United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Najat Rochdi as new Deputy Special Envoy for Syria at the end of June. This appointment comes as the UN intensifies its efforts to promote reconciliation between the government of Bashar al-Assad and the opposition to the regime following 11 years of war.
Najat Rochdi is a mathematician and economist graduated from Rabat and Paris. She has over 20 years of experience in international relations and conflict resolution. Prior to this appointment, Rochdi served as Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon in the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon.
Rochdi also has experience of UN missions in the Central African Republic with MINUSCAand participated in development programs in Cameroon or from the UN headquarters in Geneva.
The colleagues of the new deputy special envoy to Syria have unanimously celebrated this appointment on social media. With sadness from Beirut, which Rochdi is leaving, and with encouragement in Damascus.
Rochdi succeeds Khawla Matar, a national of Bahrain, who was praised by Antonio Guterres for her “dedication and efforts in the search for peace in Syria”according to the statement of the Secretary-General.
I’m delighted that the Secretary-General has appointed Najat Rochdi @rochdi_najat as the new Deputy Special Envoy for Syria. I very much look forward to working closely with her in the search for a lasting settlement to the conflict in line with Security Council resolution 2254. https://t.co/WtNkeEzEur
— Geir O. Pedersen (@GeirOPedersen) June 30, 2022
In Morocco, women occupy more and more important positions in international relations and in the diplomatic corps of the kingdom. Examples such as Morocco’s Ambassador to Spain, Karima Benyaich, and Farida Loudaya, Ambassador to Colombiaare not exceptional cases.
The latest data from the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicates that 43% of ministry staff are women. This is 4% more than in 2017. Staff working in missions abroad represent 41% of the total. In 2021, the kingdom had 19 ambassadors around the world, out of the 91 delegations open abroad.
According to sources in the Spanish political scene, these figures reflect a clear change in Moroccan societyas well as a very successful diplomatic coup for certain destinations, which gives a very good image of the Kingdom of Morocco in terms of gender equality.
In Syria, the UN mission is facing a complicated situation. Geir O Pedersen, the Norwegian who leads the UN’s work in the country, has spent years trying to reconcile the sides of a deeply fractured political spectrum following 11 years of war.
To this end, the Office of the Special Envoy has already prepared eight meetings of the “Syrian Constitutional Committee”, a constituent assembly aimed at ending the political fragmentation between Al-Assad and the rebels through a new constitution. This committee, made up of 150 representatives of Syrian society, would be the first body to restructure the Syrian constitution since the establishment of Baath ideology in the 1960s.
The last session of the Constitutional Committee was held in October 2021. According to Pedersen, the UN enjoys some support from the main actors of the region to carry out this constitutive process. The country’s instability makes this process particularly slow and threatened by some of the foreign powers that share their influence in the country.
Russia, Iran and Turkey are in constant negotiations to coordinate their degree of penetration in Syria since the United States left the country. Israel acts as a counterpart, especially once morest Iranian influence.