IRAQ DRAFT BILL OF RIGHTS LEAKED IN ENGLISH

July 22, 2005 3:59 PM

IRAQ DRAFT BILL OF RIGHTS LEAKED IN ENGLISH The al-Mada newspaper on June 30 published what is apparently a draft version of the equivalent to the Bill Of Rights that is being worked on by a subcommittee in the Iraqi legislature. Omar from Iraq The Model first reported this on that day and provided his commentary on the document, but ultimately it was too large to translate. Nathan J. Brown of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace provides a valuable public service by translating the entire document, so a big hat tip to him. Let’s take a quick look at some of the features of this bill, as it is very promising although there are some provisions that need much deeper looking into (and others not so much). Nathan also makes thorough observations. You can read it in full here.
posted by Postroad (14 comments total)

In related news, INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY ONLY TWO MONTHS AWAY
posted by furtive at 4:04 PM on July 22, 2005

SORRY, THREE MONTHS AWAY
posted by furtive at 4:05 PM on July 22, 2005

What I mean to say is that this is a terrible FPP. Something a bit more effective would have

a) not rehashed word for word the contents from a blog.
b) not included such cryptic phrases such as "Omar from Iraq The Model first reported this on that day..."
c) linked to the actual PDF
d) not have used all caps for the first link
posted by furtive at 4:10 PM on July 22, 2005

Thanks, furtive. I was really thinking if Omar from Iraq the Model was some meme I missed. I'm still wondering if it should be read Omar, from "Iraq the Model" or
Omar from Iraq, the Model (and then the former leaves us wondering what "Iraq the Model" would be while the latter leads us to the next question, what marvelous deed has Omar from Iraq done to deserve "the Model" added to his name).
posted by nkyad at 4:22 PM on July 22, 2005

nkyad : "I'm still wondering if it should be read Omar, from 'Iraq the Model' or "Omar from Iraq, the Model"

According to the text copied wholesale from publiuspundit, it's "Omar from Iraq The Model"
posted by Bugbread at 4:26 PM on July 22, 2005

"Iraq the Model" is a particular blog. Anyway, I don't exactly trust the 'warblogger-neocon-blogsphere' too much so pardon me if I don't buy too much into this.

Iraq the Model, but the way is blog by a supposed Iraqi who supports the US invasion.
posted by delmoi at 5:52 PM on July 22, 2005

Some intresting clauses:

Iraqi citizens have the right to enjoy security and free health care. It is the responsibility of the
central Iraqi state and the regional, provincial, local, and municipal governments to provide
[health care] and to expand [it] in the fields of prevention, treatment, and protection of children,
pregnant women, school students, workers, the disable, and the aged.

And

Children must respect and care for their parents especially in poverty, disability, and old age.
posted by delmoi at 6:04 PM on July 22, 2005

http://www.publiuspundit.com/?p=1400
This represent a revision, a better reworking of the proposed consitution, dumping some of the thjings that are clearly not very good--and allowing for the fact that there are many Jews who fled Iraq and had relocated in Israel.
posted by Postroad at 6:51 PM on July 22, 2005

They sure seem to make an awful big deal about people with Israeli passports being excluded from all sorts of thing.

They should skip the fancy language and just post big "NO JEWS" signs at the border. That *is* the basic message, no?
posted by clevershark at 7:08 PM on July 22, 2005

Is this a post about fashion models in Iraq?
posted by Balisong at 8:54 PM on July 22, 2005

Isn't it about time that we revised our own Bill of Rights (in the US) to :

Remove arcane language.
Reveal what's left.
Denotate a right to privacy as a real Creator-given right.

Bah!! With Bush in charge, I probably wouldn't want him to come up with the final draft, anyway.

It sounds like the Iraqi's have it pretty good, as far as what's put on paper.

I also heard that they have a flat tax set at 15% of earnings.

If things keep looking this good, I might just move.
But they don't hire Iraqi's for any of the paying jobs, so I might just have to get dual citizenship.

When I get sick, I fly to Iraq for free treatment.

Not so bad, really...
posted by Balisong at 9:03 PM on July 22, 2005

Balisong, just for some good old fashioned intellectual masterbatory fun, I was thinking of putting up a U.S. constitution wiki sometime. Let everyone fight over the edits. :)
posted by jeffburdges at 11:31 PM on July 22, 2005

Provision three of article twenty-three deals with the right to bear arms, of which, “Citizens may not own, bear, buy, or sell weapons, except by a permit issued in accordance with law.” The likely situation will be that criminals and terrorists will be the ones to [hopefully] lose out, instead of the general populace who need weapons for personal defense from these same people"

This is the first time a blog made me do a spit-take. And I was not even drinking at the time.

Oh yes. Outlawing guns is doing such a great job of keeping them out of criminals' hands in the USA...
posted by bugmuncher at 6:53 AM on July 23, 2005

Bugmuncher, I smell a de-rail, but are guns really 'outlawed' in the US? My impression was that they were relatively easy to get. In the UK, on the other hand, essentially banning most guns has been working pretty well:

"Contrary to public perception, the overall level of gun crime in this country is relatively low – less than half of 1 percent of all crime recorded by the police"

posted by Drexen at 8:58 AM on July 23, 2005