Iraqi constitutions: using the concept “Freedom”

The rea­son of this post is to make my argu­ment clear that the con­cept “free­dom’ is not new in Iraqi con­sti­tu­tions and it was used in begin­ning of the estab­lish­ment of the Iraqi state’s first con­sti­tu­tion 1925 but imple­ment­ing the word is another story.

Iraqi par­lia­ment until now proved their unre­li­a­bil­ity to secure the con­sti­tu­tion and I will go fur­ther and say Iraqis proved their inca­pa­bil­ity to write their own con­sti­tu­tion but I will keep the dis­cus­sion on this for the next post.

Notice that the draft copy of the last con­sti­tu­tion is just a mix of the pre­vi­ous con­sti­tu­tions and many arti­cles the con­text was shad­owy [even by the pre­vi­ous con­sti­tu­tions] and sounds like:

1925 Con­sti­tu­tion
Arti­cle 12 [soci­ety]
Free­dom of expres­sion of opin­ion, lib­erty of pub­li­ca­tion, of meet­ing together, and of form­ing and join­ing asso­ci­a­tions is guar­an­teed to all Iraqis within such lim­its as may be pre­scribed by law.

Arti­cle 13 [reli­gion]
Com­plete free­dom of con­science and free­dom to prac­tice the var­i­ous forms of wor­ship, in con­for­mity with accepted cus­toms, is guar­an­teed to all inhab­i­tants of the coun­try pro­vided that such forms of wor­ship do not con­flict with the main­te­nance of order and dis­ci­pline or pub­lic morality.

Arti­cle 15 (com­mu­ni­ca­tions]
All postal and tele­graphic cor­re­spon­dence and all tele­phonic com­mu­ni­ca­tions shall be secret and free from cen­sor­ship or deten­tion, except in such cir­cum­stances and in such man­ner as may be pre­scribed by law.

Arti­cle 60 [par­lia­ment]
Every mem­ber shall have the right of absolute free­dom of speech, sub­ject to the reg­u­la­tions of the assem­bly of which he is a mem­ber. No legal pro­ceed­ings shall be taken against him on account of a vote given, or opin­ion expressed, or speech made dur­ing the debates and dis­cus­sions of the assembly.

1990 Con­sti­tu­tion
Arti­cle 26 [soci­ety]
The Con­sti­tu­tion guar­an­tees free­dom of opin­ion, pub­li­ca­tion, meet­ing, demon­stra­tions
and for­ma­tion of polit­i­cal par­ties, syn­di­cates, and soci­eties in accor­dance with the
objec­tives of the Con­sti­tu­tion and within the lim­its of the law. The State ensures the
con­sid­er­a­tions nec­es­sary to exer­cise these lib­er­ties, which com­ply with the rev­o­lu­tion­ary,
national, and pro­gres­sive trend.

Arti­cle 25 [reli­gion]
Free­dom of reli­gion, faith, and the exer­cise of reli­gious rites, is guar­an­teed, in accor­dance
with the rules of con­sti­tu­tion and laws and in com­pli­ance with morals and pub­lic order.

Arti­cle 27 point © [edu­ca­tion]
The State guar­an­tees the free­dom of sci­en­tific research,

2004 Interim Con­sti­tu­tion
Arti­cle 13
(A) Pub­lic and pri­vate free­doms shall be pro­tected.
(B) The right of free expres­sion shall be pro­tected.
© The right of free peace­able assem­bly and the right to join asso­ci­a­tions freely, as well as the right to form and join unions and polit­i­cal par­ties freely, in accor­dance with the law, shall be guar­an­teed.
(D) Each Iraqi has the right of free move­ment in all parts of Iraq and the right to travel abroad and return freely.
(E) Each Iraqi has the right to demon­strate and strike peace­ably in accor­dance with the law.
(F) Each Iraqi has the right to free­dom of thought, con­science, and reli­gious belief and prac­tice. Coer­cion in such mat­ters shall be pro­hib­ited.
(H) Each Iraqi has the right to privacy.

2005 Draft copy of the new Con­sti­tu­tion [Thanks to Omar]
Arti­cle 6
2– Free­dom of sci­en­tific research.
3– Free­dom of expres­sion, opin­ion, demon­stra­tion and estab­lish­ing unions and asso­ci­a­tions.
5– All postal and tele­graphic cor­re­spon­dence and all tele­phonic com­mu­ni­ca­tions shall be secret and free from cen­sor­ship or deten­tion, except in such cir­cum­stances and in such man­ner as may be pre­scribed by law.

Sources
1– Con­sti­tu­tion of the King­dom of Iraq 1925.

2– Interim Con­sti­tu­tion of Iraq 1990 [PDF].

3– Interim Con­sti­tu­tion of Iraq 2004.

4– Draft copy of Iraq’s con­sti­tu­tion 2005 [Ara­bic] [PDF].