12.1 |
Security Sector Reform
1134.
The official’s
view was that nothing “meaningful” had been done since
the
2004
International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC) project (described
in Box,
‘International
Legal Assistance Consortium’, earlier in this Section). The
official
recommended
funding an expansion of the Judicial Training Institute to improve
the
capacity
and quality of training for new judges. Current facilities were too
small to
accommodate
enough students, textbooks were “insufficient”, there were no
computers
and most
lecturers did not receive payment.
1135.
A junior
official in DFID reported to Mr Benn on 30 June that the
success of the
Rule of Law
Sectoral Working Group had been “limited”:
“The
Working Group struggles to function effectively under a weak chair
(the Chief
Justice).
He lacks the resources to manage the administrative workload and
has
requested
support from donors.”1073
1136.
To help
overcome that, the official wrote that DFID was providing £93,000
for an
experienced
Iraqi lawyer to support the Chief Justice, as recommended by the
FCO in
Baghdad,
believing that that “modest investment” could “have a significant
impact across
the
sector”.
1137.
On 8 January
2007, Mr Banner wrote to Mr Irfan Siddiq, Private
Secretary to
Mr David
Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, to commission advice on the
current state of
the Iraqi
justice system, including the degree of governmental interference
and how that
might
realistically be addressed.1074
1138.
Mr Siddiq
replied with a paper produced by the IPU and the British
Embassy
Baghdad on
16 February.1075
1139.
The paper
reported that there were 850 judges in Iraq; 150 of those were
in
Baghdad.
There was “widespread recognition” that that number needed to
increase
by between
500 and 600 to “alleviate the backlog of cases”. There were 178
judges
expected to
graduate from the Judicial Training Institute in June 2007 and
another
58 in June
2008.
1140.
Governmental
interference with the judiciary remained a concern.
Citing
recent
examples of that, it was recommended that the UK and the US should
“protest
vigorously”
in such circumstances. The UK had part‑funded two upcoming
conferences
in Iraq
that would promote the principles of the Rule of Law and the
importance of
judicial
independence.
1073
Note DFID
[junior official] to PS/SofS [DFID], 30 June 2006, ‘Iraq: Support
to the Rule of Law Sector
Working
Group’.
1074
Letter
Banner to Siddiq, 8 January 2007, ‘Iraq’.
1075
Letter
Siddiq to Banner, 16 February 2007 attaching Paper British Embassy
Baghdad/Iraq Policy Unit,
‘Iraqi
Justice System’.
321