Ambassador · Scholar of International Law · Lawyer & Arbitrator
International Law and International Relations
Over thirty years across courtrooms, embassies, negotiating tables and universities. Writing on Syria's transition, human rights, institution-building, and Syria's place in the regional and international order.
About
Professional and Academic Career
Dr. Mohammad Hosam Hafez began practising law in Damascus in 1993 before joining the Syrian diplomatic service, serving in London, Tehran and Yerevan as consul and head of the legal and political sections. He holds the title of Ambassador at the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He has taught public international law, international humanitarian law and human rights law at universities in Syria and Qatar, including Qatar University College of Law and the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He was a member of the opposition negotiating delegation in 2014 and headed the Legal Office of the Syrian Negotiations Commission in 2016–2017.
Today he is a researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, editor of the law section of the Arab Encyclopedia (Arabica) and chair of the board of trustees of the Arab Center for Contemporary Syria Studies, and he practises as a lawyer, legal consultant and arbitrator.
Career
Photo Gallery
Official Engagements and Media Appearances
Research & Papers
Recent Research Papers
Writing the History of Negotiations in Syria: Problems and Questions
Why negotiations are largely absent from modern Syrian historiography, and how their sources should be approached (in Arabic).
Read →The Quest for Statehood and the Failure of Politics in Syria
Why political alternatives remain scarce despite wider freedoms, and the concept of “the politically possible”.
Legitimacy and Legality in the Founding Transitional Phase
On the distinction between the political legitimacy and legal validity of transitional authority in rebuilding the Syrian state.
Syria in the New Era: The Path of Transition to the State
What fell in 2024 was a model of rule, not the institutions of the state (in Arabic).
Read →Al Jazeera Centre for StudiesThe Syrian Negotiations: A Struggle over the Terms of Settlement
How the Geneva Communiqué and Resolution 2118 became a battleground over the references for a political solution (in Arabic).
Read →Al Jazeera Centre for StudiesSyria's Constitutional Committee: Enlightened UN Diplomacy or Repositioning the Regime?
The constitutional track within the UN-led process, from the Annan plan to Geneva.
Read →Books
Books
The Syrian Peace Process: International Intervention and Failure
Based on his Otago doctoral thesis, combining international legal analysis, political theory and first-hand negotiating experience.
International Mechanisms for the Protection of Human Rights: Between Theory and Reality
The UN and regional systems of human rights protection, and the gap between text and practice.
Human Rights: Between Thought and Law
The intellectual roots of human rights and their transformation into binding legal norms.
Also author of dozens of entries in the Arab Encyclopedia (Arabica), where he edits the law section.
Academic Activities
Participation in Conferences and Seminars
Arab Democracy Study Group (ADSG) Conference
Convenor of the panel “Repurposing Democratization in a Post-War Syria”; paper on institutionalized public decision-making in Syria's transition.
Annual Forum for Contemporary Syrian Studies — 6th edition
Paper “The Quest for Statehood and the Failure of Politics in Syria” in the session on the state, sovereignty and rebuilding the political sphere.
Workshop: “Syria and Palestine: From Shared History to Questions of the State”
Speaker at the workshop organised by the Arab Center for Contemporary Syria Studies.
Workshop: “How Should Syria's History Be Written?”
Paper re-reading Syria's post-conflict political history through the lens of negotiations.
Workshop: “A New Year for the New Republic”
Opening paper on law and politics; chair of the second session.
Annual Forum for Contemporary Syrian Studies — 5th edition
Opening address as the Center's director, and a paper on Syria's constitutional and legal framework in the transition.
Panel at the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies
“Has Geneva III achieved any progress?” — an overview of the political tracks from the Arab League to Geneva and Astana.
12th Al Jazeera Forum
Participant in the forum's sessions.
Seminar: “Where did the Syrian revolution go? What happened, and why?”
Session: “The Syrian opposition: military and political performance”.
Seminar: “Syria and Lebanon: path and destiny amid regional change”
Intervention.
Blog
Political and Legal Articles
Media & Interviews
Interviews and Television Appearances
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Institutional Affiliations