WASHINGTON (ABP) — The drafting process for Iraq's permanent constitution is raising serious concerns among United States officials who monitor religious freedom.
Reported July 27 comments from the Shiite Muslim who heads the nation's constitutional drafting committee — as well as draft versions of portions of the document circulated earlier — have raised the concerns. If Iraqis adopt the document with such language, they would end up having significantly weaker constitutional protections for religious freedom than they enjoyed under either the previous interim governing document or even Saddam Hussein's regime.
According to the Washington Post, Humam Hammoudi, chairman of the Iraq Constitution Committee, said in a press conference that Islam would play a central role in the nation's permanent governing document.
The document will include “a significant role for religion in the state,” Hammoudi said, noting the charter would fall somewhere between those of majority-Muslim nations like Turkey, which has a completely secular government, and Iran, which is a constitutional theocracy.
“For example, unlike Turkey, which would prevent women from veiling, in our constitution there is no article that imposes the veil,” he said. “Freedom guaranteed. There is no article to impose the veil, and also there is none to prevent it.”
But the head of a U.S. agency charged with monitoring global conditions for religious freedom sent the U.S. ambassador to Iraq a July 26 letter saying freedom may not be “guaranteed” at all by the proposed constitution.
“If these drafts become law, Iraq's new democracy risks being crippled from the outset,” wrote Michael Cromartie, the newly elected chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, to Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. “Fundamental rights of the individual to debate and dissent from state-imposed religious orthodoxies would becurtailed, and the threat of discrimination would hang over all Iraqis, including members of religious minorities, non-religious individuals, and women.”
Officials for the commission, which acts as a non-partisan federal agency independent of both the executive and legislative branches, attached to the letter an analysis comparing parts of the circulated drafts to corresponding parts of the interim constitution, known as the Transitional Administrative Law.
“Our analysis demonstrates that the current language is a significant departure from the human-rights guarantees extended under the TAL,” the letter read. “Moreover, several of the draft provisions fall short of minimum protections afforded under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iraq is a state party.”
Among other specifics, the commission's analysis noted that, unlike the interim TAL, the draft constitution does not include a specific guarantee for freedom of religion to individual Iraqi citizens. “Guaranteeing freedom of conscience and religion as an individual right for Muslims as well as for members of religious minorities is essential if debate within Islam and dissent from imposed orthodoxies is to take place, and if the political space necessary for plural and alternative voices within the Islamic tradition is to be created,” Cromartie wrote.
Cromartie also said the document could threaten rights — and specifically those of women — by setting up a system of courts that would decide issues such as divorce and inheritance by Islamic law, known as Shari'a. The TAL contains no such provisions.
Also, Hammoudi and other drafting committee members reportedly said July 27 they had reached a consensus that the constitution would guarantee that no future Iraqi government could adopt a law in conflict with Islam.
Iraq is a religiously diverse nation. Although its largest religious group is Shiite Muslims, there is a sizable Sunni minority. It is also home to one of the largest — and oldest — Christian communities in the Middle East, as well as smaller religious minority groups, such as practitioners of the Baha'i faith.
But including the proposed provisions focusing on Islam is necessary to gain approval for the governing document in the fractious and chaotic country, Hammoudi said.
“Average Iraqis now support a significant role for religion in the state,” he said, according to the Post. “If we don't put this demand in the constitution, the constitution will not get votes.”
He added, “The constitution will not impose anything on people. Everyone can practice their freedom in their personal affairs according to their beliefs. But the identity of the community goes after the majority of people.”
U.S. officials are reportedly pressing Hammoudi and his committee to have the proposed constitution finalized by Aug. 15. That would provide several weeks for the public to debate the document, which is scheduled to be voted on in October.
State Department officials, asked for comment on the commission's concerns, did not reply by press time for this story.
Cromartie's letter and the accompanying analysis can be found on the commission's website at www.uscirf.gov.