The Federal Court interprets the phrase independent bodies and freedom to abide by personal status
Media of the Federal Supreme Court
The Federal Supreme Court issued an interpretative decision for the phrase independent bodies contained within the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq for the year 2005 and issued another interpretative decision regarding the freedom to abide by personal status stipulated in Article (41) thereof, interpreted the phrase independent bodies contained within the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq for the year 2005, where it was found, after extrapolating the provisions of the Constitution and referring to its previous interpretations issued in numbers (228/Teh/2006 on 9/10/2006), and (88/Federal/2010 on 18/1/2011), and (81/Federal/2017 on 14/11/2017), and (233/Federal/2023 on 10/10/2023) the following:
(The (association) of some independent bodies with the Council of Representatives does not prevent the Council of Ministers from supervising their activities in application of the provisions of Article 80/1st of the Constitution, which reads as follows: "The Council of Ministers shall exercise: First: Planning and implementing the general policy of the State, general plans, and supervising the work of ministries and bodies not associated with a ministry", because (independent bodies) are located within the structure of the State and perform executive functions and are not linked to a ministry).
The Federal Supreme Court also issued its interpretative decision No. (219 / Federal / 2024) on 17/9/2024 regarding the interpretation of the text of Article (41) of the Constitution, whose summary included the following:
(The request for interpretation focused on the text of Article (41) of the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq for the year 2005, which states: "Iraqis are free to abide by their personal status, according to their religions, sects, beliefs or choices, and this is regulated by law", because the Council of Representatives is in the process of making an amendment to the Personal Status Law No. (188) of 1959 in force, and the Federal Supreme Court finds that the aforementioned text granted the Iraqi people the right to freedom to organize their personal status, but it is not permissible to restrict the exercise or limitation of that right and that freedom shall be exercised except on the basis of a law, provided that such limitation and restriction shall not affect the essence of the right or freedom in accordance with Article 46 of the Constitution, which requires the regulation of such freedom in compliance with personal status by law).
