Jordan Times
Wednesday, October 6, 2004
Iraqi judges meet Arab, UN
experts in Jordan on judicial reforms
AMMAN (AFP) — Arab judges and legal experts discussed with their Iraqi
counterparts methods to reform Iraq's judicial system, during a UN-organised
conference in Jordan, delegates said.
Around 50 delegates from Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Yemen and Jordan met with
representatives of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World
Bank to mull the “reality and prospects” of the Iraqi judicial system.
The two-day meeting which wound up Monday was aimed at “helping the Iraqis draft
a strategy to reform and develop the judicial system in the new Iraq,” said the
regional coordinator for a UN judicial programme for Arab countries.
“Democracy and human rights cannot take root in the absence of a strong and
independent judicial system,” said Adel Abdul Latif.
“We did not give the Iraqis specific examples to emulate but we tried to help
them think” of ways to reform their system, he said.
“There are 6,500 pieces of legislation, laws or presidential orders in Iraq that
need to be studied, and this gives an idea of the size of the challenge that we
are facing,” Abdellatif added.
The head of Iraq's judicial council, Medhat Mahmoud, told AFP that his country
has embarked on reforms by hiring 145 new judges in recent months, by
reinstating retired judges and employing eminent lawyers.
Iraq has now 748 judges compared to 603 under the former Iraqi regime, he said.
Likewise several laws “that violated human rights issues,” such as the death
penalty, were scrapped from the new Iraq, Mahmoud said.
“Initially we scrapped the death penalty then we reinstated it on a very narrow
basis. We have also totally banned the use of torture against prisoners,” he
said.
In August, Iraq's caretaker government partially reinstated the death penalty.
Capital punishment, which had been in force under the former regime, was
suspended by the previous US-led occupation authority.