link to article: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/25/syria-constitutional-talks-fail-again-in-geneva
With the international spotlight currently being focused on the War between Ukraine and Russia, a resolution to Syria’s war seems to be further away than ever, with the talks going on between the Syrian government and the opposition failing yet again. The meeting to try and draft a new constitution for the country took place in Geneva with the UN taking the place as host. The talks that took place in Geneva ended with no progress when it came to drafting the new constitution which is putting a damper on the hopes for a revival of the peace process. The constitutional committee, which was formed in 2019, and is a body including regime, opposition, and civil society members, was tasked with trying to find a common ground on the issues such as governance, state identity, the structure of public authorities, etc. The opposition is blaming the representatives of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian President, for the most recent failure.
I find what is going on in Syria to be very sad. With the Syrian Civil war having been going on for 11 years, I feel so bad for the innocent civilians that live there and just want peace. Syria should be putting writing a new constitution up at the top of their priorities. 11 years is way too long for a war like this to be going on, so therefore the Syrian government should put their focus on working to find a solution to the current issue at hand. The UN getting involved to try and push for the new constitution shows how important it will be for the country for that to happen.
This relates back to class due to the involvement of the UN. The UN is the closest thing that we have to a world government and they run on the principles that states are equal under international law, sovereign and independent, and fulfill their international obligations. The UN is a symbol for international order. The goal of the UN is to maintain international peace and security. The UN’s purpose in this instance is to try and push for the new constitution to be written in order to restore peace in an area that is much in need of a break from conflict.