The Syrian Coalition’s General Assembly concluded its 42nd meeting on Sunday. Members of the Assembly stressed the importance of giving priority to finding ways to improve services being provided for civilians inside Syria. They also discussed the establishment of mechanisms for action and coordination amongst institutions of the revolution with regards to governance in the areas that are outside the control of the Assad regime.
Members of the Assembly condemned the Assad regime forces’ violations of the Idlib agreement as they called for full and strict commitment to implement its terms, especially with regards to the violations being carried out by the Assad regime and its allies on a daily basis.
The Assembly decided to step up efforts with regards to the issue of detainees and to coordinate with the various institutions of the revolution, civil society organizations, international organizations and major countries with the aim of exerting pressure on the Assad regime to force it to suspend the death sentence against detainees in Hama Central Prison.
Participants in the meeting highly applauded the activities of civil society organizations and human rights activists, especially their efforts leading to the French judiciary’s issuance of arrest warrants for Assad regime officials. They stressed that such a move will serve efforts to follow up on the issues of accountability and justice. The Coalition is intensifying its efforts with several countries to push for the formation of an independent international investigation mechanism through the UN General Assembly.
With regards to the political process, the Assembly discussed the latest developments in the political process and the convening of the Constitutional Committee. It also discussed the Assad regime and allies’ continued obstruction of its formation and their insistence on obstructing the role of the United Nations in this regard.
The participants stressed the important role of the UN as the basis of the political process in Geneva which is sponsored and facilitated by the United Nations as the sole reference to the Constitutional Committee. They also decided to step up communications with all regional and international parties to ensure complete implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and the Geneva Communique of 2012 with all its articles and without any reduction and according to the sequence of the items contained in the Communique.
Tabled for discussion were also the reports on the situation in Al-Raqqa province, especially the suffering of the civilian population and the violations taking place there by the PYD militia, especially the recent assassination of Sheikh Bashir Faisal Al-Huwaidi. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)