional committee formation . "Announcement came a week after UN chief said an agreement was reached concerning 'composition of the committee'." 23 September 2019. Al Jazeera.
The formation of the committee was delayed numerous times, as both sides strongly disagreed on its composition and as the armed conflict continued throughout the negotiations.
By the time the committee's composition was agreed upon, the Syrian Government had managed to gain control of the majority of the country's territory through military means. But millions of Syrians have been forcibly displaced, with about half of Syria's pre-war population living outside of the country.
Even as the committee's membership list neared its final draft, arguments emerged over which members should be picked to 'represent civil society' – as both the Syrian Government and Opposition attempted to influence the selection of the figures from the UN's list. The Constitutional Committee, including a package agreement on the Terms of Reference and Core Rules of Procedure of, and nominees to the Constitutional Committee was finalized to on 23 September 2019 after a meeting between UN envoy Geir Pedersen and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, and after consultations with the opposition.
The Constitutional Committee was convened by and is facilitated by the UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Otto Pedersen, a Norwegian diplomat, who noted that the committee was the "first concrete political agreement between the Government and the Opposition to begin to implement a key aspect of Security Council resolution 2254 – to set a schedule and process for a new constitution".
History of committee process Inaugural meeting The large body of the committee met for the first time on 30 October 2019, at 12:00 local time at the United Nations Office at Geneva.
The Co-Chair nominated by the Syrian Government, Ahmad Kuzbari, lamented "terrorism" and hailed the "sacrifices and heroic deeds" of the Syrian Army during his inaugural speech. The opposition-nominated Co-Chair, Hadi al-Bahra, stated that it was time for them to "believe [that] victory in Syria is achieving justice and peace not winning the war". The two co-chairs did not shake hands at the end of the 45-minute opening ceremony.
The first meeting of the 45-member small body took place on 4 November and lasted for four hours. The body decided to hold subsequent 4-hour sessions daily for two weeks. The meeting was described as "positive" and "successful".
First session and initial proposals In its first days, the Committee managed to agree on a "code of conduct" for its members – which bound them to work with a "spirit of respect, cooperation and good faith", avoid any actions which might harm other members, as well as refrain from distributing any documents from within the plenary room as "official papers". The code of conduct, however, was made between the two Co-Chairs representing the Syrian Government and Opposition respectively, and not voted on by the whole body of the committee.
The Syrian Opposition focused its efforts on a return to an amended version of Syria's 1950 constitutional charter, which would considerably limit the powers of the Syrian Presidency, instead empowering a prime ministerial post. These efforts were rebuked by the Syrian Government, which flatly denied the proposal.
Proposals given before the committee included the recognition of the Kurdish language as a secondary language, as well as dropping the word "Arab" from Syria's official name – the "Syrian Arab Republic". Proposals aimed at bolstering the role of Kurds in Syria were strongly opposed by Turkey, which was expected to influence the opposition's delegates into voting down any proposal it deemed out of line.
Second session and deadlock The second session of the Committee ended in late November 2019 without agreement, as the two sides did not meet each other after failing to agree on an agenda for the session.
The Syrian government delegation had presented an agenda of what it dubbed "national pillars of the Syrian people", which rejected foreign, especially Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War, called for the lifting on the sanctions against Syria and condemned the armed rebel groups in Syria as terrorists. The opposition delegation rejected this proposal and accused the government delegation of attempting to sabotage the committee's work.
The opposition's delegation instead presented five proposals, mostly aimed at changing the preamble and principles of Syria's constitution. The government delegation rejected these proposals, stating that they would refuse to accept constitutional proposals before the committee accepts a statement of values, which it opines ought to condemn foreign involvement.
The government delegation then presented a proposal that suggested a meeting of the full committee and a discussion of the proposals presented by each member. This was also rejected by the opposition's delegation, with the opposition co-chair Hadi Al Bahra stating that they were "not in a cultural forum to have dialogue and discussions while explosive barrels are falling".
The Syrian opposition blamed the failure to agree to an agenda on the Syrian government for introducing what they deemed were "irrelevant" proposals to the committee, while the government delegation blamed the opposition for refusing to enter the meeting room.
Following these developments, the meeting was called off. UN Envoy Geir Otto Pedersen stated that no date had been set for a future meeting of the committee.
The Northwestern Syria offensive (November 2019–present) between the government and opposition forces began in parallel to the breakdown of talks at the constitutional committee.
A month later, in December 2019, Pedersen spoke before the UN Security Council, describing the situation as "protracted" and "deadlocked" and urged the two sides to agree to an agenda, stating that without such there would be no reason for the committee to meet for a third time.
The opposition HNC's Chairman, Nasr al-Hariri, stated in an interview to Asharq Al-Awsat in later December that the opposition would not enter into any talks with the government delegation before an agenda is set. He accused the Syrian government of failing the negotiations by not agreeing to their proposed agenda.
August 2020 session A third session of negotiations, among the 45-member small body, with 15 members from the government, opposition, and civil society, respectively, started in late August 2020, with a break of several days due to some members testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Pedersen stated that he had "received a 'strong signal of support' from 'key international players' and from "all sides in the Constitutional Committee" for the continuation of the peace process. Anadolu Agency interpreted the "international players" to refer to Iran, Russia, Turkey and the US. Hadi al-Bahra, one of the opposition leaders, and Ahmad Kuzbari, on behalf of the Syrian government, were co-chairs of the session.
October 2021 session On 22 October 2021, yet another round of peace talks failed to reach common ground. No date for the next round was determined.
March 2022 session On 21 March 2022, the seventh meeting began. Emphasis was placed on four areas of constitutional principles: governance, state identity, state symbols, and the regulation and function of public authorities. The talks ended with some amendments on select pieces of presented text.
May 2022 session On 30 May 2022, the eighth meeting began. Although some agreement was achieved on vague common points, the talks were largely dominated by disagreements on the military's role in the transfer of power, imposed sanctions, returning refugee rights, human rights, war criminal accountability, military restructuring, and the hierarchy of international agreements and the constitution, and others.
Pedersen noted progress in the types of discussion even though no agreed upon content was produced. He also stated that the discussions could take years to resolve and that the committee had tacitly agreed to speed up the pace of work and achieve results.
January 2023 session On 17 July 2022 the ninth session, which had been planned to take place from 25–29 July, was placed on hold and delayed indefinitely for unclear reasons.
On 29 November 2022, following a briefing to the United Nations Security Council, Pedersen expressed his hope that the following session would be held in January 2023. In response to questions about the effect of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the Syrian Constitutional Committee, Pedersen referred to an "issue" from Russian representatives in accepting Geneva as the venue for the proposed January 2023 session.
Composition
Large body The whole committee itself, referred to as the large body and sometimes also dubbed the expanded body, is composed of three groups of 50 members each, where the first group is directly nominated by Bashar al-Assad's government. The second is directly nominated by the Syrian Opposition's High Negotiations Committee and the third includes figures of Syrian civil society, selected by the United Nations.
Nearly 30% of all members of the committee are women and seven members are Syrian Kurds. The committee's delegates included members of the People's Council of Syria, university rectors and journalists. Both the Syrian government and opposition intentionally avoided nominating senior political figures as representatives, so as to prevent previous conflicts from hampering the committee's work.
The committee is headed by two equal co-chairs – one nominated by the Syrian Government and the other by the Syrian opposition. They are aided by Geir Pedersen, a UN official who succeeded Staffan De Mistura, Lakhdar Brahimi, and Kofi Annan, as the envoy of the UN's political efforts in Syria.
Government quota