Chaldean bishop cautiously optimistic, but with questions

Paul Marshall of Freedom House is a bit more concerned:

Another concern is Article 39, dealing with personal status—marriage, custody, alimony, and inheritance: "Iraqis are free in the adherence to their personal status according to their own religion, sect, belief, and choice, and that will be organized by law." Most discussion of this has focused on its potential to undercut women’s rights, but its effects can be far wider: People could be forced into a legal status dictated by a religious group whether they wanted to or not, and their individual religious freedom could be undercut, especially since many interpretations of Shari’ah give one set of rights for Muslim men, another for Muslim women, and quite another for non-Muslims. These provisions can further reinforce the second-class status of Iraq’s already beleaguered Christian community, now roughly 3 percent of the population and rapidly shrinking.

This contradictory draft constitution provokes many cans, coulds, and other concerns. Its clauses might be used either to bolster or to limit religious freedom. Since the Iraqis are continually adapting the document, the United States should discreetly push particularly for changes in Article 39 and the "Islamic identity" provisions in Article 2. If the constitution is accepted in the October referendum, the other worrying clauses could become much less worrisome in the hands of capable judges who reinforce the document’s human-rights guarantees. In this, as in so much else, the major effect of the constitution is going to depend on the quality of the government that enforces it.

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