Tammuz organization establishes a workshop on “Democratic system for the political parties in Iraq” 

 Tammuz organization organized a workshop to discuss the political parties law on April 8 through 8 2011. Some political representatives, experts, non-governmental organizations and media channels attended the workshop. 

Some other activist in the field of human rights in the workshop discussed the draft of the items of the law and their efficacy on the political parties. The experts in the workshop also discussed other aspects such as geographical distribution, and the authorities that permit to the political parties to work in Iraq. 

The experts and researchers in the workshop submitted many researches on the dynamics of authoritative powers, their sponsoring, and the role of political parties in uncovering the sources of finance. The output of the workshop is the following recommendations that are considered crucial if the law is wanted to fulfill its goals:

The recommendations:

1-considerong the importance if the parties draft law                                     , the Iraqi parliament would have to provide the opportunity to discuss and offering advice with the decision makers to have a law that organizes the political life in Iraq.

2- It appears in the fifth item/second, it si not allowed to found any party on the ground of racism, terror, blaspheme, or sectarian and ethnic extremism. 

– Article II / III stipulated that the department of the parties to be linked to the Ministry of Justice. It is supposed to be independent from the Department of the parties and the Department of Justice can be linked to the Electoral Commission for elections which is dominant on the district instead of the administrative judiciary.

4 – Article VII did not include the flag or the flag to distinguish from the other party, if any, which need to be added to the article.

5 – Article IX-II determines the age of the founder of the party to be twenty-five years old, better to have twenty-one years old at least.

6 – Article Eleven-Item first determines the number of Party members by two thousands founding members of satisfactory number, which requires downing it to five hundred. This number is reasonable figure for the number of co-founders of the party in all governorates.

7 – There is literally the amount of fees as in articles 12 and 15 proposed that the fee not to exceed twenty-five thousand dinars.

8 – It id stated in Article XVIII of the Act not to make amendment to the Party and the program only after the submission of the application and many of the measures which restrict the freedom of the party, which is proposed to alter it is possible that the party provides notice of it.

9- Article Thirty three stipulates that the party has the right to meet and demonstrate peacefully according to the law and it has to notify the authorities first before starting the demonstration.

10-Article XXIV proposed to include media and communication rather than a means of communication only. And it holds the chief editor of the newspaper or magazine the responsibility of all published materials as it is supposed to be responsibility of every person and these materials should be compatible with the principle of freedom of the press.

 The article twenty-fifth states that the media should be away from distinction between political parties. Anyhow, the item did not specify the media whether earned by the government or by political party.

11-Article thirty first stipulated that the organizational structure of the party should specify certain labels by the party that each party has to abide to.

12 – The article number thirty-second / first determines that the number of members of the Assembly of the party is all the number of Party members. It is supposed that this matter is left to the party itself to determine the number of members of the governing body in accordance with the mechanisms that it uses in its rules of procedure. 

Paragraph II of the same article specifies dates for the meeting and the mechanism to take place, which is one of the things supposedly left to the party itself. 

13 – Article forty-first item provides that if the party did not participate in the elections for two consecutive parliamentary elections, it will be dismantled. The Proposition is to cancel this item. The party has the right to participate or not in the elections and basically that the working party does not include access to power always.

It is mentioned that Tammuz organization thanked the attendants for their interest and effort. Tammuz Organization has implemented this project in cooperation with the Huwaia and The German organization “Fredriche Eberte Shtiftung” as a part of the some other projects and activities to establish the democratic principles and concepts and to build new country.

The Media center

Tammuz Organization for Social Development

April 9 2011