The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
1129.
The minutes of
DOP(I) on 30 March 2006 recorded that in discussion it was
stated:
“Work was
needed to identify what was required to build Iraqi judicial
capacity …
Building up
the Iraqi judicial system would take significant commitment
and
resources.
Was it currently assigned a high enough priority in HMG’s [Her
Majesty’s
Government’s]
long term plans?”1070
1130.
On 23 May, a
junior official in IPU emailed the British Embassy Baghdad to ask
if
there were
any “gaps” that could be addressed in the justice sector through
the 2007/08
GCPP
bid.1071
The
official wrote that the FCO, the MOD and DFID agreed it
could
become “the
weak link in the Rule of Law chain” and undermine the
SSR effort.
1131.
A junior
official in Baghdad replied on 25 May, agreeing that “the
justice
sector has
been and continues to be ‘the missing link’”.1072
He wrote
that the US was
“looking
to spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the justice
sector”, covering
judicial
personal security, courthouse security and administration,
expanding Central
Criminal
Court of Iraq capacity and forensic training for judges. The EU
JustLex
programme
(see Box, ‘EU integrated police and Rule of Law mission for
Iraq’, earlier
in this
Section) had been extended recently and the EU Commission had
€40m for
“Governance”
programmes.
1132.
Looking at
what the UK could provide, the official wrote that a Rule of
Law
Sectoral
Working Group, chaired by the Chief Justice, had produced a
“unified” strategy.
The Chief
Justice had advised that the Iraqi system did not
want:
•
more “short
training courses in generic human rights issues in foreign
locations”
– those
took judges “away from their day jobs” for too long and further
training
for
existing judges should be considered;
•
“more
Western advisers” – due to language and access barriers;
or
•
more “soft”
assistance – the UK had “published at great expense a number
of
pamphlets,
CDs, training packages and other materials. Often these have
not
been used
effectively, if … at all”.
1133.
The official
added:
“In
essence, the Iraqis don’t want to be told what they should do, or
what their rights
are: they
want concrete assistance to help them do what they know they should
do,
or help
make those paper rights a reality.”
1070
Minutes, 30
March 2006, DOP(I) meeting.
1071
Email IPU
[junior official] to FCO [junior official], 23 May 2006, ‘Rule of
Law – The Justice Sector’.
1072
Email FCO
[junior official] to IPU [junior official], 25 May 2006, ‘Rule of
Law – The Justice Sector’.
320