RWI recently held a two-day meeting in Jordan with eight members of judicial institutes in Iraq, Jordan and Palestine as part of the Institute’s programme to enhance the application of human rights standards in Arab courts.
To learn more, we asked a few question to one of the participants, Dr Sabah Sami Dawood, an assistant professor and head of the Criminal Law Department at the College of Law, Baghdad Unviversity.
What do you believe are the challenges the judiciary faces in the application of human rights standards in the courts of Iraq, and the means to address them?
“One of the major challenges facing the judiciary in the application of human rights standards in our Iraqi courts is the exceptional circumstances prevailing in the country, such as terrorism, destruction, and the actual absence of any role by law enforcement agencies to deal with terrorist groups.
“These exceptional circumstances do not constitute a fertile ground nor an appropriate environment for the application of these standards. The latter need a safe environment and capable security organs that are well trained on how to implement human rights standards into their judicial procedures.
“The judiciary is no different. It also suffers from these conditions, in addition to the feeling of a lack of security lived by its members, due to killings, blackmail and kidnapping cases perpetrated against them. These dangerous conditions render it quite difficult for a judge to fully and effectively exercise his/her role in a full and effective manner under the said circumstances.”
What opportunities are available to apply human rights standards in the courts of Iraq and how can they be used?
“One of the best means for the application of these standards is to urge the judiciary, including the judges and prosecutor generals, to perform their effective role in the application of the standards. They should have personal and objective convictions in the application of the standards, avoiding dictation from their higher superiors, who very often influence their beliefs, hence affect the proper application of human rights standards in their judicial rulings.”
How do you see the role of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in supporting the application of human rights standards in the Arab judiciary?
“The role of the Judicial Institute in supporting the application of human rights standards is effective and influential, particularly in the theoretical part of it which resulted in publishing the “Jurisprudence in the Application of Human Rights Standards In Arab Courts” in the previous program.
“What the program needs in the future is the practical aspect, such as to train judges on applying these standards in their judicial rulings, by making reference to international treaties to which Iraq is party. They should also learn how to be bold and daring when it comes to the application of human rights standards in their rulings, as this is the ultimate goal that Raoul Wallenberg intends to achieve in this program.”
More about the work
The current three-year programme, which began in 2014, was based on the outcomes of the previous regional programme and constructed around the suggestions of the judicial institutes themselves to actively integrate international human rights standards into their curricula.
The meeting was led by Professor John Cerone, Distinguished Chair in Human Rights & Humanitarian Law at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, and facilitated by Eman Siam, program officer for the MENA region.
Topics of the first day addressed general introduction to human rights, the place of international human rights law in the international legal system, and the relationship between the international and domestic law. The agenda of the second day focused on best practices in internalising human rights standards.