Con Law Geeks: Evaluate the Iraqi Provisional Constitution

Great Debates
1

Link to full text:

http://www.cpa-iraq.org/government/TAL.html

Looks like the provisional Constitution has a number of holes. Can anyone reconcile the following? Maybe some of these inconsistencies are due to bad translation or something? I’m sure there is more, but these inconsistencies just jump out at me:

“Article 4.
The system of government in Iraq shall be republican, federal, democratic, and pluralistic, and powers shall be shared between the federal government and the regional governments, governorates, municipalities, and local administrations. The federal system shall be based upon geographic and historical realities and the separation of powers, and not upon origin, race, ethnicity, nationality, or confession.”

So given that as I understand it, the country is divided to a great extent along lines of confession and/or ethnicity, “origin” (whatever that means in this context), and/or “race” (likewise), how are the federal divisions going to be “based upon geographic and historical realities” but NOT “origin, race, ethnicity, nationality, or confession”? Plus I don’t see where “separation of powers” is defined anywhere.

At first glance, Article 7 seems to be problematic. What on Earth are the “universally agreed tenets of Islam”? Is there even such a thing? And how is that supposed to work in conjunction with “the full religious rights of all individuals to freedom of religious belief and practice”? Could get messy, no?

Article 7, Section B: “Iraq is a country of many nationalities, and the Arab people in Iraq are an inseparable part of the Arab nation.” What the heck does this even mean? Is this like saying “we’re here, we’re Arabs, get used to it”?

“Article 9.
The Arabic language and the Kurdish language are the two official languages of Iraq. The right of Iraqis to educate their children in their mother tongue, such as Turcoman, Syriac, or Armenian, in government educational institutions in accordance with educational guidelines, or in any other language in private educational institutions, shall be guaranteed. “

OK, this is directly analogous to the topic of my master’s thesis, so it’s a bit of a soft spot. If there are no educational guidelines for teaching any but the two official languages, what bloody good is it to guarantee minority language speakers a right with no infrastructure to put it into action? Is there any infrastructure, legal or physical, for minority language instruction?

Article 11, on citizenship, naturalization, expatriation, etc. seems rather detailed in comparison to some of the other sound bite-type articles. Were piles of Iraqis forcibly exiled and/or expatriated? Seems there’s a disproportionate amount of emphasis here.

“Article 17.
It shall not be permitted to possess, bear, buy, or sell arms except on licensure issued in accordance with the law.”

Yeah, good luck with that.

“Article 25.
The Iraqi Transitional Government shall have exclusive competence in the following matters:

[snip]

(F) Regulating Iraqi citizenship, immigration, and asylum;”

Just how desperate would a person have to be to apply for asylum in Iraq? Between now and when a permanent Constitution is adopted? I shudder to think.

“Artcile 53. (D) This Law shall guarantee the administrative, cultural, and political rights of the Turcomans, ChaldoAssyrians, and all other citizens.”

What does this even mean? These rights don’t seem to be defined anywhere.

Any other relevant commentary is welcomed with open arms.

2

Looks like their idea is to indeed separate the nation into states (or governates) based on ethnic and religious dominance within that region. Here they’re just stating that “Yes, we are separating things, and yes this is because those areas have different kinds of people. But that’s not because we don’t dislike those people or have anything against them—it’s just a matter that, from looking at history, this is probably the only feasible solution to keep everything peaceful and happy.”

Seems to mean that any law passed in Iraq must neither violate any of the rights guaranteed in Chapter 2, any rights guaranteed by Islam (AKA the Koran), nor the right to follow whatever religion one wants to. So instead of conflicting, they are just restricting very very tightly what all laws are constitutional.

I think they mean “educational guidlines” to mean what topics must actually be covered, not the actual course work to be used. So as long as you include all the stuff you’re supposed to, and someone can verify that, it is ok to teach it.

Anyone? Perhaps they are talking about refugees. Who were perhaps not exiled, but certainly couldn’t go back.

Once each of the governates have finally been layed out and gotten a working government going, those of the Turcomans, Chaldo Assyrians, and such are guaranteed to be taken seriously. Any federal government members from these groups must be taken seriously. And otherwise, they are just as worthy as Arabs and Kurds.

In total, I was impressed with the thing. I thought that the idea of allowing each ethnicity to become its own state and have its own government to be a good idea. Certainly it will cause similar problems as Quebec has, but that does seem to be better than having French Canadians running around all over the country complaining all the time that they don’t have anyone to listen to them, or anywhere they can go.
So long as the Iraqi government repects the rights of each governate to do its own thing, and does nothing else except to keep neighbouring governates off each others backs, it should work out well. One just hopes that the real constitution will be so good.