Syria’s new authorities has adopted a brief structure that concentrates a lot energy within the arms of the interim president and retains Islamic regulation as the muse of the authorized system.
The interim president, Ahmed al-Shara, signed the constitutional declaration on Thursday following the dissolution in January of the earlier structure underneath the authoritarian president, Bashar al-Assad. Mr. al-Shara, who led the overthrow of Mr. al-Assad in December, had promised to type an inclusive authorities and he heralded this as the start of what he referred to as “a brand new historical past” for the nation after a long time of dictatorship and an extended civil struggle.
The declaration ensures “freedom of opinion, expression, info, publication and press.” If upheld, this may be a dramatic departure from the draconian surveillance state underneath Mr. al-Assad. It additionally pledges to safeguard girls’s rights and the rights of all Syrians throughout a five-year transitional interval, after which a everlasting structure can be adopted and elections for a president and parliament can be held.
Nonetheless, some amongst Syria’s numerous mixture of ethnic and spiritual teams stay skeptical of the brand new chief’s sweeping guarantees to create an inclusive authorities due to his roots as the pinnacle of an Islamist extremist insurgent group.
The president’s powers
The short-term structure grants the president govt authority and the facility to declare a state of emergency. The president will appoint one-third of the legislature, which can function an interim parliament for the transition interval. The opposite two-thirds can be chosen by electoral commissions overseen by a committee appointed by the president.
The brand new structure requires judicial independence. However the president is solely liable for appointing judges to Syria’s new constitutional courtroom, the physique ostensibly meant to carry Mr. al-Shara accountable. The doc doesn’t grant energy to some other physique to approve his appointments however specifies solely that judges should be neutral.
Abdul Hamid al-Awak, a member of the committee that drafted the brand new structure, instructed a information convention on Thursday that the declaration ensured a separation of powers versus the focus of energy over different branches of presidency in Mr. al-Assad’s arms when he was in energy.
However the sweeping authority that the brand new declaration retains within the president’s arms through the transitional interval might unnerve these in Syria who’re hoping for a pointy flip away from the greater than 5 a long time of dictatorship underneath Mr. al-Assad and his father earlier than him.
The United Nations’ particular envoy for Syria, Man Pedersen, mentioned on Friday that he hoped the constitutional declaration “will transfer Syria towards restoring the rule of regulation and selling an orderly inclusive transition.”
Islamic regulation will stay authorized basis
The short-term structure has retained a provision that stipulates Syria’s president should be a Muslim, as did the outdated structure. And like its precursor, the brand new structure provides central significance to Islamic regulation. The brand new doc says it will likely be the principle supply of laws, whereas making certain that “freedom of perception is assured.”
Nonetheless, all rights, together with freedom of faith, could also be curtailed if they’re deemed to infringe on nationwide safety or public order, amongst different issues, the structure says.
Syria’s new authorities is led by Sunni Muslim former rebels who fought Mr. al-Assad through the nation’s civil struggle. Since sweeping to energy in Damascus, skeptics have questioned Mr. al-Shara’s true beliefs.
As a insurgent chief, Mr. al-Shara commanded an Islamist armed group as soon as allied with Al Qaeda. Some query whether or not he has really deserted his former hard-line jihadist views, although his insurgent group severed ties with Al Qaeda years earlier than he took energy.
Pledges to safeguard minorities
Syria is house to a various vary of ethnic and spiritual teams, and the structure guarantees to guard the rights of all Syrians and defend them from discrimination. However sectarian tensions linger, they usually erupted viciously final week when Assad loyalists ambushed authorities safety forces, prompting a harsh crackdown that devolved into deadly sectarian assaults on civilians, in accordance with the United Nations and struggle monitoring teams.
These assaults seem to have been directed towards the Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which the Assad household belongs. They have been a reminder that Mr. al-Shara remains to be removed from having secured management over all Syrian territory, and presumably even over all forces linked to the federal government.
The USA and European nations have been reluctant to carry Assad-era sanctions till Syria’s new leaders show that they’re dedicated to an inclusive political course of and to defending minority rights. The lifting of these sanctions stays a vital step to resurrecting the nation’s battered financial system — probably the most urgent challenges for Mr. al-Shara’s authorities.
Though the structure pledges to guard minority rights, it has sparked concern amongst a minimum of one main ethnic minority, the Syrian Kurds.
The Syrian Democratic Council, the political wing of the Kurdish-led forces that management northeastern Syria, mentioned the brand new doc “reproduced authoritarianism in a brand new type” and criticized what it mentioned have been unchecked govt powers.
It’s unclear whether or not Kurdish dissatisfaction with the structure will have an effect on an settlement reached this week between the nation’s new authorities and the Kurdish-led forces backed by the US to include them into the federal government’s civil and navy establishments.
Freedom, with some exceptions
The pledge to ensure freedom of opinion, expression, info, publication and press” comes with some exceptions, together with glorifying the Assad regime.
The constitutional declaration ensures girls’s rights to training and work, including that they may have full “social, financial and political rights.”
Since his ascent to energy, Mr. al-Shara has appeared eager to assuage home and worldwide issues over the function of ladies within the new Syria. In January, he delivered a speech utilizing gender-sensitive language, not often utilized by leaders within the area. He highlighted the function of ladies within the revolution, and the struggling that they had skilled.
