The Constitutional Review Committee (CRC) (dastur@parliament.iq) is a committee of the Council of Representatives.
It was formed pursuant to Article 142 of the Constitution which states:
First: The Council of Representatives shall form at the beginning of its work a committee from its members representing the principal components of the Iraqi society with the mission of presenting to the Council of Representatives, within a period not to exceed four months, a report that contains recommendations of the necessary amendments that could be made to the Constitution, and the committee shall be dissolved after a decision is made regarding its proposals.
Second: The proposed amendments shall be presented to the Council of Representatives all at once for a vote upon them, and shall be deemed approved with the agreement of the absolute majority of the members of the Council.
Third: The articles amended by the Council of Representatives pursuant to item “Second” of this Article shall be presented to the people for voting on them in a referendum within a period not exceeding two months from the date of their approval by the Council of Representatives.
Fourth: The referendum on the amended Articles shall be successful if approved by the majority of the voters, and if not rejected by two-thirds of the voters in three or more governorates.
Fifth: Article 126 of the Constitution (concerning amending the Constitution) shall be suspended, and shall return into force after the amendments stipulated in this Article have been decided upon.
In fact the CRC was not constituted on 25 September 2006 and the constitutional revisions have not yet been made. The Iraqi constitution has been described as a ‘swiss cheese’ constitution given the number of holes which are to be filled ‘according to law’ yet to be passed by the Council of Representatives and by referendum.
On 23 May 2007 the CRC issued a draft report.
UNAMI’s Office of Constitutional Support commented on that report and has made a number of other representations to the CRC.
The Council of Representatives extended the CRC’s period of work.
The CRC also produced a draft Federation Council law, which also provoked representations from UNAMI OCS.
On 7 July 2008 the CRC issued a ‘preliminary draft final report’.
Other freely available commentary:
By Jonathan Morrow of the US Institute of Peace;
By Jason Gluck also of the US Institute of Peace;
By Reidar Vissar in the Forum of Federations magazine;
The members of the CRC are:
الشيخ همام حمودي Sheikh Hamam Hamoudi (Chair)
الدكتور فؤاد معصوم Dr. Fouad Massoum (Deputy)
السيد اياد السامرائي Mr. Ayad al-Samarrai (Deputy)
السيد علي العلاق Mr. Ali Alaak
السيدة ناجحة عبد الامير Ms. Najeha Abid Al-Ameer
السيد عبد الكريم العنزي Mr. Abdul-Karim al-Enzi
السيد سامي العسكري Mr. Sami al-Askari
السيد عباس البياتي Mr. Abbas Al-Bayati (Rapporteur)
السيد قاسم داوود Mr. Kassem Daoud
السيد حسن الشمري Mr. Hassan Al Shammari
الشيخ جلال الدين الصغير Sheikh Jalaluddin al-Sagher
السيد عبد الكريم النقيب Mr. Abdul Karim Al-Naqib
السيد عمار طعمة Mr. Amar Tamah
السيد جابر حبيب جابر Mr. Jaber Habib Jaber
السيد سعدي البرزنجي Mr. Saadi Al-Barazanjy
السيد فرياد محمد فقي حسن فرياد Mr. Hassan Mohamed Faki
السيد عبد الله صالح حفظ الله Mr. Abdullah Salih
السيد أحمد انور محمد Mr. Anwar Ahmed Muhaamad
السيد حسين الفلوجي Mr. Hussein Falluji
السيد سليم عبدالله الجبوري Mr. Salim Abdullah al-Jubouri
السيد عزالدين الدولة Mr. Izzedine Dola
السيد حميد مجيد موسى Mr. Hamid Majid Mousa
السيدة عالية نصيف Ms. Alya Nassif (Rapporteur)
السيد أمين فرحان ججو Mr. Amin Farhan Jajo
السيد يونادم كنا Mr. Yonadam Kanna
السيد سعد الدين محمد امين Mr. Saad El Din Mohamed Amin
السيد حنين محمود القدو Mr. Haneen Mahmoud Al-Qadu
السيد سامي عبد الله الاتروشي Mr. Sami Abdullah Atrushi
السيد محمد علي تميم Mr. Mohamed Ali Tamim
السيد ابلحد افرام Mr. Abelhd Afram
السيد ياسين حمادي Mr. Yassin Humadi