Syria Constituational Committee press conference 22 January 2021

Syria Constitutional Committee- Presser continuity - 22 January 2021

17:32

MP4

1.3 GB

22-01-2021

Edited News | UNITED NATIONS

Syria Constituational Committee press conference 22 January 2021

ENG

Shotlist Story

Continuity: Audio CH1 (L) English / CH2 (R) Arabic

Edited story shotlist:

Exterior wide shot, Palais des Nations, Flag alley, a cloudy day.
Wide shot, press briefing room
SOUNDBITE (English) — Geir Pedersen, U.N. Special Envoy for Syria: “This is a fragile calm. All of these issues cannot be sorted out by the Syrians alone. It needs an international cooperation, and what I have said we need real negotiations, and for the different parties to sit down and have a real exchange of views on how to move this process forward. And if that political will is lacking it will be very very difficult to move this process forward”.
Medium shot, staff of the Office of the UN Envoy
SOUNDBITE (English) - Geir Pedersen, U.N. Special Envoy for Syria: “The time has come for the co-chairs to establish what I call more effective and operational working methods, so that the meetings can be better organized and more focused. We need to ensure that the Committee begins to move from preparing a constitutional reform into actually drafting one. “
Medium shot, Geir Pedersen and spokesperson
SOUNDBITE (English) - Geir Pedersen, U.N. Special Envoy for Syria: “The political process so far is not yet delivering real changes in Syrian’s lives nor a real vision for the future. As I emphasized many times, it is now clear that no one actor or group of actors can impose their will on Syria or settle the conflict alone. They must work together”.
Close up, journalist in press briefing room at the UN Palais
SOUNDBITE (English) - Geir Pedersen, U.N. Special Envoy for Syria: “I have called for a more serious and a cooperative international diplomacy and indeed that is needed. It is not only needed. I strongly believe that it should be also possible. After all, despite the differences, key states are continuing to reaffirm their commitment to resolution 2254”.
Medium shot, camera with view finder and Geir Pedersen on the podium in background
SOUNDBITE (English) - Geir Pedersen, U.N. Special Envoy for Syria: “My hope has been that the Constitutional Committee, you know if it’s handled in the correct manner, that it could start to build trust and it could be a door opener for a broader political process. But the Constitutional Committee cannot work in isolation from other factors. We need a political will from the different parties to be able to move forward”.
Medium shot, journalist with cell phone in press briefing room
Wide shot, Geir Pedersen at podium
Close up, Geir Pedersen at podium

Talks on new Syrian Constitution restart in Geneva on Monday, as a “door opener for a broader political process” – says UN Special Envoy for Syria

As another round of talks on Syria’s future constitution begins at United Nations premises in Switzerland on Monday, Geir Pedersen, the U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, expressed his hope that the co-chairs of the 45-member committee, known in diplomatic parlance as the Small Body, will agree on “work plans with clear agendas and topics and with an urgency in delivering progress in this process”.

The so-called Small Body refers to the 45 people (15 representatives from each of three groups: the Syrian government, the opposition and civil society) who undertake the talks in Geneva on Behalf of the larger Constitutional Committee (also known as the “Large Body”, comprising the same three group with 50 representatives each), who are charged with drafting a new constitution ahead of UN-supervised elections.

“My hope has been that the Constitutional Committee, you know, if it’s handled in the correct manner, that it could start to build trust and it could be a door opener for a broader political process,” Pedersen said. “But the Constitutional Committee cannot work in isolation from other factors. We need a political will from the different parties to be able to move forward, ” he added.

In his briefing last Wednesday to the UN Security Council, the Special Envoy described next week’s meeting as “very important”. Many topics on the agenda have been under discussion discussed for more than a year in the Constitutional Committee.

“The time has come for the co-chairs to establish what I call more effective and operational working methods, so that the meetings can be better organized and more focused. We need to ensure that the Committee begins to move from preparing a constitutional reform into actually drafting one“,Pedersen said.

Although the last 10 months have been the calmest in almost a decade of conflict in Syria, and frontlines have barely shifted, the situation could break down at any moment, Pedersen warned.

“This is a fragile calm”, he said. “All of these issues cannot be sorted out by the Syrians alone. It needs an international cooperation, and what I have said we need real negotiations, and for the different parties to sit down and have a real exchange of views on how to move this process forward. And if that political will is lacking it will be very very difficult to move this process forward”.

After nearly a decade of conflict, death, displacement, destructions, detention, millions of Syrians in the country and millions of refugees abroad are having to deal with deep trauma and a lack of hope for the future.

The UN’s Syria Envoy admitted that “the political process so far is not yet delivering real changes in Syrian’s lives nor a real vision for the future.” He said that a willingness to collaborate is essential to moving the peace process forward. “As I emphasized many times, it is now clear that no one actor or group of actors can impose their will on Syria or settle the conflict alone. They must work together,” he stated.

Pedersen said the Committee can start considering specific constitutional issues and draft provisions and agree on future meetings on specific topics. He appealed for “a more serious and cooperative international diplomacy,” saying that despite their differences key countries remain committed to the UN Security Council resolution that guides his work.

“I have called for a more serious and a cooperative international diplomacy and indeed that is needed,” Pedersen said. “It is not only needed. I strongly believe that it should be also possible. After all, despite the differences, key states are continuing to reaffirm their commitment to resolution 2254”.

Resolution 2254 was adopted by the UN Security Council in December 2015, and unanimously endorsed a road map to peace in Syria. Through this resolution, the Security Council endorsed the 30 June 2012 agreement known as the Geneva Communiqué, as the basis for a Syrian-led, Syrian-owned political transition to end the conflict.

Teleprompter

Well, let me start by thanking you all for joining us.

Thank you all for cooperating without saying that obviously I hope to be able to be in touch with you on the.

But today it's about the meetings we are going to have next week, sessions of the Syrian constitutional.

We will be ensuring the strict safety.

I've been engaging with the two cultures on the regular basic basis and virtually in the mid third civil society.

I briefed the Security Council on Wednesday.

I told the council that I do believe that the upcoming meeting starting on Monday is a very important For more than a year many subjects have been discussed and after last session I indicated that I saw some potential for some common.

I hope to see more of this during next.

I told the Council that the time has come for the Co chairs to establish what I call more effective and operational working methods so that the meetings can be better organised and more focused.

We need to ensure that the committee begins to move from repairing the constitutional reform into actually drafting law, as I also mentioned during my last in Congress that you hear of, and also so there are several ways of doing this.

I have been proposing is that they can do this by consider specific constitutional issues and broad provisions.

I also hope that the coaches will reach an agreement on work plans for future meetings with clear agendas and topics.

There needs to be more urgency to delivering progress.

Today.

I also had the pleasure of engaging virtually with the Women's Advisory Board, and I will also be engaging with them sometime next week.

It's a priority for all of us to make sure that we have the full participation of Syrian women in the political process and that promoting their core constitutional rights is, of course, central for me as a facilitator and the work of the Constitutional Committee.

I've also been engaging with the civil society's supporter.

I really appreciate their support.

I salute their work and the work of all those Syrians who do what they can to improve the situation on the ground and to support a political process on Wednesday to the Security Council.

I emphasise that the Syrian people have experienced a decade of conflict that one cannot overstate the drama that they have experienced millions inside the country and the millions of refugees outside.

Although grappling with extreme economic challenges and on top of it the challenge of COVID-19, for many Syrians, the daily struggle just to survive growths out most other issues.

Political process so far is not yet delivering re changes in Syrians lives nor a real issue for the future.

So I emphasised many times, it is now clear that no one actor or group of actors can impose their will on Syria or settle the conflict along.

They must work together.

I have called for a more serious and cooperative international diplomacy and indeed that is needed.

It is not needed.

I strongly believe that it is should also be possible.

After all, despite the differences, key states are continuing to reaffirm their commitment to Resolution 2254.

And as you will also have seen as you follow up the Security Council meeting, I will continue to engage with the and also with all the international actors and of course also with the new incoming US.

I look forward to the brief you after the end of the session next week.

Thank you.

Mr Patterson has some time for questions.

I believe I see the first hand online is Catherine.

Catherine, please unmute Catherine, if you can identify your media organisation as I can't see it.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

I think the, you know, I have highlighted many times that we now see that there are what I call 5 armies operating in Syria.

We have seen, you know, violations of Syrian sovereignty and territorial integrity going on for years.

We have seen economic hardship as a consequence of 10 years of conflict.

And also, you know, internal factors, but also external factors.

And we have seen, of course, a relative calm since March when we had the agreement between Russia and Turkey for the Northwest.

But as I emphasise, this is a fragile all of these issues cannot be sorted out by the Syrians alone.

It needs an international cooperation.

And what I've said, we need real negotiations and for the different parties to sit down, have a real exchange for views on how to move this process forward.

And if that political will is lacking, it will be very, very difficult to move this process forward.

As I said, you know, we need the Syrian parties, you know, but we can't rely on the Syrians alone.

And as I told the Security Council, if you leave this to the UN alone, we will not be able to succeed.

All of us need to work together.

Afternoon.

Thank you for that briefing.

I was wondering about your plans for large scale prisoner swaps.

I know that was something you were aiming for at one stage.

Is there any update as to where you are with this and if not, what, what is holding it up and, and might it be part of the discussions in Geneva next week?

Shukra.

Thank you.

Shukra.

No, this will not be part of the discussions in Geneva next week.

But this is always, you know, part of my agenda when I meet with the parties, when I am in Damascus.

Those are when I'm in Damascus and when my deputy, Karola Matar is there.

This is one of the key issues we are discussing.

And also we are, this is also, as you know, we have a working group with Turkey, Iran and Russia.

But this is also, you know, the top of the agenda.

I'm afraid that so far it has been disappointing.

We have, in my opinion, we haven't seen any real progress.

And that's but it doesn't mean that we should not continue to actually, it means that we need to work even harder to be able to see progress on this.

This is a file that really has an impact on nearly every Syrian family and it needs to be addressed.

And we need to start to see progress.

And I have appealed to see that we could see, you know, more information on the missing that we need to see the early release of, you know, women, children, the elderly and the sick.

And I think that, you know, there should be really nothing that should stop this from happening.

Well, thank you.

Next, please, to Laurent from Swiss news agency Laurent Rica.

Let's have a Swiss RIA Laurent.

Yeah, Thank you, Jennifer.

Thank you.

Special Envoy.

At the beginning of of your statement that the Security Council, you said that you just received some new inputs by the culture that was appointed by the SNC.

So I was wondering, yeah, I was wondering what kind of what inputs do you receive in that drafting mood that you you're calling for?

Do you feel that the parties are ready to move towards that behaviour in in that round or let's say in a short term perspective?

And then briefly, what do you expect from the US new administration?

Thank you.

As you rightly pointed out, so I just received a written proposal from the SNC Co chair.

I have shared that with Doctor Kosbari and I'm going to have a round of discussions later today with the both coaches and I will have a new round on Sunday.

So it's a little bit early for me to go into detail on those discussions, but it's it's good that we have something to discussing and hopefully, based on the ideas I have mentioned to the Security Council, we will be able to move forward, as I said, and make progress on the different issues that I have mentioned.

It's too early for me to tell what, you know, what I expect to be the outcome on my dialogue with the American administration.

As you know, they were sworn on in on Wednesday and so far, I haven't been in in touch with them, but I'm very much looking forward to have hopefully an intensive and good dialogue also with the new American administration.

Thank you.

Final two questions, Nina, to you first, please, Nina.

Nina, hi.

Thank you for taking my question.

I first of all, I just wanted to ask about when specifically the the delegates are arriving.

They've already arrived and also you mentioned the need for real negotiation.

Thank you Shukran, All members hopefully will be arriving tomorrow.

Then as I said, I will have consultations with the coaches and with the middle third during Sunday and then we will start the meeting on Monday morning.

I'm obviously hopeful that the contacts I will have with the two coaches will result in some progress so that we can, when we start the meeting, we started with a better understanding of how to make this week more effective, more forward-looking so that we can make some.

But as I said, I'm in the midst of the discussions with the two cultures, so it's a bit too early to say how this is.

Hello.

My question in Arabic.

Listen, I'm not sure I heard the full question or all the questions you asked, but let me try to respond to at least the part I heard you asked.

Whether this round of negotiations would be a success for the United Nations, I really do not think that is the question.

The question, of course, is that it is is a success for the Syrian people and the aspirations of the Syrian people.

And as I've said, you know, many times, my hope has been that the Constitution Committee, you know, if it's handled in the correct manner, that it could start to build trust and that it could be a door opener for a broader political process.

But the Constitution Committee cannot work in isolation from other factors.

We need a political will from the different parties to be able to move forward.

And, of course, we also need to see progress on the other files that is mentioned in Security Council Resolution 2254.

The Constitution Committee is just one aspect and it's not the one aspect that we solve the Syrian crisis we need.

Obviously, if we are to see changes on the situation on the ground, there are other factors that need to be discussed and I've already alluded to that in my previous answers today.

Thank you, Musa, if you have any follow up, please feel free to just send me an e-mail.

And thank you all for joining us.

Again, as Mr Patterson noted, he will update you at the conclusion of the week and I'll be available throughout the week if you have any questions.

Thank you very much.

Bye.

Yeah, good.

Thank you.

Real.

You guys always do the best.

It all comes together.