GENEVA / SYRIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COMMITTEE

As a fifth round of talks on Syria’s future constitution concluded today, UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen expressed his disappointment at the fact that the 45-member committee had failed to even start drafting a new charter after a weeklong meeting in Geneva. UNTV CH

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:50
• Production Date: 29 January 2021
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: GEIR PEDERSEN
• Subject Topical: CONFLICT SITUATION; POLITICAL CRISIS
• Geographic Subject: SYRIA
• MAMS Id: 2600554
• Parent Id: 2600554
• Alternate Title: unifeed210129f

Description

STORY: GENEVA / SYRIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COMMITTEE
TRT: 1:50
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 29 JANUARY 2021, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, Palais des Nations exterior
2. Wide shot, press briefing room with videographers
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir Pedersen, Special Envoy for Syria, United Nations:
“I think it is fair to say it was an open, frank and direct assessment of where we are. And I told the 45 members of the drafting body that we can’t continue like this, that the week has been a disappointment.”
4. Med shot, dais with screen in room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir Pedersen, Special Envoy for Syria, United Nations:
“The reason for that is that there has not been a proper understanding on how we are going to make progress in the Committee.”
6. Close up, view finder in camera
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir Pedersen, Special Envoy for Syria, United Nations:
“So, my summary today is that this week has shown that such an approach is not working, and we cannot continue to meet if we do not change this.”
8. Med shot, journalist in press briefing room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir Pedersen, Special Envoy for Syria, United Nations:
“We need the two co-chairs to work better together, via me, or they sit down and discuss, and we need to produce then a work plan for all the meetings that will be organized in the future.”
10. Med shot, journalists in the room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Geir Pedersen, Special Envoy for Syria, United Nations:
“This is not a debating Committee. You know, you can continue debating forever. We need to move this in a manner where the members themselves start to identify areas where they agree or disagree and then move into the drafting phase and this is what is missing for the time being.”
12. Med shot, journalists and videographers in press briefing room
13. Med shot, Geir Pedersen at dais and on monitor of laptop screen
14. Close up, journalist taking photo in press briefing room
15. Med shot, dais from behind

Storyline

As a fifth round of talks on Syria’s future constitution concluded today, UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen expressed his disappointment at the fact that the 45-member committee had failed to even start drafting a new charter after a weeklong meeting in Geneva.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva today (29 Jan), Pedersen said, “I think it is fair to say it was an open, frank and direct assessment of where we are. And I told the 45 members of the drafting body that we can’t continue like this, that the week has been a disappointment.”

“The reason for that is that there has not been a proper understanding on how we are going to make progress in the Committee,” he explained.

A proposal on working methods submitted by the Co-chair of the Syrian Opposition group, Hadi al-Bahra, has been rejected by the Co-chair of Syria’s Government Group, Ahmed Kuzbari. Another suggestion made by the UN Special Envoy’s office had been accepted by Syria’s opposition group but rejected by the representatives of the Government of Syria.

“So my summary today is that this week has shown that such an approach is not working and we cannot continue to meet if we do not change this,” the UN Special Envoy said.

The so-called Small Body of the Constitutional Committee refers to the 45 people (15 representatives from each of three groups: the Syrian government, the opposition, and civil society) who undertake the talks in Geneva on behalf of the larger Constitutional Committee (also known as the “Large Body”, comprising the same three group with 50 representatives each), who are charged with drafting a new constitution ahead of UN-supervised elections.

Pedersen emphasized that he thought it would be possible to identify what he calls commonalities between the factions.

“We need the two co-chairs to work better together, via me, or they sit down and discuss, and we need to produce then a work plan for all the meetings that will be organized in the future”, he said.

Many topics on the agenda of the Constitutional Committee have been under discussion for more than a year.

“This is not a debating Committee”, the UN Syria Envoy said. “You know, you can continue debating forever. We need to move this into a manner where the members themselves start to identify areas where they agree or disagree and then move into the drafting phase and this is what is missing for the time being”.

No future meetings of the Small Body have been planned so far. Pedersen said he would aim to go to Damascus for further talks.