A/HRC/18/53 4If they neglect to perform the points previously mentioned, they will be persecuted as they will be considered partners in the crime of unlawful imprisonment. 14. In the subject of Syrian citizens of Kurdish origin, a legislative decree number (49) dated 7 April 2011 was issued: Kurds of Syria could apply for citizenship. They will be granted citizenship and will benefit in all levels and in all areas from all civic rights – and duties- of full Syrian citizenship. Thousands of Kurds of Syria have been granted Syrian citizenship since. 15. In the subject of the ongoing reform process, new laws are on the way to being issued, the new general election law, and the parties law are approved by the Council of Ministers, we would like to share the steps taken so far in developing the new general election law to illustrate how any of the new legislations in Syria is structured in compliance with the best laws in action anywhere else in the world: Syria’s prime minister has issued decision number (6186) dated May 8th, 2011, including the creation of a committee to prepare a project of the new general election law in compliance with the highest known standards, the committee was given two weeks to complete its mission... committee’s members are: • Dr. Najm Al Ahmad – Deputy of Minister of Justice • Hassan Jalali – Deputy Minister of interior • Mahmoud Saleh – Legal Advisor at the Council of Ministers Presidency • Dr. Mohamed Yousef Al Hussain – Professor, University of Damascus, Law School • Dr. Jamilah Shurbaji – Professor, University of Damascus, Law School • Dr. Mohamed Khair Al Akkam – Professor, University of Damascus, Law School • Fawzi Mahasneh – advisor, Ministry of Local Administrations • Khaled Kamel – Director of Councils, Ministry of Local Administrations Based on the above decision, note the following: • The committee met daily until the project of the law was completed. • The committee viewed different states laws, like France, Belgium, Egypt, Algeria, Jordan, Iraq and Palestine. • The committee viewed Syrian laws both inactive and the active ones. • The committee heard a number of professionals in Law (College professors, judges, lawyers) with different expertise and ages, their contributions and opinions had a great influence on the project of law. • The committee completed its mission one day ahead of the scheduled time. • the project of law was published in the official website of the Council of Ministers, and individual ministries websites (Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Local Administrations), visits to all these websites exceeded 34’000, 3’400 of them left written comments. • All comments were viewed, and some were taken into consideration because they showed the kind of objectivity the project of law could benefit from, the UNDP project’s contribution was valuable, all the observations submitted by UNDP were taken into consideration. 88