The 45-member drafting body of the Constitutional Committee held its first meeting at the United Nations Office in Geneva on Monday in the presence of the UN envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen.
The co-chairs of the Constitutional Committee agreed to dedicate the agenda of this session to the development of a working program for the next sessions. They also agreed to make use of the discussions of the ideas and suggestions that were put forward during the expanded meetings of the Committee in order to determine what ideas and suggestion can be developed into constitutional principles.
Representatives of the Syrian Negotiations Commission in the Constitutional Committee presented a proposal for the mechanism of work during this session in order to reach consensus and commonalities for the agenda of this session and a mechanism for its implementation.
Member of the Constitutional Committee, Ahmed al-Asrawi, said that as per the mandate given to the Committee, the Committee will work to reach an agreement to draft a new constitution for the country.
Al-Asrawi added that the key to the work of the drafting body are the 12 Living Intra-Syrian Essential Principles which the Syrians agreed on with the United Nations and which were issued during the previous rounds of talks in Geneva and adopted by the final communique of the Sochi Conference.
Al-Asrawi added that the task of all members of the Committee should to work as a group for the interest of Syria, no matter how different the views and positions.
He stressed that the representatives of the Syrian Negotiations Commission in the Constitutional Committee are open to all ideas and inputs that all members should work on so as to serve as chapters in the new constitution.
Al-Asrawi pointed out that members of the drafting body had a groundwork for their work, namely the document of the rules of procedure which were approved by the United Nations, adding that the meetings of the Constitutional Committee are being held in accordance with the Geneva Communique of 2012 and UN resolution 2254. (Source: Syrian National Coalition’s Media Department)
