The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
•
The legal code
should be clarified; choices needed to be made about
which
statutes
were valid and which were not.
•
Judges should
be screened for Ba’ath Party status.
•
Legal
associations needed to be strengthened to raise standards
of
professionalism
and self‑regulation.
•
Discrimination
against women in the legal system was overwhelming. They
were
not allowed
to attend the judicial training course that was the basis for
selection
as judges
and prosecutors.203
The AHMGIR
was briefed that some of the recommendations were already being
put
into
effect.204
On 17 June,
Ambassador Bremer had announced the opening of a new
Iraqi
Judicial College, the creation of a Judicial Review Committee
(responsible for
de‑Ba’athification
of the judiciary) and the establishment of a Central Criminal
Court. The
CPA also
proposed to establish an Office of Human Rights and Transitional
Justice, which
would
operate alongside the Ministry of Justice.
Cabinet
Office officials briefed members of the AHMGIR that: “We are
generally content
with the
direction of CPA policy, but believe that the UN and NGOs should be
more
involved in
the next stages.”
Ministers
discussed the Judicial Review Team’s report at the AHMGIR on 26
June and
agreed that
“subject to closer scrutiny” they should support the report’s
recommendations
“including
by providing specialist advice”.205
A
DFID‑sponsored mission by the International Legal Assistance
Consortium (ILAC)
visited
Iraq from 13 to 30 August to scope projects for the reconstruction
of the judicial
system.206
Four of the
projects recommended by the mission formed the basis of
the
£2.2m DFID‑funded
ILAC Justice Support Programme (see Box, ‘International
Legal
Assistance
Consortium’).
On 10 July,
the AHMGIR considered a paper on judicial reform.207
Lord
Goldsmith said that corruption and intimidation had left the Iraqi
judicial system in
a “worse
state than expected” and that it would take a “long term commitment
from the
international
community and particularly the Arab world to rebuild”. He
highlighted that Iraqi
people
wanted a system that would deal with current crimes as well as
legacy crimes.
Ministers
agreed that the UK should:
•
encourage
qualified and vetted Iraqi legal experts to assist reconstruction
of the
judicial
sector;
•
encourage
participation of the UN, Arab and international
experts;
•
second
suitable UK personnel where possible; and
•
consider
holding a conference on judicial issues in Iraq.
203
Letter
Glentworth to Kossoff, 22 August 2003, ‘CPA Judicial Assessment
Team (“the Williamson
Report”)’.
204 Annotated
Agenda, 26 June 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
205
Minutes, 26
June 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
206
Paper ILAC,
1 December 2003, ‘ILAC Iraq Programme – Submission for
DFID’.
207
Minutes, 10
July 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
112