June 20, 2012 (TSR) – The Syrian People’s Assembly on Tuesday agreed on establishing four new permanent committees and ministries to focus on public freedoms and human rights of youths, family, children and women’s rights, in addition to the press, printing and publishing.
During a session chaired by Speaker Jihad al-Laham, a number of MPs said that this logical reform step came in line with the new constitution as it also reflects keenness on the people’s interests and enhancing freedoms, rights, social justice, national unity and cultural diversity.
The Assembly stressed the importance of the freedoms and human rights’ committee in the current stage since Syrians believe that freedom is a holy right, now guaranteed by the constitution, in addition to enhancing the values of justice and trust between the citizens and the state so that Syria would remain an example of unity, amity and fraternity.
Also stressing the need for specifying the tasks assigned to the committees to ensure better performance, the MPs highlighted the role of the family, children, youth and women’s rights. A committee in empowering women, an establishment of a ministry for youth issues to provide job opportunities and special attention to child labor were given importance.
The members suggested forming a committee for small and medium-sized project development to provide job opportunities for the youths and support their civil initiatives, in addition to establishing a committee for universities and institutes and forming offices at the universities for dialogue with the students.
The MPs called for changing the name of the press, printing and publishing committee to become media, printing, press and publishing and to task it with supervising the performance of the Ministry of Information, stressing the importance of having a media institution that is able to direct the public opinion in the interest of Syria and their reform process.
A committee for accountability and corruption fighting was also called for to be in charge with following up on the affairs of the Central Commission for Control and Inspection and the Central Apparatus for Financial Control, the two bodies charged with corruption issues.
The members also called for forming a committee to supervise the work of civil society organizations and syndicates and another for education, higher education and Arabic language empowerment.
The members also called for forming committees in combating unemployment, strategic studies and scientific research and care provision for the martyrs’ families.
A special temporary committee to study the situation of the affected and displaced citizens due to the current events in the country and the families of civilian and military martyrs to ease their suffering was also approved. The committee is to include all the Assembly’s members and operate all over the Syrian provinces.
Stress was also placed on forming a committee to follow up on the implementation of the ministries’ work and projects and presenting monthly reports on any faults.
They underscored the importance of establishing a committee for taking care of and attracting the Syrians expatriate innovators.
They called for a special committee for relief and another temporary one for embarking on the national reconciliation.
Another suggestion focused on forming a social committee to consolidate national unity and rebuilding trust among the homeland’s citizens, and another for preserving national heritage and folklore.
The Assembly’s members stressed the importance of launching the comprehensive national dialogue and find the best means to activate the Assembly’s role in this regard.
They called for combating monopoly which led to a rise in the prices and activating the role of judiciary and monitoring its performance.
They also called for amending the statute of the People’s Assembly so as to enable its members to practice their role of scrutiny, monitoring and accountability as soon as possible to keep pace with the ongoing reform process.
A number of the members also called for re-imposing the state of emergency for a temporary and renewable period due to the prevailing security situation with the aim of protecting the citizens against the violations and criminal acts of the terrorist groups.
The discussions also focused on tackling the problem of the shortage of gas and gas oil and following up on the issue of gas oil smuggling and black market to help supply the citizens and peasants with these two materials.
