Iraq's justice minister has backed down from his attempt to disband the board of the Iraqi Bar Association following pressure from around the world and within his own country, it has emerged.

Abdel Hussein Shandal's December 2005 decree removing the existing board and putting in its place a committee of three lawyers and two judges had been condemned by a range of bodies including the International Bar Association (IBA), the Arab Lawyers Union and the Law Society (see [2006] Gazette, 12 January, 1).


The justice ministry has now said it will not enforce the decree.


Elections for the next board are scheduled for 13 April, with Kamal Hamdoun Mulla-Alu, the incumbent head of the Iraqi Bar Association, not expected to stand.


IBA executive director Mark Ellis said he was 'optimistic' that the elections would now go ahead unhindered.


'There's no doubt that the [Iraqi] Bar Association has its own internal issues,' he said. 'But it's absolutely unacceptable to have a government attempting to interfere with what ought to be independent. When we spoke out, together with a number of international organisations, I think the combined effect was to send a clear message to the [Iraqi] government that interfering with the independence of this type of entity was unacceptable.'


The Law Society, which had written a strongly worded letter to the Iraqi justice minister in January asking why he was refusing to allow the Iraqi Bar's 'members to elect their own leadership to run the organisation without external interference', also welcomed the move.


Law Society President Kevin Martin said: 'A fully independent bar association is essential for the development of Iraq.'


The IBA has been asked by the Iraqi Bar Association to send a team of observers to oversee the board elections, but Mr Ellis said he was unable to do this because of fears over security.