Iraqi Community Association contribution to LFIQ meeting at Commons

Labour Friends of Iraq
House of Commons Meeting
Tuesday 14 February 2006

My contribution will focus on Democracy and the Civil Society in Iraq. I will review the subject via two aspects:

• The role of the civil society organisation in Iraq, and
• The democratic process as reflected within the Iraqi Community in Britain

The work of non-governmental organisations in Iraq is not new. Historically this took the form of a charitable work, mainly under the jurisdiction of the religious establishment, whether Muslims or Christians.

“Charity” is an inherent concept within all religious philosophies.

The functions of these charities were to provide a variety of services, help and aid to the needy people. They were “givers” rather than active participants in the political and social changes that were taking place during the first quarter of the 20th century.

Civil society refers to the arena of uncoerced collective action around shared interests, purposes and values. In theory, its institutional forms are distinct from those of the state, family and market, though in practice, the boundaries between state, civil society, family and market are often complex, blurred and negotiated. Civil society commonly embraces a diversity of spaces, actors and institutional forms, varying in their degree of formality, autonomy and power. Civil societies are often populated by organisations such as registered charities, development non-governmental organisations, community groups, women's organisations, faith-based organisations, professional associations, trades unions, self-help groups, social movements, business associations, coalitions and advocacy groups. (LSE Website)

From this perspective we can assume that the civil society organisations started to emerge in Iraq in the thirties of the 20th century with the establishment of political parties, trade unions, professional organisations, students and gender organisations, market and trade organisation, etc. This collection of parties and organisations became very active participants in the events and the socio/political arena leading to the revolution of 14 July 1958.

The civil society organisations, so vital for the democratic process, and for building democracy in Iraq, are the conduit for people expressed their hope for a better future, debate what that future should be. Dramatically they were suppressed, together with the democratic movement, in the bloody Ba’athist coup de tar of February 1963, and again by the Ba’athist in the seventies.

In fact the whole society was repressed, at every level and every sector. The social order was deformed and militarised.

The war with Iran and the invasion of Kuwait and the destruction that followed created new conditions and new needs for the role for the civil society organisations in the healing of wounds and the reconstruction of the country. However, Saddam and his regime were bent on punishing the Iraqi people. They only allowed to operate those international organisation that they could use for propaganda purposes.

The situation in Iraqi Kurdistan was different. The “safe haven” saw an emergence of hundreds of organisations.

Similarly, the fall of Saddam saw an emergence of civil society organisations throughout Iraq as an objective reality, a reaction to proceeding conditions and a result of the emerging freedom and the environment of reconstruction.

From the first weeks of the collapse of the regime such organisations as emergency providers, human rights, women, youth, development, protection of the environment and so on, as well as trade unions and professional organisations were formed or re-formed in Iraq. A coordinating network, which included international and national organisations was also formed, NCCI. (NGO’s Coordinating Committee in Iraq).

The work of the civil society organisations was organised in Iraqi Kurdistion through Law 15 on 2001. Paul Bremer issued his own law on 28 June 2004 requiring all organisations to register with the Ministry of Planning which later was moved to the State Ministry for the Civil Society Affairs.

The gained freedom of association is by no means safe from attack. We are all aware of the kidnapping and the murder of Margaret Hassan who worked for CARE Iraq and the kidnapping of the Italian humanitarian activists, which are only examples of the daily danger facing all activists, Iraqis and international.

In parallel with the terrorist attacks and the difficult security conditions, there is also a danger from “state attack”. We sqw signs of interference in the affairs of some trade unions, including dissolving some of them.

Late last year the government froze the bank assets of all NGO’s and this year the State Ministry for the Civil Society Affairs issued a draft legislation to replace Bremer’s. The new law, if passed by the new Parliament would give the minister sweeping powers and may contradict international treaties.

In Britain

In Britain, the emergence of community organisations was the result of an objective reality with the increase in the number of Iraqis of all shades and backgrounds in the eighties. Whilst there had always been Iraqi organisations here, but they were, nevertheless, either religious (Christian, Jewish) or nationalist, which extend beyond the boundaries of Iraq, or students organisations.

The Iraqi Community Association was the first Iraqi-wide, non sectarian organisation to be formed in 1987, soon to be followed by many local and national organisations as well as professional, gender, cultural and others. The Forum for Iraqi Community organisation has more than 16 organisations in its membership including the Iraqi Community Association, the Kurdish Cultural Centre, the Iraqi Women’s League, the Committee For Support of Democracy in Iraq, Chaldo-Assyrian Community, Liberal Faylee Kurds Organisation, The Mandaean Association, the Kurdish Association, academics, writers, journalists, youth, students and so on.

All those organisations, and others like them, can be reviewed as an extension to the Iraqi civil society, demonstrated their full involvement in the Iraqi affairs particularly in matters relating to the consolidation of democracy and the development of Iraq.

We witnessed, however, some incidents which show lack of transparency, to say the least, by the Iraqi government or Iraqi agencies in dealing with the community affairs here. I would take only two examples.

In the last election on 15/12/2005, the appointment of the main officers was conducted in Baghdad without consultation with the community or its organisations. They in turn appointed others in secrecy until the pressure was mounted on them when they paid lip service to what would be termed “transparency”. There were irregularities in the process and the procedures including the pressure put on new appointee from Iraqi and others here to such a degree that they eventually resigned. Ten organisations signed a statement on 09/12/2006 denouncing these procedures.

The other incident is more recent and, to me, is evident of the sincerity, or lack of sincerity in dealing with the civil society organisations. A conference called the “First Conference of the Iraqi Community in Europe” was held in Manchester, under the auspices of the Iraqi Minister of Immigration and Migration, on 15-16/01/2006. None of the major organisations knew about this conference until 09/01/2006.

A small group of us met the Minister from Iraq with some of her team and it transpired that they agreed this conference with an Iraqi visiting Baghdad last year. Again under pressure, they invited more people from organisations originally excluded.

We still believe that this conference can not be representative of the community. Such a conference would require wider consultation and greater preparation.

It is now our task to activate the committee selected at the conference and consist of the Iraqi Community Association, the Kurdish Cultural Centre, the Committee for Support of Democracy in Iraq, Chaldo-Assyrian Community, Liberal Faylee Kurds Organisation, The Mandaean Association, the Iraqi Welfare Organisations, Al-Kho’ee Centre and Dar Al-Islam.

It is important to stress that our objection is not for the people involved but the process itself. These might be small incidents but they could lead to bigger things, eroding the process toward consolidation democracy. We must act to stop them now.

Noaman Muna
Member, Iraqi Community Association
Chairman, Iraqi Al-Amal Association