Hadi Al-Bahra, Co-chair of the Constitutional Committee, and members of the Syrian National Coalition participated in a workshop held in the town of Jarablus in rural Aleppo on the voice of civil society in the constitution.
The participants also included head of the Free Aleppo Provincial Council, Abdel Moneim Al-Mustafa, members and representatives of the local community, and representatives of the revolutionary, civil and women’s activities.
The workshop came as part of a plan to hold more workshops on the course of the political process; from Geneva 2 talks up to the launch of the work of the Constitutional Committee. The workshop also explained the enforcement of international resolutions on Syria and the baskets set out in these resolutions.
Al-Bahra gave an overview on the sessions held by the Constitutional Committee, the regime delegation’s refusal to engage in it, and its attempts to disrupt its work by setting out preconditions.
Moreover, Al-Bahra said that the Constitutional Committee was sponsored and established under the auspices of the United Nations, not the Assad regime, with its work being facilitated by the UN special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen.
“The delegation of the Assad regime attended the Committee’s meetings as a result of pressure from its allies following the international agreement on the work of the Committee, whose powers are higher than those of the Assad regime,” Al-Bahra said.
Al-Bahra reaffirmed the important role of the local community in the issues of the constitution and the need for its participation in the drafting of its articles. “The Syrian constitution will only be written by a Syrian pen and by Syrians. We will not accept otherwise.”
Al-Bahra indicated that “we are now in the negotiating stage. We are ready to discuss any basket of the four baskets.” He pointed out that this is completely different from the second stage, which is the stage of implementation that must take place according to the sequence and timeframe set out in UN resolution 2254.
Al-Bahra stressed the importance of continued communication and meetings to clarify the progress of the work of the Constitutional Committee and the political process as a whole. He also said that what frightens the regime the most is the convergence of the components of the Syrian people to draw up a constitution leading to the establishment of a state of equal citizenship.
He stressed the need to strengthen confidence and get rid of the suspicions that the Assad regime is trying to instill among the Syrian people. “All Syrians are now suffering the economic deterioration and the disintegration of the social structure as a result of the regime’s insistence to continue to deplete the country’s resources in its military campaigns that will achieve neither security nor stability, nor will they restore peace or justice.” (Source: Syrian National Coalition’s Media Department)
