Ms. Claire Miskin a distinguished Barrister and former Chair of the International Practice Committee of the Bar Council and Former Chair of the Bar European Group and also the joint chair of the Women’s Interest Group of the International Bar Association in a network and mutual help group of international women lawyers, addressed the conference on the Iraqi draft constitution with respect to refugee rights on September 13. The follow is an excerpt of her speech:
I don’t think that I will meet with much contradiction if I say that
nobody is going to burst into tears with the passing of Sadam Hossein. He was as you all know somebody who represented a regime characterised by tyranny, oppression and cruelty on a massive scale. It is often a danger in such circumstances that one tyrant is replaced by another and if Iran has its way it is my view that that is exactly what will happen and as you have heard as long ago as 1994, 11 years ago, the Iraqis themselves together with Jordan warned that Iran’s aiming to create a satellite Islamic republic and sent up to one million Iranians to vote illegally in the Iraqi elections.
I think no one here will contradict me if I say that the present regime in Iran is itself cruel and oppressive sometimes on a scale that baffles even those persons who have heard it all before.
One might say therefore that it is to Iraq’s eternal credit that it gave shelter to PMOI as the Iranian opposition party which was supported by 2.8 million Iraqis in April 2005. The petition they signed warned of the threat of Islamic fundamentalism and went on to say as we all say that the PMOI is fighting a legitimate struggle against an unjust dictatorship and they went on of course to talk about Iran being the biggest cause of instability.
Unhappily all this now is set to change and although in July 2004 the PMOI got protected person’s status as refugees we now are faced with not only the article 21 of the proposed Iraqi constitution which as you know prevents political asylum being granted to those simply accused of committing international or terror crimes but also it appears that the rule of law which is so absolutely essential to any working democracy is being utterly subverted by way for example we have heard about the two brave men Hossein Pouyan and Mohammad-Ali Zahed who have been abducted by people who arrived in an Iraqi police van.
perhaps its helpful to consider who refugees are as real people. The human rights association defines them in this way that they are people who owing to a well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular circle, group or political opinion is outside the country of his nationality and is unable to, owing to such fears return there for fear of persecution and that sounds exactly like the inhabitants of Camp Ashraf.
It is one of the most fundamental principles in international refugee law and it comes from French law and from article 33 of status of refugees that says that no state should expel or return a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the country or territory where his life or freedom would be threatened.
Political opinions refer to ideas not tolerated by the authorities
including opinions critical of government policies and opinions
relating to individuals i.e the authorities think the person has a certain opinion even if the individual does not in fact have that opinion, individualds who conceal their opinions until after they have fled their country may qualify for refugee status if they can show that their views are likely to subject them to persecution if they are sent home.
In addition to all of this it comes as no surprise to anybody that refugees have certain civil rights as refugees. One of which is the right to belong to other non-political, non-profit organisations.
In conclusion the problem to all of this is that if it is possible simply for a government that doesn’t like its nationals to accuse them, the word used in article 21, of being terrorists then in effect the convention on refugees is completely dead. Because the whole point of allowing refugees whose political opinions are not favoured by the country they are coming from is just that.
If Iraqis are failing to recognise refugee status, one of the most important aspects of a civilised democratic regime, then my message is this: Dear Iraq, what is it you really want? Do you want a democracy, yes or no? if your answer is yes please begin with the rule of law and please ditch article 21c.
