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Syrian Constitutional Committee press conference : UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen
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Press Conferences | UNITED NATIONS
Syrian Consitutional Committee press conference 04 December 2020
Continuity footage from a press conference with UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, Friday 4 December 2020, at UN Geneva Palais des Nations.
Continuity footage from a press conference with Syrian Constitutional Committee co-chair Ahmad Kuzbari (Government of Syria), Friday 4 December 2020, at UN Geneva Palais des Nations.
Continuity footage from a press conference with Syrian Constitutional Committee co-chair for the Opposition Hadi Albahra, Friday 4 December 2020, at UN Geneva Palais des Nations.
Continuity footage from the press conference on Friday at UN Geneva, at the end of the fifth and final day of the Syrian Constitutional Committee discussions at the Palais des Nations, with UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen.
Ahead of the meeting, the UN negotiator said that the two Syrian co-chairs had agreed to discuss national foundations and principles, while constitutional matters would be on the agenda at a fifth meeting in the new year. “(The fourth meeting) would be followed up with a fifth session in January which will focus on constitutional principles, or basic principles of the constitution, so this is obviously a package,” he told journalists attending the press conference remotely, in line with COVID-19 prevention measures.
An equal number of delegates from the Government, opposition and civil society have taken part in the discussions in the Swiss city. Numbering 45 in total, the forum is known collectively as the “Small Body”.
Teleprompter
2 is English, 7 is Arabic.
2, Good afternoon.
Thank you for joining us.
Again, apologies for the delay.
The fourth round of the small body of the Syrian Constitutional Committee has concluded.
The special envoy is here to provide an update.
If you're watching in the room, are you on web TV?
You have the option to listen in English or Arabic again.
If you're accredited journalist joining us online, I'd be grateful if your login reflected your name and your media affiliation.
Mr Patterson.
Good afternoon.
Good to see you.
I hope you're doing well.
As Jennifer just said, we we have concluded in the fourth session of the drafting body of the Constitutional Committee during the week we have or they have rather more precisely discussed wide range of topics.
There was as always many clear statements or positions.
There were submissions of specific positions and of formula and of language on several aspects.
Of course there were many differences and let me emphasise that the reason why we are here, of course is to listen to the to the differences.
There are very strong different narratives.
There are a lot, of course, of emotions after nearly 10 years of conflict, and in the room there are tense moments.
This is to be expected.
But I think perhaps more importantly, what we experienced through this week was I think more and more that people were listening attentively to each other's.
They were listening with respect and there was also an exchange that they were addressing each other's.
And I, you know, when I and my team, when we sit and we follow the discussions, I think we see also very clearly that there are some common ground.
There are some positions that we think we hopefully when we meet again, we will be possible to build upon.
And that that could create something that would be of importance when we actually hopefully in a not too distant future, start to to when when over Syrian France start to draught proposals for constitutional reform.
So as I said, I believe it has been a useful exercise and we can see if there are elements here that we can use when we hopefully move forward.
And these elements need to be discussed obviously further.
I'm very pleased to be able to inform you that the small body that we have now agreed and I think this is actually the first time we have managed to do that.
We have agreed both on an agenda for the next meeting and we agreed on the time for the next meeting.
So the next meeting will be starting on the 25th of January, COVID situation allowing.
And what we will be discussing is then constitutional principles or basic principles of the Constitution.
That is the agreed agenda.
I have, I mentioned this at the very beginning of my of this week, at the press conference last Sunday, that this committee is indeed important.
It can build trust and confidence and it can start to address some key issues in the conflict.
And it can be a door opener and but I'll also add it, but it cannot alone resolve the conflict.
And I think this is, you know, after 10 years of conflict, it is not surprising that this is perhaps slow going and a difficult process.
And this past year has, you know, has been unusual.
We lost many months due to COVID and so not met with irregularity we expected.
But we are now managed to meet twice despite the pandemic.
And as I just said, we have another meeting coming up.
And frankly speaking, I think that is more than many people expected.
I've also said that we need to see faster progress, not only in the committee but also on the ground and also in the international cooperation.
I've said, and I'd like to repeat that, that we need a constructive and supportive international diplomacy on Syria and the process on all the wider aspects of Resolution 2254 with mutually reinforcing and reciprocal actions.
The conflict has lasted far too long and the Syrian people are suffering and suffering deeply.
They need to see the political process move forward in 2021.
Thank you.
We have time for just a few questions.
I'll start with the the people in the room.
Byron, please.
Thank you very much for let me take my thank you, Jennifer, for taking my question.
Mr Patterson, next month there will be a fifth round as I said, and then you will be focusing on constitutional principles or basic principle of constitution.
You said just now there are strong differences between the parties.
You just told the same thing in the last round of in August.
So what's your expectations?
How are you going to find, are you going to compromise these differences between the parties next month when you meet here?
Thank you.
Well, we, we're obviously meeting with the expectations as I said that it is will be possible to narrow the differences.
And as I said, the committee's mandate is to prepare and draught for a constitutional reform.
And our hope is that with the next few rounds of discussions it will be possible to start that drafting process that will also require a lot of work.
It will be challenging and it may not happen as quickly as we could hope.
But my, as I said after listening to the 2 to the three different delegations this week, I still, I do still believe that there are many areas with the right political will that it should be possible to move forward.
But in the end, it requires political will and a willingness to compromise.
And as you know, this committee is established with a voting threshold of 75%, so meaning that one side cannot dictate to the others what needs to happen.
So they either need to develop a consensus or they need to move across to the other side and to get more people on board for their IDs.
So this is an hopefully should serve as an incentive to move towards consensus.
Thank you, Peter I.
Think I saw.
Your hand next, please.
Good afternoon, Mr Peterson.
Thank you for taking my question.
Peter Kenny from Anadulu English Service, you mentioned the role that the international community can play.
Could you elaborate on that and say what they can do to facilitate the process?
Thank you.
Well, as I, I said last, I think on Sunday when we met, I said that we had been on visiting, you know, Damascus and then we went to, to Ankara, to Cairo, and after that to Moscow, Tehran and Riyadh.
And of course I've also been in touch with our American friends and the European interlocutors.
And I, I'm sensing a strong support for the work that we are doing when it comes to the Constitutional Committee.
So I believe there is an international consensus on that.
But what we need to see is that there is also developed a consensus on how to implement Security Council Resolution 2254.
There is, as you know, this was adopted with a consensus in in December 2015.
But with we need love to see that this is developed further.
And we are hoping that, you know, within with the relative calm on the ground in Syria and with the hopefully the small steps we've been making, know that it would be possible to take stock of where we are after nearly 10 years of conflict, five years after the adoption of Security Council Resolution 2254.
And that this could also serve as a reminder to the international community to re engage and to focus with more unity on how to move forward on the on the Syrian fight.
I'll take the next two hands that I saw in the order that I saw them moving to online with Laurent.
Laurent, please your question.
Yeah, Thank you.
Can you hear me very good.
Thank you And thank you, Special Envoy for the the press conference.
I'd like to come back to the common grounds that you mentioned to give us a sense of of at the pace.
The.
Discussions are moving.
Could you elaborate on these common grounds?
Thank you.
Well, as I said, I think I see areas where we could move forward towards hopefully what could be a common ground.
I, I think it would be too much to say that we are there already, but this is really up to the two parties to decide themselves.
But obviously, you know, there are areas where I think, you know, as I see it, it would be and it would be very interesting to see how these discussions are developing.
You know, it, it would not be a surprise to you to learn that obviously a lot it was a lot of discussions on serious sovereign sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity.
I believe that is an obvious area where there should be hopefully a ground possible to find.
Also common language.
There has been extensive discussions on the issue of national identity.
You know, it would be interesting to see if that could also move towards something more that they could formulate that they agree on.
When I listen to them, I sense that there are areas where they could build upon and then, you know, also obviously when it comes to Syrian refugees and the right to return, I think there are many areas there as well where you could look at.
Hopefully we could find something.
And then, and this is an issue I have mentioned to you many times the issues about detainees, abductees and missing persons.
But listen, there is a long list and many topics that we've discussed.
But of course, it's also easy to identify that when we discuss these areas, there are also disagreements.
But the, the, you know, the challenge will be then to see if it's possible to develop in the future areas of agreement in all of these different areas that we have discussed.
OK.
Final question is the first hand I saw online James Bates.
James Bates, your question please.
There we go.
Yes.
Special Envoy James BAE is from Al Jazeera in New York, and I'm not going to make any apologies for the fact that my question is pretty similar to the one I asked you on Sunday here in New York, speaking to members of various delegations on the Security Council, there are a lot who are sceptical of your process.
You yourself said that 2254 was five years ago and nothing seems to be going anywhere very fast.
You can point to elements of common ground and tone, you say, but don't you need to make some specific progress and how much longer you're going to give this?
Listen, we are, I think, all eager to make more progress than what we have experienced so far.
And I think, but perhaps the more important thing is that it's not we that are eager to search for this.
It's of course the Syrian people themselves.
And, you know, we all share this appointment that it hasn't been possible to move this process forward in the manner that would have changed the life for the millions of Syrians who deserve a better life.
But James, I think you have been following this conflict from the very beginning.
You know the reasons why it has not been possible to move this process forward.
There is a deep distrust between the parties.
There has been a deep distrust between the international parties.
And there has been a lack of willingness to engaged in steps that could build trust between the parties.
So what we are doing here in the Constitutional committee, you know, I never tried to oversell it, but I'm seeing it as a step in the right direction.
But as I said, you know, what is also important is to see that we make progress on the ground, that we make progress within the international format, that we encourage the new American administration and Russia in particular, to sit down and to discuss, to see if there are, you know, step by step reciprocal steps that they could be taken.
And then hopefully, we can also then see that through this progress we're making here in the Constitutional committee that will build trust, that could make it possible to move forward on the file of detainee abductees and missing persons and on issues that would change the life and the realities for the people living in Syria and of course, for the million of refugees and displaced people.
That's a challenge.
This is a challenge that you know, I will not be able to report progress to you within the next few weeks.
But we are working steadily and we are in close touch with the with the government of Syria, with the opposition in Syria and with all the international actors.
And if you have any other piece of advice, James, I'm more than willing to listen to you.
Thank you.
Do you?
Have time for one more.
OK, sorry.
We'll take one more from the room.
Musa, I believe you had a question in the back.
Sikhonat al Maya Deen so early?
****, who?
And could you tell us what happened in this closing meeting?
Thank you.
To start with your last question, it ended with me summarising what we, I believe we had achieved during the last week.
And we agreed that we have, as I said, we have agreed on the agenda for the next meeting and I can repeat the agenda, Constitution principles or basic principles of the Constitution.
And we have an agreement with all the members of the committee that we will meet again.
The meeting will start on the 25th of January.
There is no more discussions on that.
And that hopefully the delegations will be able to arrive here on the 23rd of January.
Of course, we will have to see how the COVID situation develops.
But we are hopeful.
We have, you know, despite the fact that we have had, you know, you know, a serious outbreak of COVID in Geneva, we have managed to organise 2 meetings here in Geneva, one in late August.
And all this here, I believe they're already in December.
Yes.
Thank you so much.
More precisely discuss why addressing each others and I do that we have to give both on an agenda for the next of the Constitution.
That is the, you know, after 10 years of conflict, portive international diplomacy on Syria expectations.
As I said that if this will be possible to now.