Riad seif :Initiative for political transition in Syria

The success of this initiative is subject to its adoption by the United States of America and Russia.

Introduction:

The initiative depends on the formation of a Transitional Governing Council composed of 250 members of the elite Syrian people who have expertise, experience and credibility and that represent all categories of the Syrian people without exception.
They are selected according to the required criteria away from any quotas or favoritism.

The Interim Governing Council shall lead the transitional phase with full executive powers, and shall form and delegate bodies and councils to a part of its terms of reference and exercise control and supervision.

The initiative

The political transition initiative consists of two phases:

The first pre-transitional phase which lasts for six months, and the second transition period lasts for 18 months.

The pre-transition stage:

1. To issue a Security Council resolution under Chapter VII that calls upon a Comprehensive Cease-fire.
2. To issue a decision by the Security Council to adopt the initiative.
   3. To form an international committee under the auspices of the United Nations that consists of representatives of the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany, Canada, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and a neutral country whose mission is to provide logistical support and supervision of the implementation of United Nations resolutions and agreements between the parties and have no executive or administrative powers.
3. Forming a (military) committee of Syrians with the help of the United Nations to restructure the army and reshape the security branches. Half of its members are called by the regime and the other half are nominated by the Higher Commission for Negotiations, whose hands are not polluted by the blood of the Syrians. This committee is responsible for dissolving the factions and militias, and restricts weapons under the state’s control after the completion of the restructuring of the army and the formation of security branches at the beginning of the transitional period, and its task also is to settle the status of fighters and provide jobs for those who need them.
4. The representative of the Secretary-General shall form a committee of international military experts to provide support and advice to the Military Commission and shall monitor the implementation of such agreement.
5. Release all political prisoners.
6. Lift the siege, remove all barriers, free flow of goods, freedom of movement of people and the introduction of aid to all areas of Syria.
7. Suspension of any form of prosecution, arrest, torture or targeting for political reasons.
8. Voluntary and unimpeded return of all displaced persons to their areas of origin.
9. Immediately after the cease-fire, the first two funds for the reconstruction of Syria are called for by an international conference of donors with an independent management of credible Syrian experts and by the supervision and monitoring of donors. The second is the Social and Humanitarian Fund to settle the situation of the fighters and care for the families of martyrs and care for the wounded and disabled. The fund is managed by Syrian businessmen and experts, funded by donations from Syrians, people and administration of friendly governments, and zakat funds.
10. The formation of the Transitional Council, which takes the role of the Interim Governing Body with full executive powers during the first five months of the beginning of the pre-transition phase, who is responsible for leading the transitional period estimated at eighteen months. The steps of forming the Council to happen in neutral country, where all technical and logistical support will be offered by the United Nations.
11. In the last month of the pre-transitional phase and after the completion of the formation of the Transitional Council, the first of its tasks will be to agree on the interim constitutional declaration that governs through the transitional phase which includes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian state and the building of a pluralistic democratic state.

And that no one may impose his/her religion or belief or prevent anyone from freely choosing and practicing his/her faith. The State shall adopt the basis of participation of the various components of the Syrian people without any discrimination or exclusion.

The Transitional Council

The Transitional Council consists of 250 Syrian national figures with expertise, experience and credibility, representing the Syrian people in a comprehensive manner.

The Transitional Council is responsible for leading the transitional phase and forming the necessary transitional institutions, and ends its role by the end of the transitional period after holding local, legislative and presidential elections.

The mechanism of forming the transitional council consists of three stages:

1. The Core Group.
2. The Preparatory Commission.

III. The Transitional Council.

The Core Group is composed of ten members of Syrian personalities, who have a high level of expertise, experience and credibility, recognized for their good morals away from all forms of intolerance, and represent the main components of the Syrian people. Their only task is to select members of the Preparatory Committee through a democratic mechanism.

Formation of the Core Group:

The representative of the Secretary-General shall act as facilitator to oversee a national consultation campaign to select candidates to represent the components of the Syrian people in the Core Group, in cooperation with the widest spectrum of national, religious, economic and political actors of each component. If a candidate can’t be agreed upon through consultations, representative of the Secretary-General (Mr. Di Mistura), invites a number representatives of various components, taking into account the diversity between the invitees and taking into account the representation of women and young people, in order to choose the representative of the Core Group, whether those who are present at the conference or not.

Mission
The Core Group selects members of the preparatory committee (consisting of 30 members) who have a high level of expertise, experience and credibility by two-thirds majority of the members of the Core Group (i.e. 7 out of 10).

Members of the Core Group are not entitled to participate or run for any legislative or executive position during the first session.

The Preparatory Commission

Mechanism for the formation of the Preparatory Committee:
It consists of 30 persons with high level of expertise, experience and credibility, representing all components of the Syrian people. They are selected as follows:

• To consider Syria as 30 constituencies (virtual) representing the regions, components, political trends, women, youth and community activities (economic, religious, educational, etc.).
• The Core Group receives nominations with detailed CVs of each candidate. The selection according to obtaining a two-thirds majority of the members of the Core Group (7 out of 10).
• The recipients are distributed to the appropriate departments (thirty).
• The voting will be in two-stages, to select the winner.

Mission of the Preparatory Committee:

• To select the 250 members of the Transitional Council, representing the entire population of Syria without exception. Each Syrian is entitled to nominate himself or other Syrians for membership in the Transitional Council. The candidate is accepted by obtaining two-thirds of the members of the Preparatory Committee (20 out of 30).
• Members of the Preparatory Committee are not entitled to participate or run for any legislative or executive position during the first session.

General Assembly of the Transitional Council:

Mechanism of formation of the General Assembly of the Transitional Council:
Representation should include all governorates and regions of Syria, on the one hand, and includes all components of the Syrian people on the other hand, the diversity should include all disciplines and take into account the need to represent women and young people.
To insure the representation is comprehensive, and does not exclude anyone, the following steps should be followed:

• Syria is considered 250 virtual circuits as the number of members of the Transitional Council. These constituencies represent the society of all segments of the Syrian people.
• The last census which was conducted in Syria (2010) is considered as reference for the population of Syria and the population of each governorate, and region.
• In order to ensure fair and equal representation for all, the Syrian human geography must be divided according to a vertical and horizontal agenda.
  • The vertical line includes the electoral districts previously approved in Syria, which are 14 governorates.
• The horizontal table includes the components of the Syrian people with all their ethnicities: Arabs, Turkomans, Kurds, Assyrians, Syriacs, Armenians, and all Sunni Muslim, Alawi, Druze, Ismaili, and Christians.
• In each department (250), we will have a number of accepted candidates who will be chosen to as representative of the department.
  • Representation of women must be at least 20% of the total of the transitional council, distributed to the provinces and to the various components.
  • Members of the Transitional Council are not entitled to participate or run for any legislative or executive position during the first session.

Mission of the Transitional Council (which serves as a transitional governing body):

It exercises full executive powers, work on the formation of bodies, and councils and delegates part of its duties, exercise control and supervision, and forms the following:

1. A transitional government.
2. A National Security Council headed by the Chairman of the Commission and appointed by the Head of the Interim Government.
3. Formation of a Constitutional Court of odd number of judges at the rank of Counselor to assume the functions of the Supreme Judicial Council in the transitional period.
4. Formation of a Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Commission.
5. The People’s Assembly (the parliament) shall be dissolved and the Transitional Council shall assume the following legislative functions:

• Issuing an election law for a constituent assembly that establishes a permanent constitution for the country.
• Issuing presidential and parliamentary elections law.
• Work on the abolition of laws, articles and resolutions that are in contrary with human rights and public freedoms.
• Issuing a law for the press and media.
• Issuance of a law to abolish exceptional courts, annul its decision, and rehabilitate those tried before it.

The Transitional phase

1. The Transitional Council shall move to Damascus at the beginning of the transitional period under the auspices and international guarantees.
   2. Immediately thereafter, the current People’s Assembly and the Transitional Council meet separately and Bashar al-Assad issues two presidential decrees simultaneously:
   • First: dissolve the current People’s Assembly.

• Second: transfers all presidential powers to the Transitional Council.

1. The Transitional Council shall immediately issue the first legislative decree to suspend the current Constitution and adopt the provisional constitutional declaration for the conduct of the transitional period.
2. The current Syrian government shall remain as a caretaker government based on the decision of the Transitional Council.
3. The Transitional Council shall appoint a Transitional Government Head within a week, which shall, in turn, present its members and ministerial statement within 30 days of the start of the transitional period.
4. The caretaker government shall be dissolved at the moment of ratification of the Transitional Government.
5. The transitional period extends for 18 months and ends with local, legislative and presidential elections.

Riad Seif

18 March 2017