Barbara Walters chats with Forward Syria
Swaying between art and seduction
Discussing monetary policy with the man in charge
Where the earth screams in horror
11/01/2011 - Issue 56
Assad appoints a 29-member Constitutional Committee, for a new constitution by next February
After much ado, a Constitutional Committee was finally created in Syria last October, mandated to author a new constitution for Syria.
The current constitution, penned back in 1973, is now considered obsolete because of Article 8 which famously designates the Baath Party as “leader of state and society.”
That article will have to go, experts say, as well as 12 other articles that speak of a socialist army and socialist economy. Opposition figures have been asking that the term of the President of the Republic be reduced to four rather than seven years, and be confined to two terms only. President Bashar al-Assad, it must be noted, was re-elected for a seven year term in 2007 and is expected to nominate himself for a third term in 2014. Other changes might include empowering the Prime Minister by making him an appointee of whatever party wins majority in Parliament. Previously he had been appointed by the President. Additionally, only a vote of no confidence from within the Chamber can remove a sitting Prime Minister.
The new Constitutional Committee is headed by veteran judge Mazhar al-Anbari,84, a former president of the Lawyer’s Syndicate and former Justice Minister. Other members include Aziz Shukri and Abboud Sarraj, two former Deans of the Faculty of Law at Damascus University, and Amal Yazagi, the ex-Dean of the Faculty of International Relations at the University of Kalamoon (UOK). The 29-member committee is required to present a new constitutional draft by mid-February2012. The draft will then be voted upon through a national referendum, with a choice of “yes-no.” This four month period to write a constitution is considered the longest yet in Syrian history, where previous constitutional assemblies took anywhere between 1-3 months to write a constitution.
The constitutional committee, it must be noted, was appointed by President Bashar al-Assad last October, six months after his advisor Bouthaina Shaaban promised a new constitution for Syria.
