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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 by 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. It 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] The Draft removed the word; "Arab" from the official name of the country "Syrian Arab Republic" as a concession to the Kurdish population. The draft from the Russian delegation also proposed the removing Article 3 of the current 2012 Syrian constitution that stipulated that the president has to be part of the Muslim faith. Additionally, the draft 2017 constitution also presented that the Syrian president would only be allowed to be elected for one term of seven years, without the right to re-election. The Constitution would have made the country have a parliament with two chambers and rejects Islamic sharia as the basis for law.
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 adding that a 'judicial and human rights committee' would be established to review the constitution prior to making amendments. [11]
The previous constitution of 2012 consolidated the authoritarian structure and centralized it under a highly powerful presidency. [5] It also maintains Ba'ath party's explicitly Arab nationalist stance and advocates regional integration as a means for achieving "Arab Unity". The constitution declares Arabic as the official language of the country. [12]
The Constitution is divided into 6 parts (excluding the Introduction) which are called Chapters.
Notable changes in the constitution include:
Articles 83-150 of the new constitution increased the Presidential powers in the executive, legislature and judiciary. The executive role of the Syrian President presumes his control over all three branches, bestowing the President with unchecked powers through at least 21 articles. Some of the extraordinary powers bestowed by the 2012 Constitution that elevates the Presidential role include: [5] [15] [12]
The 2012 Constitution remained unrecognized by almost all bodies of the Syrian opposition, which boycotted the referendum. The constitution was drafted by Ba'athist loyalists and was part of government attempts to monopolise its power as well as suppressing the 2011-12 Syrian protests. [5] International experts have assessed that the constitution has no "checks and balances", making it unfeasible for a political transition. Syrian opposition activists have demanded the repeal of at least 21 clauses in the Constitution which bestows unrestrained powers on the President, banishment of emergency courts and the withdrawal of more than 20 emergency edicts as the precondition to start a meaningful transition process. [15] Popular Front for Change and Liberation, the sole opposition front that had initially participated in the Syrian People's Assembly, withdrew its recognition in 2016 after Bashar al-Assad's scuttling of the Geneva negotiations. [17]
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