Kurdistan
From left: logo of US Consulate General in Erbil, and President Barzani while speaking at the swearing-in ceremony in Erbil on December 8, 2021. Photo: handout
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The US Consulate General in Erbil said on Thursday that it commends Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani for his remarks on the independence of courts in the Region.
Leading the swearing-in ceremony of the Kurdistan Region’s new head of the Cassation Court, Judge Abduljabbar Aziz Hassan, in Erbil on Wednesday, President Barzani emphasized the independence of the judicial power, asking the judges to fight for the power which has been provided to them by law.
“We commend @IKRPresident Nechirvan Barzani for his remarks about the importance of an independent judiciary. The U.S. supports judicial independence & rule of law in the IKR,” US Consulate General said in a tweet. It also congratulated the new head of Cassation Court.
“The main principle of any country, democratic system and developed society, where people have confidence in their present and future, is the separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers. Each of these have its own independence and responsibility,” said Barzani in a speech delivered at the Wednesday ceremony.
“We aim for the separation of these powers in the Kurdistan Region and the organization of their relations in a way that neither of them can impose its hegemony on or interfere in the internal affairs of the other. For us, this is the most important step towards the institutionalization of governance in the Kurdistan Region as well as the establishment of democracy and a civil and developed community,” he added.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was locally and internationally criticized for the detention of dozens of protesters, including journalists and activists, in Duhok province last year. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in February that the sentencing of two of the Duhok journalists by an Erbil court “proves that the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government has finally dropped the pretense of caring about press freedom.”
Barzani said at the time that he was observing the case of the detainees.
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