UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL ENVOY FOR SYRIA GEIR O. PEDERSEN BRIEFING TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL ON SYRIA

 27 October 2021

Thank you, Mr. President (Ambassador Martin Kimani - Kenya)

 1. Last week, between 18 and 22 October, I convened the Sixth Session of the Small Body of the Syrian-led, Syrian-owned, UN-facilitated Constitutional Committee in Geneva. In accordance with the agreement I facilitated between the two Co-Chairs, titles of constitutional principles were submitted before departure to Geneva by the three delegations – the delegation nominated by the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic, the delegation nominated by the Syrian Negotiations Commission, and the Middle Third civil society delegation. 2. Joined by my Deputy Khawla Matar, I convened the first Co-Chairs meeting in advance of the session, and they met in that format as required throughout the week. The Co-Chairs’ interactions were frank, and businesslike and open. With UN facilitation, they agreed how titles would be selected and when they would be discussed during the first four days. They also met together with me the Middle Third civil society delegation. 3. Accordingly, draft constitutional texts on four titles were presented in advance of each meeting as follows, and then discussed in the Committee: • On Monday: the delegation nominated by the government submitted a draft constitutional text on “Sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic”. • On Tuesday: the delegation nominated by the SNC submitted a draft constitutional text on “The Army, Armed Forces, Security and the Intelligence”. • On Wednesday: some members of the Middle Third civil society delegation submitted a draft constitutional text on “The Rule of Law”. • And, on Thursday: the delegation nominated by the government submitted a draft constitutional text on “Terrorism and extremism”. 4. Let me note that the Co-Chairs had agreed on this distribution for this Session, with the understanding that in the next two Sessions, other delegations would take their turn in presenting draft constitutional texts on two titles during the week. 5. Each principle was the subject of discussion for one day. However, the Co-Chairs were not able to agree on the mechanisms for progressing the discussion further during the final day on Friday. The Co-Chair nominated by the SNC made proposals on this, but there was no CoChair agreement. The Co-Chairs however agreed that delegations who had further material to present regarding the texts discussed to date should be free to do so in the plenary meeting on Friday.