SYRIA: General Council of Democratic Autonomous Administration on track with finalization of new social contract draft

GOZARTO (JAZIRA), North and East Syria – Co-chair of the General Council of the Democratic Autonomous Administration (DAA) of North and East Syria Farid Atti confirmed that the bodies of the DAA submitted several proposals this year in order to unify legal provisions in the autonomous and civil administrations. Atti elaborated in comments to media that the bodies of the DAA this year have submitted a general budget law, a tax act, a customs act, a media act, a building violations act, an agricultural land protection act, an anti-terrorism act, and a fees, insurance and judicial expense act as part of a new, unified social contract for the autonomous region.

Farid Atti said, “The Legal Committee of the General Council held legal sessions to study these laws, and then presented them to the General Council for approval. All of these laws were issued in order to further standardize and streamline the autonomous and civil administrations.” He added: “The General Council issued a law to reformulate the social contract for North and East Syria, and all societal stakeholders were called in to meet the needs of the residents of North and East Syria, and views were discussed with all political entities in the region, civil society institutions and the Autonomous Administration.”

The General Council assigned a larger committee of 158 members to discuss and draft the new social contract. A smaller committee of 30 members is now tasked to formulate and write the new social contract.

The democratic model of North and East Syria is a counter-response to the dictatorial and suppressive governance model of the Ba’ath regime in Daramsuq (Damascus) and the religious extremist governance model of Islamic State and the Islamist groups now gathered in Idlib and running the province. The democratic autonomous model is intended as a guiding political and cultural principle for all of Syria. According to the Syriac high-level politician Bassam Said Ishak, co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council Representation in Washington, the democratic model of North and East Syria supports a groundbreaking principle of inclusion: each position of power is held not just by one individual but two, one man and one woman, each of different ethnic or religious affiliations.

“The social contract that was eventually drafted in North and East Syria was a contract that articulated the best parts of democracy. It included protections for individual rights, women’s rights, freedom of religion, and collective rights such as the right to learn in your native language and recognition of the identity of ethnic groups. This became the founding document of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), which is now the governing body of one-third of Syria,” he wrote in the article “Searching for a Meaningful Democracy in Syria” published in the Syrian Democratic Times.