Recognising the importance of dialogue in resolving internal disputes; and in furtherance of the democratic experiment in Iraq, Al Bayan Centre for Planning and Studies held a workshop on Saturday 16/12/2017, entitled: “Respect for the Constitution Guarantees the Unity of Iraq and its Democracy.”
The workshop was attended by prominent academics and experts from various government departments. The workshop included a number of research papers dealing with unresolved issues between the Federal Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government. The focus was on the major differences currently affecting the relationship between Baghdad and Erbil; the means of addressing them through problem diagnosis, and finally, putting forward practical and scholarly solutions.
The participants stressed the need to embark on a broad dialogue within the framework of the Iraqi constitution, to deal with such issues as the management of the disputed areas, including: border crossings; airports and their monthly revenue, as well as managing the resources of those areas. Attention was also given to the issue of minorities and geographical interdependence in the ethnically-mixed regions. The workshop also discussed the importance of embarking on a new era, based on political understanding and reliance on the constitution as the primary source in the resolution of disputes.
The participants also pointed to the necessity of working towards establishing new strategies to handle the crisis in accordance with prevailing circumstances.
It should be noted that Al Bayan Centre will be preparing and publishing the recommendations of the workshop in the very near future, and will make them available to the relevant decision-makers, as part of its mission to develop solutions based on sober scholarly principles which serve the interests of the country.
