By Firsat Sofi
Article 117 of the Iraqi constitution recognizes the Kurdistan Region and its authority as a federal region. Article 141 of the same constitution recognizes the work and decisions of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) since its foundation in 1992.
The Kurdistan Region established its customs department by a decision from the KRG Finance Ministry and its charter is in line with Iraq’s customs law. This means KRG’s customs meet Article 110 of the Iraqi constitution and the Kurdistan Region has the same customs regulation as the rest of Iraq.
Management of customs is one of shared authority, as stipulated in Article 114, meaning the federal government and KRG manage together, but Article 115 emphasizes that in case of disputes between federal and regional laws, KRG laws will have the upper hand.
Iraq’s House of Representatives passed a law on border crossings points as Law no. 30 by a majority in 2016. Kurdish MPs opposed this move because it treated the Kurdistan Region as a province and the text of the law suited a country of a central government not a federal one as Iraq is. The priority here still remains with the KRG Ministry of Finance, according to Iraq’s own Article 115.
Article 112 also gives the KRG the right to amend how to implement the federal law, which means the federal law will not be put into practice unless passed by the Kurdish parliament because the border crossings and customs are the duties of the regional government.
Therefore what Iraq is asking for—taking control of the border crossings—is a blatant violation of the constitution. The KRG has done nothing to violate the federal law. Its customs zones and border crossings are run according to federal rules and protected by border service authorities who are on the federal government payroll. Until Baghdad cut Kurdistan Region’s budget, customs revenues were sent to the central government.
If the federal court acts on the constitution it will then have to denounce the attacks by the army and Hashd al-Shaabi on the border crossings and their demand of direct rule as unconstitutional.
Article 9 of the constitution reiterates that the armed forces must not interfere in politics or be used to oppress the people of Iraq. But what the Hashd al-Shaabi do today in the name of imposing federal rule and their attempt to take border crossings is against the entire constitution and international law. In their operations backed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, they have committed crimes against humanity, random killings, burning people’s property, forced displacement, sexual abuse and uprooting more than 150,000 people.
Imposing federal authority here is senseless because this region has been a stable region and under federal regulation. On the contrary, it’s attacks and harassment by the army and Hashd al-Shaabi that has brought instability to the region.
*Member of Kurdistan Region Parliament. Law expert
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