Co-Chairs of Constitutional Committee Meet.. Pedersen Affirms Agreement on Four Principles

Geneva

The Co-Chairs of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, in coordination and presence of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir O. Pedersen held a meeting in Geneva on Sunday 21 March, in preparation for the launch of the seventh session of the meetings of the Small Body of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, which begins on Monday until the end of this week.

Following the meeting, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Mr. Geir O. Pedersen, held a press stakeout in which he reaffirmed that Syria “remains one of the gravest crises in the world and that there is a clear need for progress towards a political solution.” He said that he was pleased that “the Syrian-led, Syrian-owned, UN-facilitated Small Body of the Constitutional Committee is meeting for the Seventh Session this week.” “I will not pre-judge the outcome of this session,” he added, “but I will try to provide you with an update on the work when the week concludes.”

During the stakeout, Pedersen said that he was pleased to meet with the two Co-Chairs of the Constitutional Committee this morning. “We went through the agenda for the week,” he added, “we agreed on which four principles or titles that shall be discussed during the week, and we will spend one day on each principle, and I will mention those four principles to you:

1. Basics of Governance;
2. State Identity;
3. State Symbols;
4. Structure and Functions of Public Authorities.”

Pedersen added that “during the last session in October, the two Co-Chairs noted that the Constitutional Committee needed to improve the work of the last day of the session. They said that they wanted to have a better mechanism when it comes to revisions of proposed constitutional texts and there is now an agreement with the two Co-Chairs on how this should be done, and I am looking forward to seeing then on Friday how this will be put into practice.”

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