Reuters has posted an excerpt from the Iraq's draft constitution and the Guardian has posted a partial text of draft Iraqi constitution prepared by the Associated Press:
From the preamble to the draft Iraqi constitution presented to Iraq's parliament on Monday night:
The National Assembly is to vote on the document on Thursday, after further negotiations between mainly Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish leaders on points that remain unresolved.
"... We rushed in the millions to the ballot boxes for the first time in our history -- men, women, the elderly, young people -- on Jan. 30, 2005, remembering the pain of sectarian repression practised against the majority and the suffering of Iraq's Shi'ites, Sunnis, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and other martyrs, remembering the tyranny practised against the holy cities in the popular Intifada, the Marsh region, the national repression in the massacres of Halabja, Barazan, the Anfal campaign, the Faili Kurds, the Turkmen in Bashir, the suffering of the people of the western region where terrorists and their allies have striven to prevent people from taking part in the elections and establishing a civil society and cooperating in building our new Iraq of the future, without sectarian strife, racism, regional complexes, discrimination and marginalisation.
"Terrorism and the denunciation of people as non-Muslims have not stopped us going forward to build a state of law, and sectarianism and racism have not stopped us ... following the peaceful rotation of power, adopting the principle of fair distribution of resources and allowing equality of opportunity for all.
"We, the Iraqi people now rising from suppression and looking forward to a future in a republican, federal, democratic and pluralist system, have made a pact to respect the rule of law, reject the politics of aggression, give attention to the rights of women, men and children, spread the culture of diversity, and uproot terrorism. We, the people of Iraq, have taken upon ourselves to write this constitution in freedom and unity, to learn from what has preceded it and let it be a guide to us in the future, and to draft it using the values and examples of the prophets of old and new developments in knowledge and civilization. Abiding by this constitution will preserve for Iraq the free unity of its components in terms of people, land and sovereignty."
According to the Guardian, the Associated Press translated this partial text from Arabic, using photographs of the documents:
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. Recognising 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 organisation that follow a racist, terrorist, extremist, sectarian-cleaning ideology or circulates or justifies such beliefs is banned, especially Saddam's Ba'ath 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 centre 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 organisations.
Article 39
Iraqis are free to abide in their personal lives according to their religion, sects, beliefs or choice. This should be organised 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-Ba'athification continues its work as an independent commission, in coordination with the judicial authority and executive institutions and according to laws that organise 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% 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.
The preamble has a nice ring to it, "rising from suppression and looking forward to a future in a republican, federal, democratic and pluralist system, have made a pact to respect the rule of law, reject the politics of aggression, give attention to the rights of women, men and children, spread the culture of diversity, and uproot terrorism." Although it does seem like women are getting less protection than they should, the constitution garuntees that "no less than 25% of Council of Deputies seats go to women.
Maybe it's the translation, but this constitution reads like a nice working draft. While many "rights" are embraced there are may things that ought to be clarified. Is it possible not to contradict Islamic standards and democratic standards at the same time? Where does one find the "standards." Who what gets the final word on what the constitutional language means? The only mention of a court that I can find is "The Iraq Supreme Criminal Court" in Article 144.
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