UN gives Iraqi constitution high mark

Baghdad (October 12, 2005) – Three days before the critical referendum on the new Iraqi constitution, a new UN study was released today, giving Iraq excellent ranking in the constitution-creating process. Assuming that the constitution would be approved in the upcoming referendum on Saturday, Iraq is on the way to be one of the fastest nations to complete the constitution from “square one”, much “faster than many western democracies,” said the report. Indeed, it took Iraq only two years (2003 – 2005) while Germany needed four years (1945 – 1949) to achieve the same result under similar post-war circumstances. It took the US much longer, namely eleven years (1776 – 1787) to obtain the constitution we know today. France needed even 13 years (1945 – 1958) to get to today’s constitution of the Fifth Republic. On a strange note, the United Kingdom, the birth place of democracy, does not even have a written constitution. All efforts to write one were abandoned a long time ago, since the early attempts in 1215 (Magna Charta) and 1701 (Act of Settlement) "went nowhere." The study gave the “worst rating” to the highly reputable and civilized European Union. Forty eight years after its inception in 1957 with the Treaty of Rome, the European Union still does not have a constitution in place. The 2004 version was soundly defeated in key member states and currently put back in the closet.