Syria's constitutional history: Past charters and future prospects

The Constitution of 1928

The Faisal interlude was short-lived. He was toppled by the invading French Army in July 1920. The French Mandate was imposed on Syria, and the 1920 constitution was suspended. Eight years later, the mandate regime called for elections of a constitutional assembly to draft a new charter for Syria on 10 and 24 April 1928.

By then, Hashim al-Atassi had become president of the National Bloc, the most influential nationalist party in Syria, and he teamed up with then-Prime Minister Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hasani, creating joint lists for the Constitutional Assembly elections. By doing so, he hoped to sway Sheikh Taj into the nationalist orbit and prevent him from meddling in the elections through the Ministry of Interior. They presented joint lists in every Syrian province: Six candidates for the Sheikh Taj government and four for the National Bloc.

That alliance collapsed before Election Day, however, and the National Bloc won seven out of nine seats in Damascus, with the remaining two going to Sheikh Taj and the Jewish notable Yusuf Linadu. In Aleppo, the National Bloc list emerged victorious, although voting stood at a low 35%. It was higher in Homs and Hama, at 50%.

The Constitutional Assembly

The first round of the Constitutional Assembly was held in Damascus on 9 June 1920. Seventy MPs were present, and they elected al-Atassi as president of the assembly, with Fathallah Asioun and Fawzi al-Ghazzi as his deputies. Nationalist veteran Ibrahim Hananu became head of the drafting committee, aided by two brilliant instructors at the Syrian University Faculty of Law: Fawzi al-Ghazzi and Fayez al-Khoury.

Within weeks, they managed to pen a new charter for Syria inspired by modern European constitutions. The French were unhappy with the final result, however, because it omitted any reference to the mandate and gave vast powers to the Syrian president at the expense of the French High Commissioner.

Article 2, for example, claimed that Greater Syria was one geographic entity, ignoring the artificial borders imposed on the Middle East by the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916, drawn up during World War I between the French and British governments. Article 73 gave the Syrian president, rather than the French Commissioner, the right to issue a general amnesty, while Article 74 authorised him to sign international treaties.

Article 112 also vested him with the power to declare martial law, which the French strongly objected to. They asked the Constitutional Assembly to amend the five articles in question and to include specific mention in Article 116 of the mandate and its legality in Syria. Al-Atassi refused and took the charter to vote on 11 August 1928.

It was passed with no changes, prompting the French to abrogate the assembly for three months as of 5 February 1929 and then to dismiss it completely on 14 May. One week later, the French decreed with the constitution with the amended articles to their liking, adding Article 116 with specific mention of the mandate. It was called "the article of the French High Commissioner."  

Constitutional amendments

The 1928 charter restricted presidential tenures to one time only, based on Article 68. It would remain in place until early into post-mandate Syria when a bloc of MPs lobbied for its amendment to allow then-president Shukri al-Quwatli another five-year term. When that passed, a full-fledged opposition was created in Aleppo against the Quwatli government, giving birth to the People's Party in 1948. Other changes included amending an article referring to the Syrian army after it was formed on 1 August 1945 and dropping Article 116 after the French withdrew from Syria on 17 April 1946.

The father of the Syrian constitution

The 1928 constitution would remain in place for what remained of the mandate and during the early years of independence before it was abrogated by Husni al-Za'im, the architect of Syria's first military coup on 29 March 1949. He arrested President al-Quwatli and abrogated the 1928 Charter, drafting a new document that, notably, gave Syrian women the right to vote. His era was short-lived, however, lasting no more than 137 days and on 14 August 1949, al-Za'im was toppled and executed by firing squad.

In the aftermath, Hashim al-Atassi came out of retirement to lead the nation once again.  He called for the election of a new constitutional assembly that would transform automatically into a full-fledged parliament once a new charter was established. From there on, al-Atassi earned the moniker "The father of the Constitution", having presided over the drafting of Syria's first constitution in 1920, then its second in 1928, and finally its third in 1950. The title was also given to Fawzi al-Ghazzi, the chief architect of the 1928 constitution, who was killed in 1929. During his funeral, mourners carried a sign reading: "The father of the Constitution is dead; Long live the Constitution."

The 1950 Charter

Among those elected into the new Constitutional Assembly was Sheikh Mustafa al-Siba'i, founder of the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. He set out to amend Article 3 of the Constitution, expanding it to say that the religion of the state—not only the president—ought to be Islam. Supporting him were a handful of Brotherhood MPs and the party's mouthpiece al-Manar newspaper that ran a front page editorial saying: "We want Islam as the official religion of the state."

This had been mentioned in the Ottoman Constitution and later in the Egyptian one penned under King Fuad I. When asked about such an amendment, Syrian Justice Minister As'ad Korani advised that Article 3 ought to be scrapped rather than amended, lobbying for the election of Christian Prime Minister Fares al-Khoury as president of Syria.

During the Constitutional Assembly negotiations in 1949-1950, a delegation of Muslim clerics visited Prime Minister Khalid al-Azm, seeking his support in amending Article 3. He turned them down, saying the executive branch would never intervene in such a constitutional matter. They then approached Defence Minister Akram al-Hourani, who gave them a cold shoulder as well.

The issue of the president's religion versus that of the state had been raised during the constitutional talks of 1928. At the time, MP Nicolas Khanji spoke out against Article 3, claiming that it contradicted the equality of all Syrians before the law.

He called for "neutrality of the state" when it came to religion and was backed by his colleague Damascus MP Fayez al-Khoury, who said: "What will I say to my fellow Christians if they come asking me about Article 3? Should I say that their Muslim brothers have put them, along with other minorities, before a brick wall? Fayez al-Khoury added that he hoped for the day when all Syrians can simply say: "I am Syrian" without having to mention their confession or religion.

In 1950, a church authority from Hama demanded "secularism of the Syrian state" while veteran journalist Najib El Rayyes penned an article in his mass circulation daily al-Qabas: "The country is not for us alone." He, of course, was a Sunni Muslim based in Damascus, originally from Hama. To deal with the thorny issue of the religion of the state, President al-Atassi created a special committee to review Article 3, and it included the secular socialist Akram al-Hourani, the pious democrat Maarouf al-Dawalibi from the People's Party, in addition to Mustafa al-Siba'i and Mohammad Mubarak from the Muslim Brotherhood.

Church leaders petitioned the committee for a charter that "respects the Creator" without mentioning any religion, and so did the first Student's Conference held in Aleppo, which defined Syria as "an Arab republic that is independent, democratic, and which respects all religions." 

Then came Prime Minister Fares al-Khoury, who, in addition to being a Protestant statesman, was also a prominent legal mind who spoke to al-Qabas on 9 February 1950, saying: "Not mentioning the religion of state does not exonerate the state from its duties towards all religion." He added: "It is true that the majority of Syrians are Muslims, but there are others who follow a different religion from the original inhabitants of this country (Christians)." He summed up by saying: "Religion is for God, and the state is for all. Making Islam the religion of state prevents Syrian Christians from fully engaging in government affairs, on equal footing with their brothers in citizenship."

Based on that, the constitutional committee began to seriously consider dropping Article 3 from the 1950 Constitution. When this became public, regional states objected, and so did the king of Jordan, Abdullah I, who wrote a letter to President al-Atassi advising against such a move. To avoid a standoff, the constitutional committee took the opposite extreme, publishing a constitutional draft on 16 April 1950, which said in Article 3 that the religion of both the state and president was Islam.

Syrian Christians were furious, demanding immediate annulment, and churches threatened to close their doors and refuse state visitors for Easter—even for the president himself —until Article 3 was restored to its original wording. The article was indeed restricted to the religion of the president rather than the state, and a clause was added, making Islam the source of jurisprudence.

Future constitutions

In 1953, Syria got a new charter with the election of Colonel Adib Shishakli as president, but it was aborted with his toppling in 1954. The 1950 constitution was restored until the Syrian-Egyptian Union was created in 1958, which penned its own charter. When the union dissolved in 1961, the 1950 constitution was restored for the very last time until it was scrapped by the Baathists, who came to power on 8 March 1963. The Baath Party abolished the constitution, along with parliament, and imposed martial law on Syria.

Then came Hafez al-Assad, who tried to drop Article 3 from the constitution but failed, also adding Article 8, which mentioned the Baath Party as "the ruler of state and society." All those who opposed Article 8 or wrote against it were jailed, tortured, or, at best, exiled.

Despite being a gross violation of the basic dignity of every Syrian and non-Ba'athist, Article 8 would remain in place until the 1973 constitution was annulled and replaced by the charter of 2012. Instead of calling for elections for a constitutional charter, Bashar al-Assad appointed the constitutional committee of 2012, and although formally dropping Article 8 from the new charter, the Ba'ath would maintain its grip on Syria until the toppling of al-Assad on 8 December 2024. The Ba'ath Party was dissolved, and the 2012 constitution aborted.