Draft Framework on Interim Arrangements for Constitutional Reform and Transition
May 2016-April 2017
From May 2016, TSG convened a series of workshops focused on changes to Syria’s constitutional order that would be required as part of any negotiated settlement, as sought under UN Security Council Resolution 2254.
They brought together oppositionists (including armed groups) and ‘independents,’ including civil society actors, women’s activists, tribal figures, business elites, and key figures within religious and ethnic minorities. The meetings tackled different options for interim legal/constitutional frameworks, the adoption of a set of “essential guiding principles,” and the process through which such measures could be developed and ratified.
Against the backdrop of deadlocked Intra-Syrian Talks in Geneva, participants also developed recommendations for revisions to the timeframe and format of negotiations, designed to reinvigorate the process and give more confidence to Syrian parties and their international backers.
They called for a process driven not by bilateral negotiations but by a broad-based, inclusive Syrian-Syrian dialogue working toward gradual political change.
Proposals emerging from these workshops – which were convened in an unofficial Track II setting and involved a broad spectrum of Syrian interlocutors from the political and armed opposition, alongside “independent” figures including former officials, professionals and civil society actors – were set out by participants in a “Draft Framework on Interim Arrangements for Constitutional Reform and Transition.” This paper was broadly validated and finalised by April 2017.
To view the full paper, please download it here: Arabic / English