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The Kurdish Globe
By Aiyob Mawloodi
"This will be the first constitutional document in the Kurdish history,"
Dr. Nuri Talabani, a university professor in law and member of the Kurdish Academy, explains in an interview with the Globe, his comments about the draft constitution of the Kurdistan Region.
Talabani describes the constitution as an important document, not only for this liberated part of Kurdistan, but for all the other parts as well.
"This will be the first constitutional document in the Kurdish history," says Talabani. "The constitution defines the governing method and the citizens' rights and duties in a country."
Talabani believes the constitution drafted by the parliament a few years ago, and approved in June 2009, has a number of good principles, including defining the borders of the Kurdistan Region based on historical and geographical facts.
"But in the second paragraph of the same article, reference has been made to the Article 140 of the Iraqi Permanent Constitution to determine Kurdistan Region's political borders," explained Talabani. "In my opinion, this is not true, since the article is originally intended to reverse the effects of the Baathist regime's Arabization policy in the areas under the control of the Iraqi government, rather than to determine the borders of Kurdistan Region. We need also to remember that the enemies of the Kurds always try to hinder the process of implementing the article. Besides, we never know when and how this article is going to be implemented."
Talabani mentioned other criticisms of the constitution, regarding the works and performance of the preparation committee in the second round of the parliament.
"For example, after preparing the draft in June 2006, I was assigned to translate the draft law from Arabic to Kurdish. But before I finished the work and returned it to the constitutional committee, and during parliament's recess, the committee made radical amendments in the draft in the absence of one third of the MPs."
Talabani mentioned that some 22 articles and paragraphs of the draft were changed during an extraordinary session of the parliament on Aug. 22, 2006, while Parliament could easily have waited another week to do it during an ordinary session with the participation of all committee members.
While the constitution has not been put to a vote yet, and still not effective, Talabani suggests that some important amendments are needed before that stage.
"If 10 MPs request an amendment and two-thirds of the MPs vote for it, then Parliament would be able to make changes in the law, after which it could be put to a referendum," Talabani told the Globe.
Talabani believes the constitution is important as it defines the authority of government institutions and agencies as well as the rights and duties of citizens.
Kurdistan Region authorities have pushed for a regional constitution since it became a federal region, even if it is a temporary one.
"This is because the constitution is the source of all the laws, where the type of government and power distribution and organization is defined. It also defines the authorities of the major powers in the Region, including the legislative, judicial and executive powers as well as the principle of power segregation. This is because a power cannot interfere in the authorities of another."
According to Talabani, the downfall of the Baathist yegime in 2003 and the legislation of Transitional Administrative Law, which served as a temporary constitution, was an important step in the history of Iraq and Kurdistan as it recognized Kurdistan Region and the major institutions of the region, such as parliament, government and judicial power in Articles 53 and 54.
"So, Parliament remained as a legislative power to continue its work until a permanent constitution for the country is in place. According to this article, Parliament could pass new laws for the Region, or amend existing ones, provided they are in line with Article 25 and Paragraph D of Article 43 of the TAL. According to these provisions, there are some centralized laws that Kurdistan Region had to follow while approving any regional law. Then, Kurdistan Parliament could virtually pass any, law including the constitution, as it is a law, but a higher law, as long as they respect these two articles."
Regarding the issue of delays in approving Kurdistan Region's constitution, Talabani stated that while they are all eager to have the constitution in place as soon as possible, some believe they should wait for the Iraqi constitution to be passed, to make sure it would be in compliance with the national constitution.
"This belief was related to the political situation in the Region as the legislation of Kurdistan's constitution before the national one would have created doubts among the neighboring countries and Iraqi political groups. They believed that they should wait and see what will be granted to Kurdistan in the national constitution, based on how we should draft ours. Here, I want to talk about the opinion of a law professor at the Quebec University who visited Kurdistan in spring 2006 to participate in a conference about the constitution organized by the Kurdish Institute in Paris and KRG Ministry of Culture. I met him and he asked me to arrange a meeting for him with the Constitutional Committee of the Parliament. His first question for them during the meeting was why should they wait for the Iraqi Constitution and not approve their own constitution first" He said that if Kurdistan's constitution was prepared before that of Iraq, Kurds were free to draft it the way they want without being restricted by the Iraqi Constitution. When the members of the committee heard this professor's words, they looked at each other in surprise, as they were all with delaying the constitution until Iraq's Constitution was in place."
Talabani added that this was his suggestion since 1992. He says that he has raised the issue in many meetings and articles. "But, time has passed and it was not in the interest of the Kurds."
"If we approved our constitution before that of Iraq, today we would not be obliged to follow the provisions of the Iraqi Constitution."
NEWS SOURCE
By Aiyob Mawloodi
"This will be the first constitutional document in the Kurdish history,"
Dr. Nuri Talabani, a university professor in law and member of the Kurdish Academy, explains in an interview with the Globe, his comments about the draft constitution of the Kurdistan Region.
Talabani describes the constitution as an important document, not only for this liberated part of Kurdistan, but for all the other parts as well.
"This will be the first constitutional document in the Kurdish history," says Talabani. "The constitution defines the governing method and the citizens' rights and duties in a country."
Talabani believes the constitution drafted by the parliament a few years ago, and approved in June 2009, has a number of good principles, including defining the borders of the Kurdistan Region based on historical and geographical facts.
"But in the second paragraph of the same article, reference has been made to the Article 140 of the Iraqi Permanent Constitution to determine Kurdistan Region's political borders," explained Talabani. "In my opinion, this is not true, since the article is originally intended to reverse the effects of the Baathist regime's Arabization policy in the areas under the control of the Iraqi government, rather than to determine the borders of Kurdistan Region. We need also to remember that the enemies of the Kurds always try to hinder the process of implementing the article. Besides, we never know when and how this article is going to be implemented."
Talabani mentioned other criticisms of the constitution, regarding the works and performance of the preparation committee in the second round of the parliament.
"For example, after preparing the draft in June 2006, I was assigned to translate the draft law from Arabic to Kurdish. But before I finished the work and returned it to the constitutional committee, and during parliament's recess, the committee made radical amendments in the draft in the absence of one third of the MPs."
Talabani mentioned that some 22 articles and paragraphs of the draft were changed during an extraordinary session of the parliament on Aug. 22, 2006, while Parliament could easily have waited another week to do it during an ordinary session with the participation of all committee members.
While the constitution has not been put to a vote yet, and still not effective, Talabani suggests that some important amendments are needed before that stage.
"If 10 MPs request an amendment and two-thirds of the MPs vote for it, then Parliament would be able to make changes in the law, after which it could be put to a referendum," Talabani told the Globe.
Talabani believes the constitution is important as it defines the authority of government institutions and agencies as well as the rights and duties of citizens.
Kurdistan Region authorities have pushed for a regional constitution since it became a federal region, even if it is a temporary one.
"This is because the constitution is the source of all the laws, where the type of government and power distribution and organization is defined. It also defines the authorities of the major powers in the Region, including the legislative, judicial and executive powers as well as the principle of power segregation. This is because a power cannot interfere in the authorities of another."
According to Talabani, the downfall of the Baathist yegime in 2003 and the legislation of Transitional Administrative Law, which served as a temporary constitution, was an important step in the history of Iraq and Kurdistan as it recognized Kurdistan Region and the major institutions of the region, such as parliament, government and judicial power in Articles 53 and 54.
"So, Parliament remained as a legislative power to continue its work until a permanent constitution for the country is in place. According to this article, Parliament could pass new laws for the Region, or amend existing ones, provided they are in line with Article 25 and Paragraph D of Article 43 of the TAL. According to these provisions, there are some centralized laws that Kurdistan Region had to follow while approving any regional law. Then, Kurdistan Parliament could virtually pass any, law including the constitution, as it is a law, but a higher law, as long as they respect these two articles."
Regarding the issue of delays in approving Kurdistan Region's constitution, Talabani stated that while they are all eager to have the constitution in place as soon as possible, some believe they should wait for the Iraqi constitution to be passed, to make sure it would be in compliance with the national constitution.
"This belief was related to the political situation in the Region as the legislation of Kurdistan's constitution before the national one would have created doubts among the neighboring countries and Iraqi political groups. They believed that they should wait and see what will be granted to Kurdistan in the national constitution, based on how we should draft ours. Here, I want to talk about the opinion of a law professor at the Quebec University who visited Kurdistan in spring 2006 to participate in a conference about the constitution organized by the Kurdish Institute in Paris and KRG Ministry of Culture. I met him and he asked me to arrange a meeting for him with the Constitutional Committee of the Parliament. His first question for them during the meeting was why should they wait for the Iraqi Constitution and not approve their own constitution first" He said that if Kurdistan's constitution was prepared before that of Iraq, Kurds were free to draft it the way they want without being restricted by the Iraqi Constitution. When the members of the committee heard this professor's words, they looked at each other in surprise, as they were all with delaying the constitution until Iraq's Constitution was in place."
Talabani added that this was his suggestion since 1992. He says that he has raised the issue in many meetings and articles. "But, time has passed and it was not in the interest of the Kurds."
"If we approved our constitution before that of Iraq, today we would not be obliged to follow the provisions of the Iraqi Constitution."
NEWS SOURCE
