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Syria has had various constitutions, the first being the Syrian Constitution of 1930. The most recent constitution was in force from 26 February 2012 until the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024. A new constitution will be drafted by the Syrian Transitional Government in 2025. [1]
The Syrian Constitution of 1930, drafted by a committee under Ibrahim Hananu, was the founding constitution of the First Syrian Republic. The constitution required the President to be of Muslim faith (article 3). It was replaced by the Constitution of 5 September 1950, which was restored following the Constitution of 10 July 1953 and the Provisional Constitution of the United Arab Republic.
The provisional Constitution of the United Arab Republic was eventually replaced by the Provisional Constitution of 25 April 1964 which itself was replaced by the Provisional Constitution of 1 May 1969.
A new constitution was adopted on 13 March 1973 and was in use until 27 February 2012. It entrenched the power of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, its §8 describing the party as "the leading party in the society and the state", even if Syria was not, as is often believed, a one-party system in formal terms. [2] The constitution has been amended twice. Article 6 was amended in 1981. [3] The constitution was last amended in 2000 when the minimum age of the President was lowered from 40 to 34. [4]
Following the 2011 Syrian revolution, the Syrian government drafted a new constitution and put it to a referendum on 26 February 2012, which was unmonitored by international observers. The modifications in the constitution were cosmetic and part of Ba'athist government's response to the nation-wide protests. Since the move monopolized power of the Government of Syria and was drafted without consultation outside loyalist circles, Syrian opposition and revolutionary parties boycotted the referendum, resulting in very low participation as per government data. [5] The referendum resulted in the adoption of the new constitution, which came into force on 27 February 2012. [6] This constitution will be phased out once the new constitution by the Syrian Transitional Government takes place. [7]
On 23 January 2017, Russian diplomats presented a draft constitution for a new Syrian constitution which was rejected by the opposition delegates. [8] [9]
A new constitution by the Syrian Transitional Government is expected to be drafted. [10] On 12 December 2024, spokesman of the transitional government said that during the government's three-month term the constitution and parliament would be suspended, adding that a 'judicial and human rights committee' would be established to review the constitution prior to making amendments. [11]
During the final decade of Ba'ath party rule, the politics of Syria took place in the framework of a presidential republic with nominal multi-party representation in People's Council under the Ba'athist-dominated National Progressive Front. In practice, Ba'athist Syria remained a one-party state where independent parties were outlawed, with a powerful secret police that cracked down on dissidents. From the 1963 seizure of power by its neo-Ba'athist Military Committee to the fall of the Assad regime, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party governed Syria as a totalitarian police state. After a period of intra-party strife, Hafez al-Assad gained control of the party following the 1970 coup d'état and his family dominated the country's politics.
Bashar al-Assad is a Syrian politician, military officer, and former dictator who served as the 19th president of Syria from 2000 until his government was overthrown by Syrian rebels in December 2024. As president, Assad was commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and secretary-general of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. He is the son of Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000.
Since gaining independence from France in 1946, Syria has used a number of different flags, all featuring the pan-Arab colors of green, black, white, and red. Initially a green, white and black triband charged with three red five-pointed stars, known as the Independence flag, was used. In Ba'athist Syria, this was replaced by the flag of the United Arab Republic with red, white and black tribands with either two or three green stars or charged with the national coat of arms. Following the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024, the independence flag once again began to be used within the country by the Syrian parliament and the Syrian transitional government, and at Syrian embassies abroad.
The president of Syria is the head of state of Syria. They are vested with sweeping powers that may be delegated, at their sole discretion, to their vice presidents. They appoint and dismiss the prime minister and other members of the Council of Ministers and military officers.
A civil war has been occurring in Syria since 2011, following the events of the 2011 Syrian Revolution, part of the international wave of protest known as the Arab Spring. The government, led by Bashar al-Assad, son of previous leader Hafez al-Assad, was based in Damascus until its overthrow on 8 December 2024, the traditional capital. The Ba'athist government conducted Presidential elections and parliamentary elections to the People's Assembly.
The prime minister of Syria is the head of the cabinet of Syria. Since the fall of the Assad regime, the current prime minister of Syria is the head of the Syrian transitional government.
The National Progressive Front was a state organised coalition of left-wing parties that supported the Arab nationalist and Arab socialist orientation of the now defunct Syrian Arab Republic and accepted the "leading role" of the ruling Syrian Ba'ath party. The coalition was modelled after the popular front system used in the Socialist Bloc, through which Syrian Ba'ath party governed the country while permitting nominal participation of smaller, satellite parties. The NPF was part of Ba'ath party's efforts to expand its support base and neutralize prospects for any sustainable liberal or left-wing opposition, by instigating splits within independent leftist parties or repressing them.
The Constitution of Egypt has passed over a long period of evolution from the liberal constitution of 1923 to the contemporary constitution.
Until December 2024, under the Syrian Arab Republic, the People's Assembly was the legislature of Syria. It had 250 members elected for a four-year term in 15 multi-seat constituencies.
The politics of Syria is currently in a transitional period led by the Syrian transitional government. The seat of the government is located in Damascus, Syria. The previous government consisted of a President, a Prime Minister, and a legislative council with 250 seats.
Parliamentary elections were held in Syria on 7 May 2012 to elect the members of the Syrian People's Council. The elections followed the approval of a new constitution in a referendum on 26 February 2012.
The modern history of Syria begins with the termination of Ottoman control of Syria by French forces and the establishment of the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration during World War I. The short-lived Arab Kingdom of Syria emerged in 1920, which was however soon committed under the French Mandate, which produced the short-lived autonomous State of Aleppo, State of Damascus, Alawite State and Jabal al-Druze (state); the autonomies were transformed into the Mandatory Syrian Republic in 1930. Syrian Republic gained independence in April 1946. The Republic took part in the Arab-Israeli War and remained in a state of political instability during the 1950s and 1960s.
The Syrian opposition, also called the Syrian revolutionaries, is an umbrella term for the Syrian rebel groups that opposed Bashar al-Assad's Ba'athist regime during the Syrian civil war. In July 2011, at the beginning of the conflict, defectors from the Syrian Armed Forces formed the Free Syrian Army. In August 2011, political groups operating from abroad formed a coalition called the Syrian National Council. A broader organization, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), was formed in November 2012. In turn, the Coalition formed the Syrian Interim Government (SIG) which operated first as a government-in-exile and, from 2015, in certain zones of Syria. From 2016, the SIG was present in Turkish-occupied zones while the SNC operated from Istanbul. In 2017, the Islamist group Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), unaffiliated to the SNC, formed the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) in the areas it controlled. Rebel armed forces during the civil war have included the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, affiliated to the SIG, the Syrian Liberation Front, the National Front for Liberation, the Southern Operations Room and the Revolutionary Commando Army. Other groups that challenged Bashar al-Assad's rule during the civil war were the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, and the jihadist organization known as the Islamic State.
A constitutional referendum was held in Syria on 26 February 2012. In response to the Syrian Civil War, President Bashar al-Assad ordered a new constitution to be drafted. The referendum was not monitored by foreign observers.
The National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, commonly named the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), or the Syrian National Revolutionary Coalition (SNRC) is a political organization founded in Doha, Qatar, in November 2012 during the Syrian Civil War in an attempt to coalesce the various movements opposed to Bashar al-Assad's Ba'athist regime.
The history of Syria covers events which occurred on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic and events which occurred in the region of Syria. Throughout ancient times the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic was occupied and ruled by several empires, including the Sumerians, Mitanni, Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Arameans, Amorites, Persians, Greeks and Romans. Syria is considered to have emerged as an independent country for the first time on 24 October 1945, upon the signing of the United Nations Charter by the Syrian government, effectively ending France's mandate by the League of Nations to "render administrative advice and assistance to the population" of Syria, which came in effect in April 1946.
The federalization of Syria has been controversially proposed as a possible solution to end the Syrian Civil War. In the broadest sense, it means turning the centralized Syria into a federal republic with autonomous subdivisions. Many powers and actors involved in the Syrian Civil War have entertained the idea of "federal division", not least among them Russia, United Nations representatives, the United States and Israel. Bashar al-Assad has publicly rejected the idea of federalism, asserting that the Arab majority in Syria is opposed to such proposals. Most of the neighbouring countries in the region have also dismissed the proposal, including the members of the Arab League and Turkey.
The Syrian Constitutional Committee is a United Nations-facilitated constituent assembly process that seeked to reconcile the Ba'athist regime of President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian opposition, in the context of the Syrian peace process, by amending the current or adopting a new Constitution of Syria. The UN hopes that this would lead to negotiations which would subsequently lead to a peaceful end of the Syrian Civil War, which had been raging for more than eight years by the time of the committee's formation. The Constitutional Committee was formed with the formal approval of both parties involved—namely the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic and the opposition Syrian Negotiations Commission, with the facilitation of the United Nations.
The 1973 Constitution of Ba'athist Syria was the constitution that governed Ba'athist Syria from 13 March 1973 until 27 February 2012. It describes Syria's character to be Arab, democratic, socialist and republican. Further, in line with pan-Arab ideology, it positions the country as a region of the wider Arab world and its people as an integral part of the Arab nation. The constitution entrenched the power of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and its 8th Article described the party as "the leading party in the society and the state", effectively ruling Syria as a one-party socialist state under emergency laws.
The 2012 Ba'athist Syrian Constitution was the constitution of Ba'athist Syria between 27 February 2012 until the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024.
