UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...

evenues. 41 An understanding of various aspects of the Constitutional as well as legislative
framework in relation to a number of key issues, facilitates assessment of the international
protection needs of Iraqis with certain types of claims.
1. Freedom of Religion
There are consitutional ambiguities pertaining to the separation of religion and state
institutions as well as the protection of freedom of religion. In general, while the
Article 118 of the Constitution empowers the Council of Representatives to pass a law which provides for the
mechanism for forming autonomous federal regions that would hold considerable self-rule powers.
An enabling law was passed by a slim majority on 11 October 2006 after an agreement was reached to form
the CRC and to defer implementation of the law for 18 months, a concession to Sunni concerns. Legislators
from the Sunni-dominated Iraqi Accord Front as well as the Shi’a Sadrist Movement and the Islamic Virtue
Party opposed the bill and boycotted the voting. See: Reuters Alertnet, Iraqi parliament approves federal law,
11 October 2006, http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IBO145418.htm. See also: Amit R. Paley,
Parliament Approves Measure Allowing Autonomous Regions, The Washington Post, 12 October 2006,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101100809.html. Under the law,
a region can be created out of one or more existing governorates or two or more existing regions.
A governorate can also join an existing region to create a new region. There is no limit to the number of
governorates that can form a region, unlike the TAL which limited it to three. A new region can be proposed
by one third or more of the Governorate Council members in each affected governorate plus 500 voters or by
one tenth or more of the voters in each affected governorate. A referendum must then be held within three
months, which requires a simple majority in favour to pass. See, for example, The Associated Press (AP),
Sunni accuse Shi’ites of dirty tricks in passing controversial federalism law, 12 October 2006,
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/12/africa/ME_GEN_Iraq_Federalism.php. See also: Steve Negus,
Iraq approves controversial federalism law, Financial Times, 11 October 2006, http://www.ft.com/
cms/s/dfe59c52-594c-11db-9eb1-0000779e2340.html; Kathleen Ridolfo, Iraq: Divisive Federalism Debate
Continues, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), 14 September 2006, http://www.rferl.org/
featuresarticle/2006/09/ef6b9842-9cab-4d93-a3f8-bed27c398756.html.
40 See “Members and Associates of the Ba’ath Party and the Former Regime”.
41 Article 111 of the Constitution provides that “(o)il and gas are owned by all the people of Iraq in all the
regions and governorates” while Article 112 tasks the federal government with “the management of oil and
gas extracted from current fields.” This language has led to controversy over what constitutes a “new” or an
“existing” resource, a question that has ramifications for the control of future oil revenue. The distribution of
oil shall by regulated by law. Sectarianism was the major obstacle in reaching an agreement on a draft oil and
gas law, which touches upon the division of powers between the central government and regional
governments. While many Kurds and Shi’ites want to retain control of Iraq’s oil resources, Sunni Arabs
favour a strong role for the central Government. The law is widely considered a crucial means to foster
national reconciliation as it provides the guidelines for the distribution of Iraq’s oil wealth, the third-largest oil
reserves in the world. The Iraq Study Group said that an equitable distribution of oil is necessary for national
reconciliation and recommended that the central government retain full control of revenues and oil fields. On
27 February 2007, the cabinet approved a draft oil law which states that oil revenues will be spread evenly
according to population around the country rather than staying in the region where the oil is found. However,
this would require a politically sensitive census to be undertaken. The draft law also grants regional
governments or oil companies the right to draw up contracts with foreign companies for the exploration and
development of new oil fields. The draft has yet to be approved by the Council of Representatives before it
can take effect later this year. See: BBC News, Breakthrough in Iraq oil standoff, 27 February 2007,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6399257.stm; Edward Wong, Iraqi oil law stalled by dispute over
division of powers, International Herald Tribune, 14 December 2006, http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/
12/14/news/iraq.php. See also Iraq Study Group Report, p. 22-23 and 45, see above footnote 35. The draft Oil
and Gas Law of 15 February 2007 can be found at: http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/documents/
oil_law_english_20070306.pdf.
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