Holding on to National Constants and .. Hope
Hadi al-Bahra – Syria TV:
It has been eleven years since the start of the Syrian revolution; the wound is still open and the tragedy caused by the violent war continues to affect those demanding freedom and dignity. Nevertheless, Syrians are insisting on obtaining their freedom and having the state of equal citizenship, based on their belief in basic human rights, dignity and worth of the individual, equality before the law and the equal protection it guarantees, and the right to establish a democratic system of governance based on political pluralism and the peaceful transfer of power through voting where all citizens have the right to enjoy human rights without discrimination on any grounds.
Eleven years has passed and the Syrians are still seeking a peaceful, safe and just political solution to their cause. They knocked on the doors of the international community, the United Nations, and many Arab, regional and Western countries, in search of help in the desired political solution. They held and participated in many conferences, and consulted with countries that understood the causes of their revolution and supported them. They participated in the political negotiations sponsored by the United Nations in Geneva. They showed seriousness and dealt responsibly with all initiatives to achieve peace in their homeland and constantly and earnestly sought the strict and full implementation of Security Council resolutions relevant to Syria, especially resolutions 2118 (2013), the Geneva Communiqué and 2254 (2015). They did not reject any serious attempt that would contribute to reaching the desired and just political solution that would save their people from the tragedy they are experiencing, restore their sovereignty over the entire territories of their state, reunite them and achieve their independence.
In those eleven years, many parties have helped the Syrians, and, unfortunately, other parties have also abandoned their responsibilities towards this country and its people. Calculations of the international and regional balance of powers and interests have governed the Syrian issue, and since the launch of Arab initiatives and efforts for peace in Syria in 2011 and 2012, and the international ones since 2012, the regime obstructed any progress in these initiatives and efforts, refusing to take any positive step, because it realized that any waiver of the rights and powers it usurped meant a defect in its totalitarian and repressive system upon which it was built. It rejected any progress in any political process, and believed solely in violence and militarism. This led to disasters whose consequences are difficult to overcome for decades to come. The international community, which discovered the nature of this regime, hesitated a lot, sometimes leaving the Syrians to their fate; however, the lively Syrian people did not surrender, and for sure will never do so until their just political demands are achieved.
After the early peaceful years of the revolution, and as a result of the indiscriminate excessive violence used by the regime’s army and security services against people, Syrians resorted to the military solution, in an attempt to defend themselves. They did not succeed, however, because of the modest support they received, and the direct and unlimited military support provided for the Syrian regime by its allies, especially Russia and Iran, as well as the direct international and regional military presence on Syrian territory. So, Syrian had to reorganize their military action to defend and secure their areas against any potential attacks. Then the military activity was reduced while the political struggle and activity increased at all levels. The continued impediment of the political process by the regime led to prolonging the suffering of Syrians, increasing the number of intervening and conflicting parties in Syria, and overwhelming the scene with complexity.
However, the Syrians succeeded politically by keeping the bases and objectives of the political settlement contained in the Geneva communiqué (2012), unanimously agreed upon by the major countries, including Russia, and in UNSCR 2118 (2013) and 2254 (2015) which were also unanimously adopted as the key and only road map for a viable political solution for Syria. Syrians also kept the UN-sponsored peace efforts in Geneva as the only track for the full implementation of these resolutions preventing any attempts to take the political track to other venues. Therefore, the aspirations and humanitarian, political, constitutional and legal demands of the Syrian people were kept alive at the most important Syrian-Syrian negotiating table with international support, declaring to the entire world that in Syria there is a revolution carried out by a living people seeking to realize their legitimate demands and aspirations for human dignity, justice, freedom, equality and democracy. At the other side of the table there is a regime that has been undermining all international initiatives and efforts as well as the entire political process. A regime that has usurped and violated all human rights; destroyed the infrastructure; targeted civilians with barrel bombs and internationally prohibited chemical weapons; detained and tortured thousands of innocent citizens to death; usurped the state that our forefathers liberated from colonialism and fought for its independence; and made the state incapable of meeting the basic needs of its people, which constitute key functions without which no state can exist; namely security and justice.
Keeping the political process alive in Geneva prevented the regime from removing the political aspirations and demands of the Syrian people from the halls of the United Nations and the international arena, especially the demands for holding war criminals accountable, whoever they are. The combined efforts of human rights organizations and Syrian civil society, maintained international attention on an important issue, which is the release of detainees and revealing the fate of the disappeared. All of this prevented the regime and its backers from diverting political and constitutional negotiations into bilateral security and military negotiations between the regime and other countries. Our continued participation in the UN efforts in Geneva to achieve peace in Syria is a declaration to the international community expressing our commitment to a political solution on the basis of international resolutions, and that we will continue our revolution in all possible and legitimate ways until we accomplish that.
Resolution 2254 (2015) calls on all parties in its most prominent provisions to implement a ceasefire, and in article four, it requests the United Nations to convene both parties, the opposition and the regime, to enter into formal negotiations that meet the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people. It gives a targeted period of six months for the process to come up with two concurrent outputs: a credible, inclusive, non-sectarian governance, and it sets a schedule and process for drafting a new constitution for Syria. If further expresses its support for free and fair elections, pursuant to the new constitution, to be held within 18 months under the supervision of the United Nations, to the satisfaction of governance and the highest international standards of transparency and accountability, leading ultimately to a Syrian-led political transition, i.e. the full implementation of the Geneva Communiqué (2012). However, the lack of binding mechanisms to implement the resolution, and in light of the intertwining of the Syrian issue with other regional and international files, led to a US-Russian agreement during the APEC Economic Summit in Da Nang, Vietnam, on November 11, 2017; that is, two years after the direct Russian military intervention in Syria. At the end of the summit, presidents Trump and Putin issued a joint statement on Syria, which stated: “The presidents agreed that there is no military solution to the conflict in Syria. They confirmed that the ultimate political solution of the conflict must be forged through the Geneva process, pursuant to UNSCR 2254. They also took note of President Assad’s recent commitment to the Geneva process and constitutional change and elections, as called for under UNSCR 2254. The two presidents affirmed that these steps must include full implementation of UNSCR 2254, including constitutional change and free and fair elections under UN supervision…”
At that meeting, the United States shifted the responsibility for the implementation of resolution 2254 to Russia and accepted Russia’s view that the entry point for a political solution should be through the constitutional gate, provided that the resolution is implemented in full. This approach was widely accepted by Arab, regional and international players, including countries supporting the demands of the Syrian people. With the facilitation of the UN special envoy, indirect negotiations between the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) and the Syrian regime began on the formation of a constitutional committee, terms of reference, and rules of procedure with international support and approval in the first quarter of 2018. The UN Secretary-General informed the president of the Security Council on 26 September 2019 reaching an agreement on “the terms of reference and core rules of procedure for a Syrian-led, Syrian-owned, credible, balanced and inclusive Constitutional Committee facilitated by the United Nations in Geneva” by “The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic and the Syrian Negotiation Commission, with the facilitation of his Special Envoy for Syria. He asked his special envoy to bring the letter with the agreed document to the attention of the members of the Security Council. The president of the Security Council drew members’ attention to the letter and the attached document and included it as a document of the Security Council under number (S/2019 /775).
The Syrian opposition has committed to taking trust-building measures in order to contribute to the chances of a political process and a permanent ceasefire, to secure the safety of over 4.5 million citizens, the majority of whom are IDPs who live and take refuge in northern Syria, 1.5 million of them are still living in tents. The Syrian opposition expected the other parties to do so, but the Russians violated the principle by their direct military intervention on the side of the regime, and the Syrian regime continued its military operations against civilians, until those attacks were greatly reduced by using deterrence and defence sometimes and by diplomatic means at other times.
The Syrian revolution and opposition forces, through the SNC and the Constitutional Committee, participated in six sessions of the Constitutional Committee meetings and made every possible effort to make progress and move forward in drafting a civilized, democratic and national constitution for the future of Syria. Most of its efforts have failed as a result of the regime’s procrastination and its endeavour to fail this track and disrupt the committee’s work. However, we have not lost the will to continue working and striving to achieve the aspirations of the Syrian people and their humanitarian, political, constitutional and legal demands and to keep them alive under the spotlight and international attention in Geneva. The issue cannot be susceptible to emotions and whims; it rather requires persistence and adherence to constants and to proceed with an inevitable political-diplomatic-legal battle to stop the Syrian tragedy. The revolution is a continuous movement of people’s struggle that will not stop as long as its goals are not achieved.
Therefore, work is underway by the SNC and the revolution and opposition forces on legal, diplomatic and economic tracks to support and revive the political track. These forces are also working to strengthen their regional, international and Arab alliances building on interests we shared with allies and friendly countries. This will support enforcing a comprehensive ceasefire; improve the system of governance and services provided by the Interim Government of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces in areas liberated from the regime’s and its allies’ control, which will enhance their stability and economic activity to create job opportunities and generate income for citizens there, improve health and education services, and continue efforts to organize the National Army under the leadership of the opposition’s General Staff and the Ministry of Defense in order to end the factional situation to enhance security; control and end the spread of weapons; enhance its ability to protect those areas from any attacks. Security forces and local police should be improved to provide security and strengthen a free, fair and independent judiciary to serve justice. All of that can be done utilizing Syrian expertise in those areas. The greater the organization and capabilities of opposition institutions to provide security, justice, services, respect for human rights and adherence to regulations and laws, the greater the capacity of negotiating political institutions will be to change Arab, regional and international positions in order to reach consensus among them on serious support and commitment to enforce a political solution based on the implementation of international resolutions, especially UNSCR 2254. Until then, we must keep that resolution and other relevant resolutions and the political process at large alive in Geneva.
In this context, the seventh session of the Constitutional Council will be held in a few days under the auspices of the United Nations. This session comes at a time the Syrian revolution and opposition forces hope that all Syrian parties will have the same serious intentions and national sentiments, to progress in the work of the Constitutional Committee in order to succeed in its endeavors to draft a modern constitution for Syria, although it knows from the past experience that the other party lacks seriousness and continues to follow a policy of hindrance and procrastination. This policy may work for some time, but not always, in light of the ongoing regional and international changes.
These legitimate aspirations are, in fact, accompanied by criticism from some Syrians, often in good faith, to the slow work of the Constitutional Committee, and the fact that it has not yet achieved its goals. However, based on the reasons and goals that were previously explained, the need to strengthen and maintain them, and in response to the concerted UN and International efforts to advance the political process and support the work of the revolution and opposition institutions to improve their other capabilities, hope is still there. The revolution and opposition forces will engage in the Constitutional Committee after a few days in the seventh session, bearing in mind – as in all previous sessions – the tragedy of an entire people; the memory of hundreds of thousands of victims; the unknown fate of tens of thousands of forcibly disappeared persons in prisons and detention centers; the suffering of millions of the affected, wounded, orphans and the bereaved; as well as the dignity of millions of refugees and IDPs, and their right to voluntary and safe return with dignity to living in a democratic, pluralistic, non-discriminatory state – a state of equal citizenship, freedoms and justice. The revolution and opposition forces represented in the Constitutional Committee will continue to work with determination and patience, and will deal positively with any positive gesture that can be translated into constitutional rules.
Syrians are strong, and will not succumb to pessimism. They must hold on to the political solution, pursuant to UNSCR 2254 (2015) and 2118 (2013), including the Geneva Communiqué. It is the only sustainable solution that garners international support, and the spearhead of this political solution and the entry point that is currently available is for the Constitutional Committee to complete its work to the fullest and as soon as possible. The constitution is important as a guarantee to end tyranny legitimized by the current constitution, which allowed the encroachment and dominance of the executive authority over the state; granted unprecedented exceptional powers to the head of state; did not provide sound separation of powers; and made the Constitutional Court meaningless and with no powers to monitor the implementation of the constitution. The constitution is a legal entry point for achieving an orderly political transition.
Finally, I want to emphasize that SNC representatives in the Constitutional Committee will keep their promise by striving to draft a new constitution for Syria, which will be the main guarantor of the freedom and rights of all Syrians; the well-deserved and long-awaited freedom.