Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced on Sunday the establishment of a committee tasked with drafting a constitutional declaration to guide the country’s transition following the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar Al-Assad, France24 reported.
A statement from the presidency confirmed “the formation of a committee of experts,” including one woman, to draft “the constitutional declaration that regulates the transitional phase” in Syria. The seven-member committee will “submit its proposals to the president,” though no timeline was provided for completion.
Sharaa, who previously led the Islamist rebel faction Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was responsible for the swift offensive that ousted Assad, was appointed interim president on January 30. His term has no set duration.
The new authorities have abolished the Assad-era constitution, and Sharaa has stated that the process of drafting a new constitution could take up to three years.
In January, Sharaa pledged that a “constitutional declaration” would act as a “legal reference” throughout the transitional period.
Sunday’s announcement was made “based on the Syrian people's aspirations in building their state based on the rule of law, and building on the outcomes of the Syrian national dialogue conference,” according to the presidency. It further emphasized the need to establish “the legal framework regulating the transitional phase.”
The newly formed committee includes legal experts such as Abdul Hamid al-Awak, a constitutional law specialist and university lecturer in Turkey; Yasser al-Huwaish, the recently appointed dean of Damascus University’s law faculty; and Bahia Mardini, the sole female member, a journalist with a doctorate in law currently residing in Britain. Also named to the committee is Ismail al-Khalfan, an expert in international law and the newly appointed dean of Aleppo University’s law faculty. Mohammed Reda Jalkhi, a specialist in international law who graduated from Idlib University in 2023, is also among the members.
The final statement from this week’s dialogue conference called for “a constitutional committee to prepare a draft permanent constitution for the country that achieves balance between authorities, sets the values of justice, freedom and equality, and establishes a state of law and institutions.”
HTS, which Sharaa led, was once a part of Al-Nusra Front, which is Syria’s Al-Qaeda branch, and is labeled a terrorist organization by many Western governments.
HTS later broke off from Al-Nusra Front and prioritized combatting Al-Qaeda as well as the Islamic State (ISIS), of which Sharaa was critical, describing its self-proclaimed caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq as "illegitimate".
Shortly after Sharaa came to power, the US decided to remove the $10 million bounty on his head, but did not lift the sanctions that have been imposed on Syria during its civil war.
Last week, the European Union began rolling back energy, transport, and banking sanctions against Syria in an effort to revitalize the country's struggling economy, provided its new leadership remains committed to peace.