See Foreign Office Forum Speeches

Here are youtube videos of keynote speeches at the first Partnership with Iraq, Forum on Human Rights Support was held at the FCO on 16 December 2008. It brought together representatives of the Iraqi, UK and other foreign governments, along with NGOs, civil society groups and international organisations. They discussed the human rights issues facing Iraq now and of concern for the future. The Forum plans to meet again in 2009 to look at how to take forward the issues raised.

Pause for thought

In a letter to the Guardian, Rev David Williams makes a pertinent and pithy point. He writes - Sam Leith (Letters, 18 December) likens George Bush to Saddam Hussein as someone who "buggered up Iraq". But nobody ever interrupted a Saddam Hussein speech by throwing shoes. I wonder why?

Happy Christmas and a peaceful new year from LFIQ

Challenges facing Iraq

In the Guardian, Martin Chulov examines some key challenges facing Iraq in 2009 including the return of exiles. He says - Up to 2 million Iraqis are still scattered across the Arab world and Europe. And among them are up to 200,000 professionals who hold the key to whether a country that lost the lot can start again from scratch.

Better in Basra

LFIQ Vice-President and former North East Derbyshire MP, Harry Barnes, who spent most of his National Service at Basra in Iraq back in 1955 and 1956 cites a Daily Telegraph report outlining how the city, which was among the most liberated, secular and artistic cities in the Arab world has now started to overcome some of its recent problems after the Mahdi militia’s strict Islamic stranglehold.

Forum could increase dialogue and understanding

The Foreign Office this week hosted a very useful Forum on human rights and partnership in Iraq.

With the news that British combat troops are returning home in the next few months, we are moving into a new phase of relations between our countries.

We hope that the bitterness and division over the intervention and the role of our troops can be replaced, not by indifference, but by engagement and a focus on how Britain can assist Iraqis in reconstructing their country.

LFIQ continues to emphasise the need for increased investment, trade and
other exchanges with Iraq to help them escape the consequences of a bloody dictatorship which pulverised the country and isolation which denied them access to modern methods and thinking.

Some controversial issues were aired. There were concerns expressed about the unequal application of the law. In part, this is because there is still corruption at an administrative level. It was suggested that those arrested can bribe their way out of prosecution. The other side of this coin is that judges find themselves being threatened and some have been murdered.

There are procedural irregularities at court; those accused may not have the chance to offer a proper defence and allegations may be treated as evidence. There is work via the UK government and EU to improve the standard of judicial proceedings.

We were told that there are approximately 28,000 people in prison in Iraq (this has doubled in 4 years) and a further 24,000 believed to be held by the US forces.

There is a widespread belief that up to 70% of those detained, have not committed any offence. It was reported that even when a court issues an order for the release of a detainee, the local authority does not feel obliged to release them.

As law and order move from the army to the police, there is work to be done. The FCO is supporting this, to get 'buy in' from the civilian population and to create, as it were, a new social contract.

There was also a welcome focus on trade union rights. A key LFIQ priority is to back the Iraqi unions in their campaigns to scrap old and new restrictions and win a labour code that brings Iraq into compliance with international standards

The initiation of this Forum is invaluable in providing a space for increased dialogue and understanding.

Clive Furness and Gary Kent for LFIQ

Kirkuk conundrum

See this article by Ranj Alaaldin on options for resolving the Kirkuk crisis.

A female perspective on trade unionism in Iraq

See this fascinating interview at the International Trade Union Confederation website with Iraqi Kurdish trade unionist Jehan Seleem Ahmed from Dohuk. She underlines how the image of trade unions has improved in the eyes of the young women workers in the region. She says that there is a good level of education in Kurdistan and it is not too difficult to convince women to join a union. There are other regions in Iraq where it would be unthinkable for a man to let his wife take part in a seminar abroad. Here, mentalities are evolving.

Solidarity still needed

The New York Times splashes on an unpublished federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq which, it says, depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country, and then molded into a $100 billion failure by bureaucratic turf wars, spiraling violence and ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society and infrastructure.

My view is that this illustrates the need for those who are concerned to help Iraqis rebuild their country after so many decades of destruction, war and isolation increasing their efforts in co-operation with civil society organisations such as the trade unions and Iraqi political forces.

Gary Kent

Next Century Foundation work on Iraq

The Next Century Foundation recently sent a fact-finding mission to Iraq to appraise the electoral issues in the country in anticipation of the forthcoming provincial elections.

The Next Century Foundation are the only team of election observers from the international community operating in red zone Iraq.

Specific objectives of the NCF trip were:

• To assess the KRG position towards the current political configuration in Iraq and the effect the tension between the Kurds and the central government will have on the local elections.

• To evaluate the extent to which the sectarian and ethnic affiliations will dominate the elections.

• To assess the political situation in Southern Iraq and the effects the developments since 2005 will have on the January local elections.

The delegation visited Dohuk, Arbil, Sinjar and the Ninevah Plain, Kirkuk, Baghdad, Babil, Najaf, Karbala. Members of the delegation included the Hon Ambassador Mark G. Hambley (Trustee), Mr William Morris (Secretary General of the Next Century Foundation), Mr Ranj Alaaldin (Research Officer, Next Century Foundation) and Miss Elizabeth Durnford (Research Director, Next Century Foundation).