Iraqi Governing Council members working through the night approved a transitional constitution early Monday that provides equal rights for men and women, deems Islam a source for legislation and recognizes Kurdish regional authority in northern Iraq so long as it does not challenge national ambitions.
The 25-member council ended its marathon lawmaking session at 4:15 a.m. after nearly two days of non-stop discussion over Iraq’s basic values. The interim constitution, due to be announced formally Wednesday after the Shiite holiday of Ashoura, was passed by consensus, according to Feisal al-Istrabadi, a legal adviser to council member Adnan Pachachi.
There were few details, but it appears that some of the most problematic issues for the council–specifically the role of Islam–were solved by hours of careful parsing of words and sensitivities. Kurdish demands to retain some autonomous rule were resolved in part by clearly reinforcing the idea of Iraq’s sovereignty and leaving open some details about how disputes between federal and regional concerns would be resolved.
The agreement provides for a single president and two deputy presidents. There is no ethnic designation for any of the three positions.
More Top Picks Best Led Nail Lamps Without Wires
“No one said no to anything,” said al-Istrabadi, who described the effort as “one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do and one of the most gratifying.”
Al-Istrabadi said the members discussed each article, one by one, in the 63-point constitution to find consensus. He said the articles were “passed by acclamation. There were no dissenting votes. The law was accepted by each of the members.”
The council had missed a goal to pass an interim constitution by Saturday. The new compact will be in effect until a permanent constitution is approved next year. The interim document is seen as an important marker in laying out democratic principles for the country of 25 million people who had been living under dictatorship for decades.
“It was a matter of compromise,” al-Istrabadi said of the constitution’s approval. He added: “I believe this to be the most liberal constitution in the Middle East. If it is truly enforced … we will be on the road to building genuine democracy in this country.”
The role of Islam was the most difficult issue to work through. By morning the council had agreed that Islam would be “the official religion of the state and is considered a source of legislation.” Conservatives on the council had wanted Islam to be deemed the sole source of law.
Instead, the law enshrines the “Islamic identity of the majority of Iraqis” and says “no legislation will be enacted which is contrary to the universally agreed tenets of Islam or the bill of rights or the principles of democracy,” al-Istrabadi said.
Women’s rights, also a touchy issue among conservative Muslims, were advanced. Discrimination by sex is forbidden under the document. As a practical matter, women are guaranteed a representative quota in the national assembly of 25 percent membership.
The Kurds, long persecuted by Saddam Hussein, also were rewarded for the effort to build a democratic government for more than a decade on their own. The Kurds, a minority in Iraq, were tortured, gassed and killed under Hussein’s regime and essentially were abandoned by the dictator after the 1991 Persian Gulf war.
Since then the Kurds, the majority population in northern Iraq, worked to create their own government with democratic values. They were vigorous supporters of the war to topple Hussein.
Under the interim constitution, the Kurdish regional authority is recognized, but the Kurds must cede to the federal government any national ambitions. Embassies, consulates and any form of government representation outside Iraq must be abandoned in exchange for the Kurdish right to retain authority over its northern regions held since March 2003.
What evolved, al-Istrabadi said, “is a formula that will ensure the unity of Iraq, or give Iraq its only hope of being a unified nation.”
Al-Istrabadi said the Kurds, “who essentially had independence for the last 12 years, have agreed to cede back to a federal government in Baghdad” all elements of sovereignty. It was a difficult step that, in effect, recognized a federal system of government in new Iraq.
“The Kurds have been operating as an independent state for years,” he said. “They have a foreign minister a prime minister, embassies … and customs and tariffs and they regulate border traffic. They have their own money. They have their own banks.
“In exchange for ceding that back freely to a sovereign government in Baghdad, their status in the region is affirmed,” al-Istrabadi said.
The Kurdish language was deemed an official language along with Arabic.
The interim document was approved as part of a deal, brokered Nov. 15 between the U.S.-led occupying authority in Iraq and the Governing Council, as an effort to lay out a new democratic government in Iraq.
Other parts of that November pact fell apart, most notably a U.S. plan to hold indirect elections for a national assembly. The election plan, in particular, was undermined by the repeated objections of Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who demanded direct elections.
For months the council struggled with the task of defining Iraq’s basic values and interests. Three groups–Shiite Muslims, the majority population persecuted under Hussein; Sunni Muslims, the one-time ruling class; and Kurds, a majority population in the north–are jockeying for power in postwar Iraq.