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Constitutional Development in Iraq

part of the Rule of Law, Strengthening the Rule of Law in Iraq
Credit: CIA World Factbook

Project Chairs

  Jason Gluck

As part of its broader project on constitution-making processes, ROL has been assisting and evaluating the Iraqi constitutional development process since 2004 through a variety of activities.

USIP focused specific attention on increasing transparency and public participation in the constitutional process during the drafting period, through work with the Constitutional Commission's public outreach unit and through direct support with a wide array of civil society organizations.

ROL has provided advice and technical assistance to Iraq's Constitutional Commission as it drafted the country's new charter and, since 2007, to the Constitutional Review Committee responsible for recommending amendments to the constitution.  ROL’s efforts have focused on federalism and Iraq’s charter of human and minority rights, and have brought together senior legal advisors and political leaders from religious and ethnic minority groups, women's groups, and Sunni Arabs at risk of being political marginalization.

ROL’s most recent efforts have included a study tour to Switzerland in August 2008 with members of the CRC and senior members of the federal and regional judiciaries, in collaboration with the World Bank and the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs, to examine judicial federalism and the design of Iraq's second chamber of parliament.

Following up on issues raised during the study tour, USIP conducted a conference in Erbil, Iraq in March 2009, to discuss increasing coordination and harmonization between the federal and regional judiciaries. For the first time, high-ranking judicial officials from Baghdad and the Kurdistan region were joined by representatives of the parliaments, executive authorities, federal and regional bar associations, and international experts to deliberate on the nascent and evolving relationship between the two judicial authorities.  See the report and outcomes below.

Other areas of constitutional development supported by USIP include options for judicial appointments and executive power sharing.

See ROL’s other projects in Iraq on judicial independence, property law, and transitional justice.

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