President al-Assad Issues Legislative Decree on Parties law

President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday issued Legislative Decree No. 100 for 2011 on Parties Law , which was earlier adopted as a draft law by the Government following a series of thorough discussions by law makers, intellectuals and the Syrian citizens. Among the main stipulations of the Law are:

*activating the political life and citizens’ participation

– the party is a political organization which is established in accordance with the provisions of this law with the aim of the contribution in the political life through peaceful and democratic means to achieve that.

– Citizens of the Syrian Arab Republic have the right to establish political parties and join them in accordance with this law.

– The parties participate in organizing and representing citizens politically and they work through that on developing political awareness with the aim of activating the political life and citizens’ participation in it and forming leaderships that could assume public responsibilities.

– A party practices its activities through peaceful and democratic means to achieve identified and announced programs related to political, economic, social and cultural affairs with the aim of the participation in the political life in accordance with General Election Law.

*Commitment to the constitution, principles of democracy and the rule of law *cannot be based on religious, tribal, regional, denominational, or profession-related basis

A party established due to this law should adhere to the following principles:

1-Commitment to the constitution, principles of democracy and the rule of law, respecting liberties, basic rights, world declarations of human rights and the agreements approved by the Syrian Arab Republic.

2-Preserving the unity of the homeland and bolstering society’s national unity.

3-Making public the principles, goals, methods and funding of a party.

4-A party cannot be based on religious, tribal, regional, denominational, or profession-related basis or on the basis of discrimination due to ethnicity, gender or race.

5-A party’s formation, selection of leadership and commencement of activities must be carried out using democratic basis.

6-A party’s methods must not include establishing public or covert military or paramilitary formations, nor must it use violence of any kind, threaten with it, or instigate it.

7-A party cannot be a branch of a non-Syrian party or political organization, not can it be affiliated to one.

*founding member should enjoy the Syrian nationality

An application for establishing a party should be signed by fifty founders who enjoy the following conditions:

-1 a founding member should enjoy the Syrian nationality for ten years at least.

2- he/she should be at least twenty five years old when applying for a party establishment.

3- lives in the Syrian Arab Republic.

4- enjoys the political and civil rights.

5- Not convicted of a felony or misdemeanor and misdemeanors to be identified with a decision of Justice Minister.

6- should not be affiliated to another party.

A party enjoys the legal personality and it has the right to practice its political activity a day after the Committee approves its founding.

*should not accept any monetary sums for donation but through ratified check

Source of funding: – A party should not accept any sort of donation, merit or benefit from any non-Syrian bodies or legal persons.

– A party should not accept any monetary sums for donation but through ratified check which is accepted by banks working in the Syrian Arab Republic.

A party should show the name of the donator and the value of donation in a legal account record and a donation value should not exceed SYP 500, 000 for each time or SYP two millions in a year.