Morocco's Najat Rochdi is appointed deputy to the UN Special Envoy for Syria
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Najat Rochdi as the new Deputy Special Envoy for Syria at the end of June. The appointment comes as the UN intensifies its efforts to promote reconciliation between the government of Bashar al-Assad and the opposition to the regime after 11 years of war.
Najat Rochdi is a mathematician and economist with degrees from Rabat and Paris. She has more than 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 UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon.
Rochdi also has experience in UN missions in the Central African Republic with MINUSCA, as well as having been involved in development programmes in Cameroon or from UN headquarters in Geneva.
The colleagues of the new deputy special envoy in Syria have unanimously celebrated the appointment on social media. With sorrow from Beirut, which Rochdi is leaving, and with encouragement in Damascus.
Rochdi succeeds Khawla Matar, a national of Bahrain, who has been congratulated by Antonio Guterres for her "dedication and efforts in the pursuit of peace in Syria", according to the Secretary-General's statement.
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 are increasingly occupying important positions in international relations and in the kingdom's diplomatic corps. Examples such as Morocco's ambassador to Spain, Karima Benyaich, and Farida Loudaya, ambassador to Colombia, are not exceptional cases.
The latest data from the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicate that 43% of the ministry's staff are women. This is 4% more than in 2017. Of the staff working in missions abroad, the figure stands at 41%. In 2021, the kingdom had 19 female ambassadors around the world, out of the 91 delegations open abroad.
According to sources from the Spanish political scene, these figures reflect a clear change in Moroccan society, as well as a very successful diplomatic move for some destinations, which gives a very good image of the Kingdom of Morocco in terms of gender equality.
In Syria, the UN mission faces a complicated situation. Geir O Pedersen, the Norwegian who heads the UN's work in the country, has spent years trying to reconcile the sides of a political chessboard that has been totally fractured after 11 years of war.
To this end, the special envoy's office has already prepared eight meetings of the so-called "Syrian Constitutional Committee", a constituent assembly aimed at ending the political fragmentation between al-Assad and the rebels by means of a new constitution. The committee, composed of 150 representatives of Syrian society, would be the first body to restructure Syria's constitution since the establishment of the Ba'ath ideology in the 1960s.
The last session of the Constitutional Committee was held in October 2021. According to Pedersen, the UN has some support from key stakeholders in the region to carry out this constituent process. The country's instability makes this process particularly slow and threatened by some of the foreign powers that share influence in the country.
Russia, Iran and Turkey are in constant negotiations to coordinate the extent to which they penetrate Syria since the US left the country. Israel acts as a counterpart, especially against Iranian influence.
