Pedersen presents a proposal to revive the Constitutional Committee
The United Nations special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, presented a proposal on the methodology for the conduct of the sixth round of the meetings of the Syrian Constitutional Committee in Geneva, in an attempt to break the continuing incompatibility of the opposition and the Assad regime on the agenda of the next round.
The proposal called on all participating delegations to submit written proposals to the Office of the Special Envoy in the form of proposed texts for basic constitutional principles to be included in the draft constitution, before leaving for Geneva.
He explained that the small body deals in days between 1 to 4 of the round meetings, at least one of the basic constitutional principles and exhausts discussion about it, which means that one round will discuss eight constitutional principles.
Each meeting of the small body seeks to determine whether there is “an interim agreement or some elements of an interim agreement regarding the basic constitutional principle under discussion,” but the lack of agreement does not preclude moving to the next principle, according to the proposal.
Pedersen proposes that the two co-chairs meet with the special envoy “during the day before the start of the session, and throughout the week, as required,” noting that the task of the two presidents is “to determine before the start of the session the proposals of the basic constitutional principles proposed to be discussed at each meeting.”
The two presidents also specify the practical means by which principles are presented and discussed, and the points that have been decided upon or agreed on temporarily, and those on which there is no temporary agreement are recorded.
Al-Bahra and Al-Kuzbari are discussing “agreeing on the date of the next session and a preliminary work plan until the end of 2021, and coordinating with the special envoy regarding his announcement of the results of the session and the future work of the Constitutional Committee.”
