The proposal for the creation of a committee to amend Syria's constitution can be traced back to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254, which was adopted in December 2015.

[8][9] The formation of the committee was delayed numerous times, as both sides strongly disagreed on its composition and as the armed conflict continued throughout the negotiations.

[10][11] By the time the committee's composition was agreed upon, the Syrian Government had managed to gain control of the majority of the country's territory through military means.

[15][16][17] The Constitutional Committee was convened by and is facilitated by the UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Otto Pedersen, a Norwegian diplomat, who noted that the committee was the "first concrete political agreement between the Government and the Opposition to begin to implement a key aspect of Security Council resolution 2254 – to set a schedule and process for a new constitution".

The opposition-nominated Co-Chair, Hadi al-Bahra, stated that it was time for them to "believe [that] victory in Syria is achieving justice and peace not winning the war".

The code of conduct, however, was made between the two Co-Chairs representing the Syrian Government and Opposition respectively, and not voted on by the whole body of the committee.

[26][29][30] The Northwestern Syria offensive (November 2019–present) between the government and opposition forces began in parallel to the breakdown of talks at the constitutional committee.

A month later, in December 2019, Pedersen spoke before the UN Security Council, describing the situation as "protracted" and "deadlocked" and urged the two sides to agree to an agenda, stating that without such there would be no reason for the committee to meet for a third time.

Pedersen stated that he had "received a 'strong signal of support' from 'key international players' and from "all sides in the Constitutional Committee" for the continuation of the peace process.

Hadi al-Bahra, one of the opposition leaders, and Ahmad Kuzbari, on behalf of the Syrian government, were co-chairs of the session.

[36] Although some agreement was had on vague common points, the talks were largely dominated by disagreements on the military's role in the transfer of power, imposed sanctions, returning refugee rights, human rights, war criminal accountability, military restructuring, and the hierarchy of international agreements and the constitution, and others.

He also stated that the discussions could take years to resolve and that the committee had tacitly agreed to speed up the pace of work and achieve results.

[38] On 29 November 2022, following a briefing to the United Nations Security Council, Pedersen expressed his hope that the following session would be held in January 2023.

Both the Syrian government and opposition intentionally avoided nominating senior political figures as representatives, so as to prevent previous conflicts from hampering the committee's work.

[3] They are aided by Geir Pedersen, a UN official who succeeded Staffan De Mistura, Lakhdar Brahimi, and Kofi Annan, as the envoy of the UN's political efforts in Syria.

[7] The highest-ranked government official in the delegation was Ahmed Faruk Arnus, an aide to Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.

Of those seven, 5 are members of the "Moscow Platform", which unlike almost all other opposition factions, does not demand the end of Bashar al-Assad's term as President of Syria.

[52][53] The main leaders of the opposition's delegations, such as Ahmad Tu'mah and designated Committee Co-Chair Hadi al-Bahra, rejected affiliations to any group and instead defined themselves as "pragmatists" – seeing the "Russian-dominated" peace process as the only path left for the Syrian Opposition, seeking to eke out political concessions as the prospect of a government overthrow grew far away.

Despite the inclusion of seven total ethnic Kurds in the committee, the mostly neutral Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria as well as its Kurdish-led, majority-Arab military wing – the Syrian Democratic Forces, is also left completely unrepresented.

[24] The Syrian Network for Human Rights condemned the formation of the committee, stating that they believed it "violated and contravened international law".

[20] Syrian dissident Anwar al-Bunni condemned the committee, dubbing it as a "pretext to fulfill a military agenda on the ground".

[12] The Suqour al-Sham Brigades and the remnants of the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement both condemned the formation of the committee and stated that they will boycott its decisions.