The Syrian Opposition Coalition’s (SOC) Constitutional Working Group presented the results of the first stage of its work to the SOC’s President who will submit them to the General Assembly for approval.
Coordinator of the Group, Riyadh Al-Hassan, said that the Group is tasked with developing a vision for a new constitution withing the framework of the UN-sponsored political process which is aimed at the implementation of the Geneva Communique of 2012 and UN Security Council Resolutions 2118 and 2254.
Al-Hassan indicated that the Group concluded the first stage of its work, which included discussions of the basic provisions of the constitution, such as the name of the state, the form of government, the official language of the state, the flag and the national anthem, the conditions for running for presidency, the source of legislation, and the personal status law.
“The Group took into account the terms of reference and basic elements of the Constitutional Committee which were laid out in the document whereby the UN announced the formation of the Constitutional Committee. The document is directed at embodying the twelve living principles in the new constitution and drawing upon the Syrian constitutional past experiences. It also took into account the obligations of the Syrian state in line with its membership in the United Nations, the Arab League, and other international organizations.”
Al-Hassan added that the Group started the second stage of its work to formulate a constitutional vision about the rest of the chapters and articles of a new constitution in a way that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people and their demands for a modern constitution that will turn the page on the Assad regime’s decades-long despotism. (Source: SOC’s Media Department)