Region (Iraq)
A region ( Arabic قْلِيم, DMG ʾiqlīm , pluralأَقَالِيم / ʾAqālīm ) is the highest regional authority in Iraq .
About the function of the region
The state was first defined as federal with the constitution of 2005 : “ The federal system in the Republic of Iraq is made up of a decentralized capital, regions and governorates, and local administrations. ”(Art. 112 Iraq Const. 2005, German:“ The federal system of the Iraqi Republic consists of a capital territory , regions and governorates , and local administrations ”). Chapter 5 describes the duties and rights of the autonomous regional governments.
Either a single governorate can be viewed as a region, or several governorates merge to form a region (Art. 115). A two-thirds majority of the provincial government or a vote of a tenth of the population in the governorate concerned is sufficient (Art. 115 A., B.). The region should develop its own constitution (Art. 116).
The region is seen as autonomous per se :
"The regional authorities shall have the right to exercise executive, legislative, and judicial authority in accordance with this constitution, except for those powers stipulated in the exclusive powers of the federal government."
"The regional government has the right to exercise executive , legislative and judicial powers [...], except in matters within the exclusive competence of the federal government "
Autonomy is very broadly defined and, under constitutional law, also includes the security forces for the region, including the police (Art. 117 para. 5), and separate offices in the embassies and diplomatic missions for cultural, social and development matters (Art. 117 para . 4). The functions of the federal government include a relatively short list of agendas mentioned in Art. 110.
State political situation
With regard to the rights and obligations of the regions, the constitution of 2005 , which was drawn up under the influence of the US occupation after the Iraq war , remained relatively succinct, and referred the Council of Representatives to draft a law on this matter (Art. 114). However, the corresponding implementing law is delayed. For the "governorates not incorporated into a region", rules were created in Article 118 and a certain degree of autonomy was also granted.
It was already suspected in advance that the Shiite side wanted to instrumentalize the institute of the autonomous region, which was initially tailored primarily to the Kurdish question: it had the majority in the nine southern provinces, and the Sunnis feared that this would become too unite in a common region so that the non-oil producing areas of central Iraq remain isolated. A Shiite region in the south was discussed by the Supreme Islamic Council (SCIRI) after 2005 that it should include Basra and other governorates and be named the Sumer Autonomous Region . As a compromise, two regions were then proposed, one around Basra and one on the central Euphrates.
Further plans to create new regions got caught up in the conflicts over the Sunni-dominated ISI (today IS / Daesch) , which was striving for its own “Islamic State in Iraq” in the northwest around the Ninawa governorate from 2006 at the latest. With the withdrawal of the occupation troops in 2011 and the Syrian crisis , the unstable political situation escalated instead of consolidating the territorial administration.
Existing regions
Currently there is only the Kurdistan region (Herêmî Kurdistan / Iqlīm Kurdistān) , consisting of the governorates of Dahuk , Erbil , as-Sulaimaniya and (since 2014) Halabdscha . It dates back to 1970 and was expressly included in the scope of the 2005 Constitution in Article 113. It has (as of early 2016) implemented the most important state policy instruments, regional government (Kurdistan Regional Government) , regional presidency (Kurdistan Region Presidency) and parliament (Kurdistan Parliament) , but not yet the constitution. There was a draft in 2009.
Individual evidence
- ^ John McGarry, Brendan O'Leary: Iraq's Constitution of 2005: Liberal consociation as political prescription. In: International Journal of Constitutional Law. Volume 5, Issue 4 (2007), pp. 670-698 ( Abstract , oxfordjournals.org).
- ↑ a b c Constitution of Iraq (PDF) uniraq.org (also online draft constitution at washingtonpost.com , October 12, 2005) - both English versions; Translations: Wikipedia.
- ↑ James DeFronzo: The Iraq War: Origins and Consequences. Westview Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-8133-4391-4 , p. 202 ( limited preview in Google book search)
- ^ David M. Walker: Securing, Stabilizing, and Rebuilding Iraq: Iraqi Government Has Not Met Most Legislative, Security, and Economic Benchmarks. Diane Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4223-1946-8 , Appendix IV - Benchmark 4: Semi-Autonomous Regions. P. 28 ff ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ^ Kristen Stilt: The Iraqi Constitution: A Closer Reading. Federalism Section . npr.org; accessed January 28, 2016.
- ^ Nancy A. Youssef: Proposal to divide Iraq into semi-autonomous states gains ground . In: Ekurd Daily , May 25, 2005; accessed January 27, 2016.
- ↑ Egbert Jahn: Politische Streitfragen: Internationale Politik , Volume 3, Springer-Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-531-94313-8 , world-political dimension of the permanent Iraq crisis , p. 196 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
- ↑ Usiraqi Attack On Samarra Region. Juan Cole: informed comment , paragraph Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution ... , March 17, 2006, accessed January 27, 2016.
- ↑ cf. also Amendment to the Constitution of Iraq: Positions , English Wikipedia, as of January 28, 2016.
- ^ Dennis P. Chapman, A Constitutional Solution to Iraq's Current Crisis: A Ninewa Federal Region. In Small Wars Journal , June 24, 2014.
- ^ Kurdistan Regional Government . Kurdistan Regional Government - Department of Foreign Relations, dfr.gov.krd, accessed January 30, 2015.
- ↑ Will Iraqi Kurdistan ever get it's new constitution? iraqoilreport.com, July 10, 2015.
- ↑ 2009 Draft Constitution for the Kurdistan Region. (PDF), from kurdistantribune.com, accessed January 30, 2015.
