Co-funded by the Internal Security Fund of the European Union LET4CAP Law Enforcement Training for Capacity Building IRAQ Downloadable Country Booklet DL. 2.5 (Version 1.2) 1 Dissemination level: PU Let4Cap Grant Contract no.: HOME/ 2015/ISFP/AG/LETX/8753 Start date: 01/11/2016 Duration: 33 months Dissemination Level PU: Public X PP: Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission) RE: Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission) Revision history Rev. Date Author Notes 1.0 18/05/2018 Ce.S.I. Overall structure and first draft 1.1 25/06/2018 Ce.S.I. Second draft 1.2 30/11/2018 Ce.S.I. Final version LET4CAP_WorkpackageNumber 2 Deliverable_2.5 VER WorkpackageNumber 2 Deliverable Deliverable 2.5 Downloadable country booklets VER 1.2 2 IRAQ Country Information Package 3 This Country Information Package has been prepared by Lorenzo Marinone Ce.S.I. – Centre for International Studies Within the framework of LET4CAP and with the financial support to the Internal Security Fund of the EU LET4CAP aims to contribute to more consistent and efficient assistance in law enforcement capacity building to third countries. The Project consists in the design and provision of training interventions drawn on the experience of the partners and fine-tuned after a piloting and consolidation phase. © 2018 by LET4CAP…. All rights reserved. 4 Table of contents 1. Country Profile 1.1 Country in Brief 1.2 Modern and Contemporary History of Iraq 1.3 Geography 1.4 Territorial and Administrative Units 1.5 Population 1.6 Ethnic Groups, Languages, Religion 1.7 Health 1.8 Education and Literacy 1.9 Country Economy 2. Political and Security Context 2.1 The Constitution of Iraq 2.2 Elections 2.3 Political Parties 2.4 Key Political Leaders 2.5 Media Landscape and Civil Society 2.6 Security Sector 3. Law Enforcement Structures and Actors 3.1 The Police 3.2 Other Security Forces 3.3 The Judiciary 4. Migrations and Human Rights issues 4.1 Internal and International Migration 4.2 Human Rights Situation 5. The UN and Iraq 5.1 The UN and the fight against Daesh 6. The EU – Iraq Relations 6.1 A long-term partnership 6.2 EU response to the Iraqi crisis 6.3 EU Advisory Mission to Iraq (EUAM) 7. Other regional organisations and Iraq 7.1 Arab League and Iraq 7.2 OPEC and Iraq 8. Other Practical Info 8.1 Local Customs Cultural Awareness 8.2 Medical Travel Recommendations for Iraq 8.3 Other Travel Info 8.4 Radio Transmissions 9. Useful contacts Sources Bibliography Annex - UN Security Council Resolution 2379 5 1. Country Profile 6 1.1 Country in Brief Source: University of Texas Libraries Formal Name: Republic of Iraq Area (sq km): 438,317 sq km (169,235 sq miles) Previous formal names: The Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq Capital City: Baghdad Population: 39,192,111 (July 2017 estimates) Independence: 3 October 1932 (from the United Kingdom) Term for Citizens: Iraqis 7 1.2 Modern and Contemporary History of Iraq Early history and Shiites, the latter being headed by Ali's current, the cousin Modern day Iraq encompasses ancient Mesopotamia, one of the and son-in- law of prophet Muhammad who ruled as the 4th most important cradles of civilizations in the region together with caliph. In 680 Ali's son Husayn arrived in Iraq from Medina, the Levant and the Nile valley. The name “Mesopotamia” comes hoping that the people of Kufa would support him in his bid for from ancient Greek meaning “between the rivers”, a reference to succession. Husayn's small group of followers was massacred at river Tigris and Euphrates that for much of their course run the battle of Kerbala. The report and memory of this event soon through Iraq. Home to settlements of Neanderthal culture since assumed a foundational value and became a highly symbolic 65000 BC, since then Mesopotamia has been inhabited source of inspiration that is still absolutely central to Shiite continuously throughout the prehistoric era. Starting from 4000 rituality. In the past centuries the city of Kerbala and Ali's tomb BC different civilizations have developed in the territory of at nearby Najaf have become important centers of Shiite Mesopotamia, characterized by profound diversity of pilgrimage that are still greatly revered today. organization and social stratification, territorial extension and With the transition from the Umayyad dynasty to the Abbasid cultural development. With the emergence of the Sumerian dynasty beginning in 750, the center of gravity of the Islamic civilization (4500-1900 BC) a dense network of city states caliphate moved from Syria to Iraq. Under the Abbasids, the developed, the first systems of writing (cuneiform writing capital of the caliphate was first moved to Kufa, near Najaf, and engraved on clay tablets), organized religion and bureaucracy then to the new capital Baghdad, founded in 762 by the Caliph appeared. Sumerian civilization is responsible for inventions Mansour. The Abbasids relied on the bureaucratic structure destined to profoundly affect the history of mankind like the inherited from the Persian Empire, were supporters of integration wheel, and for giving fundamental impulse to disciplines such as policies towards non-Arab-Islamic ethnic-religious components mathematics, astronomy, astrology, law and medicine. and laid the foundations for a period of renaissance of science, From the third millennium BC the civilizations of the Akkads, the arts and culture in general. Known as the "Golden Age of Assyrians and Hittites developed on a large part of Mesopotamia, Islam", this period extends from the 8th century, starting with the often creating innovative syntheses with the Sumerian civilization. reign of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, to the siege and looting of In this period the contacts with the other civilizations of the Baghdad due to the invasion of the Mongols in 1258, during region multiplied, in particular towards the Levant, both with which the capital was put to fire and sword. Baghdad was again commercial and cultural exchanges, and with expansionist besieged and sacked in 1401 by Timur, a warlord of Mongol campaigns that proceeded with alternating events. The frequent descent from Central Asia, who dealt it a blow from which it did migrations, invasions and political upheavals that took place up to not recover until modern times. 600 BC made Mesopotamia a very rich ethnic, religious and cultural mosaic, which in large part is still a characteristic feature Ottoman Iraq of modern Iraq. After relatively short periods of domination by two Turkmen In the centuries between the 7th BC and the 3rd AD tribal confederations, the Kara Koyunlu and the Ak Koyunlu Mesopotamia lost its traditional centrality in the region and (1410-1508) and by the Persian Shiite Safavid dynasty (1508- became subject to invasion by stronger neighboring empires. In 1534), Iraq came under Ottoman domination for nearly four the 6th century BC, Cyrus the Great of neighboring Persia centuries. While the upper parts of the country were already subsumed Mesopotamia into the Achaemenid Empire for nearly conquered in 1514 by sultan Selim I, who took control of Mosul two centuries. In the late 4th century BC, Alexander the Great and the Kurdish-inhabited northern region east of the Tigris after conquered the region, putting it under the Hellenistic Seleucid the battle of Chaldiran, central and southern Iraq was rule for over two centuries. The region was then conquered by the incorporated in the empire only in 1534 after the defeat of the Parthians from Persia during the 2nd century BC, whose empire Safavid local governors by sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. As was finally crushed by the Sassanid dynasty in the 3rd century a result of the Ottoman conquest, Iraq underwent complete AD. The region was thus a province of the Sassanid Empire for geopolitical reorientation westward, toward the Ottoman lands in over four centuries, and became the battle ground between the Syria and Anatolia, that resulted in closer commercial and Sassanid Empire on the one hand, and Roman and Byzantine cultural ties with the eyalet (province) of Diyarbakir, in today Empire on the other hand. south-eastern Turkey. Iraq was at that time more an administrative entity and a border The Arab conquest Ottoman province with no clear boundaries to the east and south, The military campaigns launched by Sassanids and Byzantines than a unitary and cohesive territory from the political, social, contributed decisively to weakening both empires and paving the economic point of view. Ottoman Iraq was in fact divided in three way for the subsequent rapid expansion by the Arab troops. The distinct provinces: Mosul in the north, Baghdad in the centre, Arab conquest of Persia led to the end of the Sasanian Empire in Basra in the south. While the former was primarily inhabited by 651 AD and established Islam in Iraq. Under the Umayyad Kurds and other non-Arab population, Baghdad and Basra were dynasty, at the height of just over a century of offensive, the predominantly Arab-speaking territories. As far as religious and caliphate reached its maximum expansion, stretching from the sectarian distribution is concerned, the centre-north was heart of the Iberian peninsula to the west, through North Africa overwhelmingly Sunni with non-Muslim communities (mainly and the Levant, to the Indus valley to the east. The Muslim Assyrian Christians and Jews) to be found in urban centers and conquest was followed by mass immigration of Arabs from Mosul province, while Basra and southern marshes were eastern Arabia. Instead of dispersing and settling in the country, uniformly Shiite. This distribution has endured with few these new arrivals established two new cities in the south.