HomeArticles

Manual on Fair Trial for the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Year: 2024
Download E-book Version

At first glance, the term "fair trial" might suggest a distinction between fair and unfair trials. However, If we look at it more deeply, it reveals that justice is an essential aspect of any trial. In other words, there is a close relationship between the concepts of trial and justice, so that if a trial is unfair, it loses its true meaning and can be labeled differently and presented in another form. Either there is no trial, or there is justice.

Due to the importance of justice in the judicial context, a significant portion of the intellectual efforts of philosophers and lawyers has been directed toward identifying the injustices present within that context. At the international level, various treaties have established the framework for fair trials, while at the national level, constitutions and laws set forth principles and rules to ensure fairness. Therefore, it is not surprising that many books, academic papers, and manuals are published annually in all the world's major languages on this topic.

The Kurdistan Center for International Law (KCIL) took on the task of preparing and publishing this manual due to the importance of the subject and the absence of any sources on fair trials in the Kurdish language in Kurdish libraries. Initially, a group of judges was assigned to draft the manual, after which the draft was discussed with several experts and opinion leaders. The draft then went through a linguistic review process. To sum up the thoughts, this manual is the result of a collaborative effort among several teams: the writing team, the support team, and the linguistic team. Each team played a role in the publication of the first manual, marking it as the first Kurdish publication on fair trials. Although this is a manual and not an academic study, but the nature of the topic requires the use of a comparative approach. This means that the manual addresses both international and local aspects of the subject, helping the reader naturally compare Iraqi and Kurdish laws based on international fair trial standards.

It is worth noting that the publication of this manual marks the first step in our center's long-term journey towards ensuring fair trials. Efforts will continue to elevate this manual to a higher standard. In other words, from the center's perspective, this manual serves as the foundation upon which we will build a significant future project. It is important to mention that this manual is part of a series of publications by the KCIL, and it was published with support from the the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IFA) via German Federal Foreign Office.