“I want to reiterate that a constitution is not for one party, ethnicity, or group but for all the citizens of Kurdistan Region [...] Therefore, it has to reflect the opinion and priorities of all those groups who live in the Kurdistan Region,” Barzani said during The Kurdistan Region of Iraq: Unity and Constitution conference in Erbil.
He added that the constitution should guarantee the rights of all ethnic and religious groups in the Kurdistan Region.
Two years after the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the US, the majority of Arabs, Kurds and others voted for a constitution for the country. The constitution’s Article 120 stipulates that the Region can have its own constitution on the condition that it does not contradict Iraq’s.
Kurdish political parties have been struggling to agree on a constitution since then. In 2009, they drafted a constitution, but it was not put forward due to disputes over certain articles.
President Barzani has in recent months made fresh efforts to bring together all political parties to agree on a new draft for the constitution. He met with a number of political parties in recent weeks, and told the conference that he will meet the rest soon.
“In the Kurdistan Region’s Presidency, in cooperation with the Kurdistan Parliament and the Kurdistan Regional Government, we will begin taking practical steps to draft the constitution,” Barzani said.
“We want the constitution to organize the political system of Kurdistan, to enforce rule of law in this country, to make all the [religious and ethnic] groups in Kurdistan feel safe in this country and feel like they will have a better future for themselves and their descendants.”
There are a wide range of ethnic and religious minorities in the Kurdistan Region, including Christians, Yazidis, Kakais, Turkmens and Arabs. Most of them have the right to education in their mother tongue. While many say the Region is a comparatively safe and supportive place for minorities, others have documented various cases of discrimination.
Barzani said he does not like the use of the word “minorities” for non-Kurds “because the beauty of Kurdistan lies in the mosaic and coexistence we all have in this country.”
“The constitution that will be drafted for Kurdistan should be a constitution in which values that the Kurdistan Region has always been proud of, such as democracy and freedom of speech - principles that distinguish Kurdistan Region from the rest of Iraq - should be constantly preserved,” said President Barzani.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), said at the Wednesday conference that the Kurdistan constitution must fit with that of federal Iraq.
The Kurdistan Region currently relies on a series of laws, instructions and norms as a substitution for the constitution. It also heavily relies on the Iraqi constitution for numerous issues, especially those related to crime.
Prime Minister Masrour Barzani also spoke about the constitution at the event.
“There has to be a framework in which we all can work together and that connects us to each other. That framework can also be enshrined in the constitution,” he said.
President Barzani also shed light on Erbil-Baghdad relations and efforts in the Kurdistan Region to create unity among Kurdish political parties.
