German Consul General Klemens Semtner attended a conference held by Rudaw Research Center and the European Center for Kurdish Studies, discussing the United Nations’ role in the process of writing the Syrian constitution and whether federalism could be a way out of Syria’s crises.
“The Syrian people know now about the rights they are being denied, the Syrian people know what to demand from truly democratic institutions,” Semtner said in his speech during the conference, adding that the Federal Foreign Office of Germany “only want to facilitate this process by providing the means, the Syrian people themselves must find the best answers to these questions.”
The 45-member Syria Constitutional Committee - 15 members from each regime, Turkey-backed opposition and civil society - held its sixth round of talks in October. The three sides submitted draft texts on different areas of the constitution, but they did not make any progress in their discussions.
“The discussion today was a big disappointment. We did not manage to achieve what we had hoped to achieve: that we would have a good discussion on how to reach forward for some kind of a consensus," UN envoy Geir Pedersen said in a news conference at the time. "We lacked a proper understanding on how to move that process forward."
Pedersen on Wednesday said that he expects talks to resume next month, however, it is unknown whether an agreement will be reached this time.
“We do not know what the results will be in Geneva, or if there will be any at all,” Semtner said, adding that “the fact though that so many democratically oriented politicians and activists have participated in these fora and have learned about how a constitution works, this fact is a great success in itself.”
At a Russia-hosted Syrian peace conference in January 2018, an agreement was reached to form a 150-member committee to draft a new constitution. A smaller 45-member body would do the actual drafting, including 15 members each from the government, opposition and civil society. It took until September 2019 for the committee to be formed.
The Kurdish autonomous administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) is not invited to the talks, partly because of a veto by Turkey.
Syria’s conflict that began in March 2011 has killed half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, including more than 5 million refugees mostly in neighboring countries. Though fighting has subsided in recent months, there are still pockets controlled by the Syrian opposition, where millions of people live.
A 2012 UN road map to peace in Syria approved by representatives of the United Nations, Arab League, European Union, Turkey and all five permanent Security Council members calls for the drafting of a new constitution. It ends with UN-supervised elections with all Syrians, including members of the diaspora, eligible to participate. A Security Council resolution adopted in December 2015 unanimously endorsed the road map.
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