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Iraqi
legal experts are urging National Assembly members
to put political rights and the protection of
minorities at the top of their agenda as they
prepare to draft the country’s new constitution.
The transitional body has until August 15 to write
the constitution, which will replace the
Transitional Administration Law, TAL, adopted while
the United States-appointed Coalition Provisional
Authority was in charge. The document will then be
put to a public vote in a referendum October 15.
Lawyer Abdul-Wahib Majid predicts that the final
draft of the constitution will follow a moderate
path. "[It] will be secular and moderate, not like
the tough constitution of Iran and not like the
easy-going constitution of Turkey," he said.
Suad Salman Dawood, Basra’s first female attorney,
urges those writing the constitution to ensure it
guarantees political rights and freedom of
expression, and gives Iraqi women “the position they
deserve”.
"Women and children are the pillars of society, and
they must be taken care of and their rights
protected in the constitution,” she said.
Iraqi human rights minister Bakhtiar Amin said his
ministry will help guide assembly members in their
work, particularly when it comes to meeting
international standards for ensuring minority,
political and social rights.
Amin expects the new constitution to recognise many
international agreements such as the United Nation
convention outlawing torture, and the Rome
Convention which established the International
Criminal Court.
Lawyer Muhammed al-Baithani warned that Iraqis are
likely to reject the document unless it addresses
the country’s diverse religious and ethnic makeup.
"Then we will have to start from scratch, and there
will be a big political vacuum," said al-Baithani.
A majority of voters must approve the draft before
new National Assembly elections can be held. The TAL
also includes a veto provision that states that
two-thirds of the voters in at least three provinces
can reject the constitution.
Elsewhere, the lawyers say the constitution must
separate the executive, legislative and judicial
branches of the government, so they cannot interfere
with each other.
The head of Basra’s union of lawyers, Ali al-Kabi,
said these basic principles were present in the
previous constitution, but were ignored by former
president Saddam Hussein.
He stressed the importance of ensuring independence
of the country’s courts.
"The Iraqi judiciary must… not be subject to
interference by any party in the state,” he said,
noting that the TAL included such guarantees.
On other matters, the legal experts agreed that the
assembly must ensure the army serves the government,
and not the other way around.
Some believe federalism is the most pressing issue
that will face the assembly, with both the Kurds in
the north and the Shias in the south discussing the
issue of devolving power to regional level.
"The constitution should include and define the
principle of federalism, especially for the southern
provinces consisting of Basra, Nassariyah and Amarah,"
said al-Baithani,
Sairan Taha Ahmed, a law professor at Sulaimaniyah
University in the north, said the constitution
should guarantee the right of self-determination for
the Kurds, who control the three provinces of Dahuk,
Sulaimaniyah and Arbil.
Those regions fell out of Saddam’s control after the
1991 Gulf War.
“We should work for an independent federalism,” she
said. “The boundaries of Kurdistan’s regional
authority should be set in every aspect.”
Ahmed went on to say that Kurdish members of the
National Assembly are likely to demand a greater
percentage of Iraq’s national revenues for their
autonomous region. Only 17 per cent of revenues have
been set aside for the Kurds, who make up 20 per
cent of Iraq’s population.
“We must have the rights of a nation, not a
minority,” she said.
The Mosul representative of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan, one of two ruling parties in the region,
said the status of the ethnically-divided city of
Kirkuk is likely to be a top issue. Sady Pira said
the Kurds will push the National Assembly to
implement an article in the TAL that allows Kurds
deported from Kirkuk to return to their homes.
But he admitted that the assembly would also have to
find a way to compensate the Arabs whom Saddam
resettled in Kirkuk in an attempt to alter its
ethnic makeup.
“We can’t just kick those people out, but the Kurds
have the right to go back to their homes, because
they were there first,” he said.
This story has not been bylined because of concerns
for the security of IWPR reporters.
http://www.iwpr.net
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