AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

Project title: Iraqi Reconciliation: how the ethno-religious groups’ perception of justice have affected national reconciliation Keywords: Iraq; Reconciliation; Justice; 2005 Iraqi Constitution; Ethno-religious groups; equality. Lederach (1997) argues that after a civil war, a nation needs to be restored - materially, but also to a high extent relationally. Post-Saddam Hussein Iraq needs to be restored - materially and relationally. As tensions between the different ethno-religious groups in Iraq have grown more and more hostile after 2003. Political attention similarly grew on the matter that national reconciliation was indispensable if Iraq was to escape the shade of past decades of repression and systematic violence from the regime. However, neither the two reconciliation initiatives of 2005 and 2006, nor the drafting and negotiation of the 2005 constitution for the ‘new Iraq’ have contributed positively to the creation of national reconciliation. This study is an analysis of the three main ethno-religious groups in Iraq during the negotiations and drafting of the 2005 constitution. More specifically, this study analyses the three ethno-religious groups’ perceptions of whether the constitutional negotiations and drafting processes were just or unjust and how these perceptions further have affected national reconciliation processes. It will be argued that the perception of justice is one of the factors at the very core of reconciliation. As the study will emphasise, perception of being treated unjust has negative implications for the movement towards national reconciliation, as such perception breeds sectarian mistrust and further ethno-religious tension.