The interim president of Syria, signed on Thursday a temporary constitution that leaves the country under the Islamist government and promised to protect the rights of all Syrians for five years during a transition phase.
The interim rulers of the Nation have fought to exercise their authority in much of Syria, since the former insurgent Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, directed a ray insurgency that overthrew President Bashar Assad in December.
The former HTS leader, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, is now the interim president of the country, a decision that was announced after a meeting of the armed groups that participated in the offensive against Assad. At the same meeting, the groups agreed to repeal the old constitution of the country and said that a new one would be written.
While many were happy to see the end of the dictatorial rule of the Assad family of more than 50 years in the country devastated by war, religious and ethnic minorities have been skeptical of the new Islamist and reluctant leaders to allow Damascus under their new authorities to affirm their areas.
Abdulhamid Al-Awak, one of the seven members of the Al-Sharaa Committee, commissioned that he drafted the temporal constitution, a press conference said on Thursday that he would maintain some forecasts of the previous one, including the stipulation that the head of state must be Muslim, and the Islamic law is the main source of jurisprudence.
But Al-Awak, an expert in constitutional law who teaches at Mardin Artuklu University in Türkiye, also said that the temporal constitution includes provisions that consecrate freedom of expression and the media.
The Constitution “will balance between Social Security and freedom” during the unstable political situation of Syria, said, and will establish an “absolute and rigid separation” between the legislative, executive and judicial authorities.
The text of the temporal constitution, published on Thursday night, establishes a committee of people that will serve as an interim parliament until a permanent constitution is adopted and the elections are held. Two thirds of its members will be appointed by a committee selected by the interim president and one third by Al-Sharaa himself.
The documents say that the State is “committed to combating all forms of violent extremism while respecting rights and freedoms” and that “citizens are equal before the law in rights and duties, without discrimination based on race, religion, gender or lineage.” It stipulates that the army is a “national professional institution” and that weapons outside its control are prohibited and designates “glorifying the old Assad regime” as a crime.
