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Forum attends UNAMI conference with Iraq Constitutional Review Committee, Dubai

Forum president George Anderson and federalism experts Richard Simeon and Prof. Cheryl Saunders participated in a conference organized by the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) Office for Constitutional Support (OCS). Called 'The Multi-Party Dialogue on Federal Structures and Fiscal Issues,' the conference, with funding from the European Union, was held February 25-28, 2007 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The Forum distributed copies of the trilingual DVD, 'Challenge of Diversity' (in Arabic, Kurdish and English) as well as Ron Watte's book Comparing Federal Systems (Arabic edition).  

The first dialogue concentrated on the federal structures envisaged in the Iraqi Constitution while the second focused on the documente's fiscal arrangements. The dialogues built upon the recently concluded UNAMI/UNOPS-sponsored study missions to Germany, Spain and Malaysia, giving delegates an opportunity to apply their examination of these federal systems toward elaborating and refining the federal and fiscal architecture of the Iraqi constitution.

Nineteen Iraqi delegates participated in the dialogues, including sixteen CRC members along with advisers to three federal government officials. Participants included the chairman of the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) political subcommittee, representatives from a wide range of political blocs and advisors to prominent government officials.  Invited representatives from the Kurdistan Alliance and the KRG were unable to attend.

Prof. Saunders participated in the January, 2007 UNAMI OCS conference in Cairo, speaking about federal adjudication issues and the challenges of administering justice in a federation.  Seventeen Iraqi delegates attended including members of the Constitutional Review Committee, the Council of Representatives, the Higher Judicial Council, Prime Minister's office, Kurdistan regional government, and Iraqi civil society and academia.

For more information on the course and the Forum's Iraq project, contact Marc Lemieux.