Statement on the meeting of the Constitutional Negotiating Committee of the sixth round and the fate of the detainees
On the eighteenth of October, the work of the constitutional negotiating committee began in the sixth round, and for the “first time,” as Pedersen described it, both the opposition and the regime delegations will meet for a more serious discussion on setting an agenda rather than recommendations on the constitution in Syria.
The work of the Constitutional Negotiating Committee’s sixth round comes under the auspices of the United Nations, within the framework of a political solution to the Syrian crisis that has spanned since 2011, and in accordance with UN Resolution 2254 issued in 2015.
Today, the members will also discuss the constitutional recommendations that were put forward by all parties, which were considered by the United Nations special envoy, Mr. Pedersen, as a building block for more serious work, not just formulating and recommendations.
The Association of Caesar Members stresses that the file of detainees, abductees and forcibly disappeared is a file of priority above negotiation and is not part of the political process in the current constitutional negotiation.
Accordingly, the Caesar Families Association stresses the priority of the detainees’ file and considers the demand for their release as the beginning of the only path through which peace can be built in Syria. It is a historic responsibility that falls on the shoulders of the members of the negotiating committees from international committees, civil society organizations and the opposition delegation.
And that we in the Association find that the aforementioned confidence-building measures are a non-negotiable demand, and implementation of Resolution 2254 is the only pillar that might make the negotiating process a serious process that can be taken as a path to the future of Syria.
The Caesar Families Association worked with a group of detainees’ associations on the proposal of the Charter of Justice and Truth, which the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights took as a proposal to establish an international and independent mechanism of the United Nations capable of achieving justice and revealing the fate of the detainees. Able to transform the concept of confidence-building into a mechanism that is more able to initiate and work seriously to reveal the fate of the detainees.
