VZCZCXRO6834
RR RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #2328/01 2081415
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 261415Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8513
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 002328 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV IZ
SUBJECT: EMBASSY HOLDS SUCCESSFUL CONFERENCE FOR GOI 
LEGISLATIVE INSTITUTIONS 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  An Embassy-sponsored conference in July 
brought together representatives from all three branches of 
the Iraqi government to begin discussing ways to improve the 
legislative process.  The conference was an Iraqi-led event 
with minimal facilitation by the Embassy, and the Iraqi 
participants responded to this approach by taking ownership 
of the meeting and coming up with concrete initial steps to 
try to make the legislative process more efficient and to 
strengthen the oversight functions of the legislature.  The 
success of this event demonstrates that holding such events 
inside Iraq and encouraging the Iraqis to run them is the way 
to go in order to help build Iraqis, capacity to run their 
own country.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) The Political Section,s Office of Constitutional 
and Legislative Affairs (CLA) held the first in a series of 
planned symposia on the Iraqi constitutional and legislative 
system July 8-11 in Erbil.  The conference brought together 
49 senior representatives from all three branches of the 
Iraqi government to begin discussing and resolving issues 
concerning the legislative and constitutional process.  One 
major goal was to start a discussion about the way the 
various institutions of the GOI "legislative stream" ) those 
government bodies such as the Council of Representatives 
(CoR), the Council of Ministers, the Presidency Council, the 
Prime Minister,s Office, and others which are involved in 
drafting and approving legislation ) can better coordinate 
and work together to develop and pass legislation more 
efficiently.  The conference was designed to be an Iraqi-led 
event with minimal facilitation by CLA, an approach that 
worked very well in getting the Iraqis engaged and taking 
charge of the conference and discussions. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The legislative, executive, and judicial branches of 
the GOI were all well-represented at the conference.  Present 
for the legislative branch were CoR Deputy Speakers Sheik 
Khalid Attiya and Arif Tayfur, along with Legal Committee 
Chairman Baha Al-Araji (Sadrist bloc) and Deputy Chairman 
Saleem Al Jabbouri (Tawafuq) and over a dozen other CoR 
members and senior staff.  Representing the executive branch 
were senior legal advisors from the Council of Ministers' 
Secretariat and the Presidency Council; and for the judicial 
branch there were judges from the Iraqi Higher Judicial 
Council, the Federal Supreme Court, and the Court of Appeals. 
 An Iraqi Bar Association representative and Baghdad 
University professors also participated.  The one notable 
absentee was Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and 
acting Minister of Justice Dr. Safa Al Safi, who refused to 
attend.  His absence was publicly noted and criticized by 
many of the participants.  As acting Justice Minister, Dr. 
Safi also prohibited members of the State Shura Council from 
attending this event. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Sheik Attiya seized the initiative and took charge 
of the meeting, starting off with a large group discussion of 
major issues and then breaking participants out into smaller 
group sessions to try to actually solve specific problems in 
legislative drafting, unforeseen vetoes by the Presidency 
Council and executive oversight.  Judge Amir Al Shimaree, 
Director of the Legal Office at the Presidency Council, 
commented that "This is the first time ever in Iraq that 
Iraqi legal government officials, represented by the three 
branches (of government), have met to discuss an important 
issue, which is drafting legislation and the stages of the 
legislative process." 
 
¶5. (SBU) The discussions and negotiations resulted in a 
memorandum agreed to by all parties present and which was to 
be submitted to the highest ranking officials in each branch, 
after submission to the CoR.  The memorandum calls for 1) 
establishing a coordinating committee among the three 
branches to ensure promptness in executing legislation from 
inception to publication on the Gazette; 2) enactment of a 
new law to regulate ministries, especially the Ministry of 
State for Parliamentary Affairs; and 3) activation of Article 
101 of the Constitution to create a State Council and until 
that occurs, supporting the Shura Council in its drafting 
role.  The discussions also resulted in the outlining of six 
different goals to help end institutional frictions, smooth 
the flow of legislation and enhance the ability of the 
legislature to perform executive oversight.  The participants 
agreed to hold further meetings between the branches in order 
to continue trying to improve the legislative process and 
start discussions about resolving differences over 
interpretation of the constitution. 
 
¶6. (SBU) COMMENT:  Two of the principal issues facing the CoR 
are failure to coordinate between the branches so that there 
are no surprises and failure to perform legislative oversight 
over the executive branch.  The CoR has only been in 
existence since 2006 and so has not had time to establish 
 
BAGHDAD 00002328  002 OF 002 
 
 
traditions or develop formal and informal relationships with 
the other branches of government.  The purpose of this 
conference was to get representatives of all three branches 
into one room at one time to help them establish their own 
relationships.  This did in fact occur, with, for example, 
Judge Amir of the Presidency Council meeting with CoR Deputy 
Speaker Sheik Attiya in a relaxed setting where the two could 
come to agreement.  And the result of these Iraqi-led 
interactions was a strong memorandum laying out an action 
plan that got support from all the top-level officials at the 
meeting.  We believe a large part of this success was due to 
holding the meeting in Iraq and having the Iraqis take the 
leadership roles, i.e. creating an environment that allowed 
and encouraged the Iraqis to take ownership of the meeting 
and its conclusions.  Some recent Iraq-related meetings have 
suffered from lack of buy-in from top Iraqi officials and a 
consequent lack of concrete follow-up plans.  The success of 
this event demonstrates that holding such events inside Iraq 
and encouraging Iraqis to run them is the way to go in order 
to help build Iraqis, capacity to run their own country. 
END COMMENT. 
 
 
CROCKER