The New Iraq

 Kornelija Vasiliauskaite Government 259 Professor Matthew Zommer March 15, 2007 The New Iraq Southwest Asian country, the Republic of Iraq, is in the middle of the civil war today. The Iraqi nation is going through the political and legal regime changes and developing new governance with a new constitution. Along with a new constitution, new challenges arise. Despite the difficulties that the nation is facing structuring a new government, on October 2005, the final draft of a new constitution passed with a majority votes. Even though seventy-eight percent decided to accept the new constitution, the document is remaining much debated. A lot of controversy is being posed by questions such as, whether the Iraq will adapt to the new governance and establish democracy, what should be the Sharia law’s role in today’s Iraq, how should the Iraqi women’s rights be advocated, or how the police should be trained. Developing a democratic constitution and a criminal justice system is a great dare for a nation that has a strong tradition of Islamic law and such intense diversity of religious and ethnic groups. The three main populations in Iraq are Sunni, Shia, and Kurd. Sunni is an Islamic denomination. Despite the fact that Sunnis compose eighty percent of the world’s Muslim population, only thirty-five percent forms the Iraqi nation (about fifteen percent Arab Sunni, and twenty percent Sunni Kurds). For Iraqi Sunnis ethnic identity is much more important than religious uniqueness. Sunnis in Iraq are dominant in elite and government. Shia community (fifty five-sixty percent of Iraq population) emphasizes their ethnic (Arab) identity over the religious one as well as Sunni. The Sunni-Shia division has been a persistent contention over power of control and possessions in Iraq. Today, as Iraqi nation is developing new constitution and criminal justice system, Shia and Sunni groups are still in the opposition. When Iraqi Governing Council was formed on July 13, 2003, the most varied Iraq was formed ethnic and religious wise. United States’ governed coalition selected thirteen Shia Muslims, five Sunni Muslims, five Kurds, one Christians, and one Turkmen. Giving the majority of seats to Shia Muslims was a critical change, because the country leading Sunni Muslims got the minority member seats. Shias, especially those from the southern Iraq, have a great interest in federal government and decentralized power, simply because the group wants to gain more control over the southern Iraqi oilfields in Basra, the main port of the country, while the Kurds seem to be the candidates for the northern oilfields. The Kurdish community stand in a prevailing position, the twenty-five percent of the seats will defend their independence. Even though Sunnis are religious groups, they are not as concerned about women’s’ rights or Islamic position on divorce as the Shia Muslims. Despite the fact that the new constitution has been drafted, many questions were unanswered and some remain so about the 63-clause document. It was unclear how to structure the new government, how much autonomy to give to Kurdish minority, or how to sustain the rights of women and religious groups. The compilers of the new Iraqi constitution did not properly address the question of president’s position: Shiites, the majority of the country population, would want to have Shiite president, which would allow Shia Muslims dominate in the new executive branch. The kind of federal government has not been defined yet. It is to decide how much authority each autonomous districts or provinces should have. The constitution did not answer how long will the U.S. troops’ remain in Iraq. Islamic law raises one of the biggest questions about the constitution. The document accepts Islam as the main and formal religion of the future State of Iraq, but declares that Sharia law will not be the main source of the legislative body. Women remain confused about their rights. The First Amendment of Article 30 states “the state guarantee to the individual and the family -- especially children and women -- social and health security and the basic requirements for leading a free and dignified life. The state also ensures the above a suitable income and appropriate housing.” According to the Amendment above, women should have equal rights and liberties, which is still in a lot of doubts that this will actually be happening. Iraqi women were trying to make their voices heard creating the new constitution. Even though the status of women was unclear before drafting the new constitution, there was an opportunity for females to speak for themselves and influence new laws. A number of women organizations met to motivate and encourage women as well as endorse women’s rights in the new constitution. Women had a possibility to study other’s experiences at the United Nations funded project to support females. Since the occupation of Iraq, women felt repressed, insecure, and weak, as the country condition was extremely unsafe. According to a Human Rights Watch report, Climate of Fear published in July 2003, after the invasion, women faced a much bigger sexual violence, kidnapping, and murder by militias and criminal gangs, which was a rare occurrence while Saddam Hussein's was ruling the country. Ensuring more rights and liberties for Iraqi women is certainly a challenge for a country with strong patriarchic values and beliefs. The group Women for Women, lead by Zainab Salbi released a post-war survey of Iraqi women. The results show that “ninety-four percent of women want to secure legal rights for women, eighty-four percent want the right to vote on the final constitution, and nearly eighty percent of women believe that their participation in local and national councils should not be limited.” These results refute the notion that women in Iraq believe that their rights, involvement in Iraqi politics and government should be restricted due to the traditions, and religion. The U.S State Department created the Iraqi Women’s Democracy Initiative to help women slate in order to participate in the new Iraqi politics. The conception was great but it did not highly succeed. Wijdan al-Khuzai, a candidate running on a secular platform, was murdered, Salama al-Khafaji, a prominent female Shiite candidate, escaped killing, and Zakia Khalifa al-Zaidi, a 72-year-old member of a Communist Party, received death threats. Iraq necessarily needs a professional, modern, and well-trained police today to develop a new organized criminal justice system. Iraq has the resources to embody professional policing structure, but forming an efficient police force in the country is still a challenge. Saddam Hussein’s police was extremely corrupt. Officers would take bribes for any operation or target they do. Bribes were also the only way to get a job, even in the police system. The coalition forming the new Iraqi criminal justice system should concentrate on corruption and attempt to leave it out of consideration, which is the only way to make Iraqi police protect the people of the country. Thousands new police officers’ graduate from basic police training courses throughout Iraq and in Jordan every month. Police scholastic institution in Baghdad, Sulaymaniyah, and a new police academy in Mosul, train officers in Iraq. “The 10-week basic police-training program is designed to provide fundamental and democratic policing skills based on international human rights standards to prepare students to assume police responsibilities,” says the representative of the United States Department of Defense. The United States is playing a very important role creating the new Iraq. U.S. is indirectly producing a constitution for Iraq. The United States selected The Governing Council members. United Nations is also very much involved in creating new Iraqi government. Let us not forget that UN is very much appertained to the U.S. Therefore, the United States is the main actor creating and developing the new Iraqi constitution and criminal justice system. “At the beginning of the First World War, an Austro-Hungarian general led his army to catastrophic defeat against Serbia because he made a premature advance based on the need to mark the birthday of Emperor Franz Josef with a striking victory,” says Patrick Cockburn, the correspondent for the Financial Times and the Independent who has been filing reports on the war in Iraq. Cockburn’s pessimistic view of Iraqi invasion suggests that American diplomats were doing the same thing, when they were trying to present the new constitutions draft without having it properly composed. The journalist believes that this action was only the need of the White House to show America that Iraq is moving forward, advancing, and making progress. One of the possible results of seeking to organize the new Iraqi government with new constitution and criminal justice system is failing the democratic attempt. The failure would probably lead to dictatorship or authoritarian administration. Maybe Iraqi nation needs authoritarian governance, contrarily to England or the U.S. model. South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan are good examples of the successful authoritarian government and maybe would be suitable for Iraq. The mentioned countries are very economically successful and experiencing fast economic growth. There Bibliography: Cockburn, Patrick. "The American Obsession with a Quick Constitution is a Recipe for Disaster in Iraq." Christus Rex. 25 Aug. 2005. The Independent. Retrieved on 10 Mar. 2007 from

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