MSD co-chair Emine Omar speaks about process leading to new Social Contract

MSD (Syrian Democratic Council) co-chair Emine Omar said that after the new Social Contract is approved, a management board will be established through the election system/law and process.

The Autonomous Administration established a small committee of 30 members on 15 July 2021. The purpose of the committee was to prepare a preliminary draft for the Social Contract and to have it discussed later. The committee elaborated the draft of the social contract after two months working on it.

Four large meetings were held in Hesekê by the Northern and Eastern Syria Social Contract Construction Committee, and the draft social contract was discussed for 11 days.

158 members of the committee, representatives of the Autonomous Administration, political parties, youth movements, lawyers and NGO members attended the meeting.

Speaking to ANF on the subject, Emine Omar, said the following about why there was a need to create such a draft: “The social contract we had after liberating larger areas such as Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor and Tabqa was insufficient to express its situation, there was a serious need to cover all social segments of society. There was a need for a new social contract that would include new components and new areas. For this purpose, such work was carried out.

A preparatory text for Syria

Another aspect is the lack of a serious solution to the crisis in Syria for more than 10 years and the problems experienced. Considering all these, the Social Contract can be thought of as a kind of draft constitution in which all the components of our region, namely the peoples here, can be represented in the best possible way. We can also consider it as a preparatory text that will represent the democratization and general constitution-making process in Syria and fulfil the demands of the region.”

Society participation

Co-chair Emine Omar said the following about the formation process and content of the draft social contract: “There are 158 people in the committee formed for the preparation of such a process. The committee consists of components such as the Autonomous Administration, assemblies, parties, non-governmental organizations. This is a large committee. This committee convened and debated, after which we formed a narrow committee to prepare a draft social contract within the framework of these discussions. That committee was given a two-month task. As a matter of fact, this committee did a certain work and brought the results of this work to the broad committee. We carried out discussions on this for 11 days in four big meetings. A week ago, these discussions ended, our meetings were over.

Ready for the final draft of the social contract

Our current text consists of 93 articles. This work will continue with a smaller committee. In the next stage, this committee will hold meetings with the wider society in 7 regions and open the text to discussion. After all this process is completed, the text will go back to the wider committee, that is, to the committee of 158 people. New suggestions, opinions and ideas will be debated in the committee. The text will take its final form within the framework of the views that are needed and represent the general trend. Thus, the draft of the social contract text will take its final form.

Parliamentary approval and election process

The Social Contract will then go to the North-East Syria General Assembly, where it will become official after being discussed and approved. Now a new process will begin. According to the new Social Contract, an election process and management system will be established. This is what we plan. Of course, after the text is accepted, new laws and laws regarding elections will be technically regulated within this framework before going to the elections.