Report of the Thematic Sessions

Current Iraqi authorities have inherited a complex state of affairs, particularly in its many mixed and disputed areas and cities. The threat of polarization among communities requires a response which provides a framework for long-term stability based on the principles of human rights and rule of law. Both are essential to the successful management of the culturally diverse cities and communities across Iraq, and so also to the country’s long-term stability, security, and democracy.
 
Iraq is host to a number of ancient and rich cultures and communities. This is particularly the case in some areas where communities have inter-mixed historically, or in more recent times, as a result of deliberate policies aimed by the previous regime at demographic change. These included redrawing administrative boundaries, removing local officials from their positions by force, deportation, and ethnic cleansing.
 
The administrative attribution of number of these mixed areas in Iraq has yet to be settled. Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution foresees a “normalisation” process followed by referendum in which residents will be asked to determine their own future political status. In each of these administratively contested areas the outcome of the referendum will differ on the basis of the community most strongly represented. Regardless of the result however, local administrations in these areas will face the challenge of managing diversity.
 
Upon the invitation of the International Alliance for Justice, Mr Bakhtiar Amin and No Peace Without Justice, in cooperation with the Iraqi National Assembly, the Kurdistan National Assembly–Iraq, and with the support of the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, this conference was convened from 18 - 22 December 2007 in the city of Venice, gathering leaders and decisions makers from all Iraq’s levels of government and political groupings, together with experts and scholars from diverse and disputed areas around the world.
 
The conference aimed to build on the solid foundations of the previous discussions on Practical Federalism in Iraq, also convened by the International Alliance for Justice and by No Peace Without Justice, and to assist Iraqi decision-makers at the national, regional and local level by increasing their familiarity with the skills and the instruments that have been applied in other countries for managing ethnically, religiously and culturally diverse and mixed cities. The Seminar did not seek to promote one or more model, but rather to address each of the thematic issues in turn, and to consider what solutions have worked (and not worked) elsewhere, and – most importantly – what Iraqi civic leaders and public officials deem might work for them.
 
Below is a summary of the resulting discussions held between representatives from across Iraq’s political groupings and institutions on a national, regional, and local level, as well as the contributions of international experts who shared their experiences from other disputed and mixed areas outside of Iraq. As a result of these discussions, the document of Final Recommendations is able, for the first time, to detail the many areas in which a broad consensus can be found with respect to settling the administrative status of Iraq’s disputed areas, clarifying as a result also those issues which need further discussion and compromise.