Proposed Text of Iraqi Constitution

Chapter One

Article One

The Republic of Iraq is an independent state.

Article Two

The political system is republican, parliamentary, democratic and federal.

1. Islam is a main source for legislation.

-- a. No law may contradict Islamic standards.

-- b. No law may contradict democratic standards.

-- c. No law may contradict the essential rights and freedoms mentioned in this constitution.

2. This constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the Iraqi people and guarantees all religious rights; all persons are free within their ideology and the practice of their ideological practices.

3. Iraq is part of the Islamic world, and the Arabs are part of the Arab nation.

4.

a. Arabic and Kurdish are the two official languages, and Iraqis have the right to teach their sons their mother language like the Turkomen and Assyrian in the government educational institutes.

b. The language used orally in official institutions such as the Parliament and the Cabinet as well as official conventions should be one of the two languages.

c. Recognizing the official documents with the two languages.

d. Opening the schools with two languages.

Article Three

Federal institutions in Kurdistan should use the two languages.

Article Four

The Turkomen and Assyrian languages are the official languages in the Turkomen and Assyrian areas, and each territory or province has the right to use its own official language if residents have approved in a general referendum vote.

Article Five

Power is transferred peacefully through democratic ways.

Article Seven

1. Any organization that follow a racist, terrorist, extremist, sectarian-cleaning ideology or circulates or justifies such beliefs is banned, especially Saddam's Baath Party in Iraq and its symbols under any name. And this should not be part of the political pluralism in Iraq.

2. The government is committed to fighting terrorism in all its forms, and works to protect Iraqi soil from being a center or passage for terrorist activities.

CHAPTER TWO

Article 35

-- a. Human freedom and dignity are guaranteed.

-- b. No person can be detained or interrogated without a judicial order.

-- c. All kinds of physical and psychological torture and inhumane treatment are prohibited, and any confession is considered void if it was taken by force, threats and torture. The person who was harmed has the right to ask for compensation for the financial and moral damage he/she suffered.

Article 36

The State guarantees:

1. Freedom of expression by all means.

2. Freedom of the press, printing, advertising and publishing.

Article 37

Freedom to establish political groups and organizations.

Article 39

Iraqis are free to abide in their personal lives according to their religion, sects, beliefs or choice. This should be organized by law.

CHAPTER THREE

Article 66

A presidential candidate should:

1. Be Iraqi by birth and the offspring of two Iraqi parents.

2. Be no less than 40 years old.

3. Have a good reputation and political experience, and be known as honest and faithful to the nation.

Article 75

The prime minister should have all the qualifications as the presidential candidate and should have a university degree or its equivalent and should not be less than 35 years old.

Article 104

A general commission should be set up to observe and specify the central (government) revenues, and the commission should be made up of experts from the central government, regions, provinces and representatives.

CHAPTER 4:

Article 107

Federal authorities should preserve Iraq's unity, security, independence and sovereignty and its democratic federal system.

Article 109

Oil and gas are the property of all the Iraqi people in regions and provinces.

Article 110

The central government administers oil and gas extracted from current wells, along with governments of the producing regions and provinces, on the condition that revenues are distributed in a way that suits population distribution around the country.

CHAPTER FIVE

Article 114

1. A region consists of one or more provinces, and two or more regions have the right to create a single region.

2. A province or more has the right to set a region according to a referendum called for in one of two ways:

-- a. A demand by one-third of all members of each of the provincial councils that aims to set up a region.

-- b. A demand by one-tenth of voters of the provinces that aim to set up a region.

Article 117

A region's legislative authority is made up of one council, named the National Assembly of the region.

Article 118

The National Council of the region drafts the region's constitution and issues laws, which must not contradict this constitution and Iraq's central laws.

Article 120

The executive authority of the region is made up of the president of the region and the region's government.

Article 128

The region's revenues are made up from the specified allotment from the national budget and from the local revenues of the region.

Article 129

The regional government does what is needed to administer the region, especially setting up internal security forces, such as police, security and region guards.

Article 135

This constitution guarantees the administrative, political, cultural and educational rights of different ethnic groups such as Turkomen, Chaldean, Assyrians and other groups.

CHAPTER SIX

Article 144

The Iraq Supreme Criminal Court continues its work as a legislative, independent commission to look into the crimes of the former dictatorial regime and its symbols, and the Council of Deputies has the right to annul it after it ends its duties.

Article 145

a. The Supreme National Commission for de-Baathification continues its work as an independent commission, in coordination with the judicial authority and executive institutions and according to laws that organize its work.

b. Parliament has the right to dissolve this commission after it ends its work, with a two-thirds majority.

Article 151

No less than 25 percent of Council of Deputies seats go to women.

Article 153

This law is considered in force after people vote on it in a general referendum and when it is published in the official Gazette and the Council of Deputies is elected according to it.

Looks interesting.

Have they released the full text yet in English?

Where are the missing articles? Or are those the ones that you would like the discussion centered around?

Does that mean Iraqis can prosecute Rumsfeld according to articles 35a-c when it passes?

P.S. Thanks for posting the text Pindar, it is very interesting.

Article one - does this mean that when the Supreme Court of Iraq (or something analogous) is created the judges will have to be not only legal scholars, but also islamic scholars?

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2. This constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the Iraqi people and guarantees all religious rights; all persons are free within their ideology and the practice of their ideological practices.

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This, my friends, is complete gibberish. If all they can come up with is such nonsense, it bodes ill for Iraq.

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Originally Posted by dgb

Article one - does this mean that when the Supreme Court of Iraq (or something analogous) is created the judges will have to be not only legal scholars, but also islamic scholars?

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It means that the court which gives final Islamic approval to all laws will consist of Islamic clerics who might also be judges as well; and considering that the majority of the population (60-70%), and thus the clerics, are Shiite, this means that laws will be judged from the Shia version of Islam.

It also seems to me that Article 2 section 2 contradicts itself and the first portion contradicts Article 135.

"This constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the Iraqi people and guarantees all religious rights; all persons are free within their ideology and the practice of their ideological practices."

"This constitution guarantees the administrative, political, cultural and educational rights of different ethnic groups such as Turkomen, Chaldean, Assyrians and other groups."

Many Chaldeans are Christians. In fact, Saddam's ex-foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, is a Chaldean Catholic. Along with the Chaldean Catholics, there are other non-Islamic groups in Iraq. The largest non-Islamic group are the Nestorian Christians at about 750,000. Yazidis are second at around 500,000, then comes the Chaldean Catholics, Syrian Catholics and Armenian Orthodox. About 7% of the population is non-Islamic.

So how can the constitution affirm the Islamic identity of the Iraqi people, when not all Iraqis follow Islam?

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Originally Posted by Aenlic

So how can the constitution affirm the Islamic identity of the Iraqi people, when not all Iraqis follow Islam?

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Yup. But I believe Pindar's copy is poorly translated as well as incomplete, so we may have to withhold judgment. However, all the signs are bad. According to today's The New York Times the proposed Constitution has a provision that family disputes will be settled by islamic clerics.

Surely that is a sick joke?

In the Southern, Shiite parts of Iraq women are already forced to stay in the home for fear of rape and 'honour' killings, to wear the infamous bungalow tent with the eye slit, etcetera. On August 10 the Christian Science Monitor reported the return of female circumcision in parts of Iraq. That country will be one more women's prison if this goes on.

Why Turkish and Assyrian? What about Iranian or Babylonian?

At first glance this doesn't look that promising, particularly the emphasis on conformity with Islamic laws.

The translation does look rather poor, but of course the document is only a couple of days old, and so understandably it is hasty. But don't put too much faith in the specific wording, as we have to wait for a more precise translation.

Here we go.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/h...05_constit.pdf

Thanks Geoff.

On the whole, it seems fairly reasonable. I'm not a fan of some of the more socialistic provisions, but these are hardly out of line with the practices of many democracies.

Seamus

I read the arabic one, its not that poorly translated really. What you read here is in the constitution there, basically.

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So how can the constitution affirm the Islamic identity of the Iraqi people, when not all Iraqis follow Islam?

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The majority of iraqis follow islam however.

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Originally Posted by faisal

The majority of iraqis follow islam however.

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'Recognising God's right upon us'...
'Article (2): 1st - Islam is the official religion of the state'..

This translation confirms the worst of my fears.

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Originally Posted by AdrianII

'Recognising God's right upon us'...
'Article (2): 1st - Islam is the official religion of the state'..

This translation confirms the worst of my fears.

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I fail to see what's so frightening about that. It would've been almost inconceivable for it not to recognize Islam. Just so people are also allowed to worship other religions.

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Originally Posted by AdrianII

'Recognising God's right upon us'...
'Article (2): 1st - Islam is the official religion of the state'..

This translation confirms the worst of my fears.

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That's actually not that scary. What's scary is:

"1. Islam is a main source for legislation.

-- a. No law may contradict Islamic standards."

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Originally Posted by Xiahou

I fail to see what's so frightening about that.

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The establishment of a state religion is very disappointing. Maybe it was inevitable, but that doesn't make such a Constitution acceptable as the basis for a modern democracy. They have a parliamentary majority based on religion and now they get a Constitution based on religion -- all of that in a religiously devided country. That is a recipe for disaster. The Shiites are already fighting among themselves these days because one man's Shia is another man's heresy. Go figure.