Social Peace through Law in Kirkuk

Abstract

In the 1960s, attempts were made to change the demographic composition of Kirkuk, and its indigenous was forcibly displaced and replaced by others.  Among these policies was the seizure of agricultural lands, belonging to the two communities (Kurdish and Turkmen), and then distributing them to individuals from the Arab community. The Baath regime of Iraq seized the lands through two types of decisions (decisions of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCCD) and decisions of the Northern Affairs Committee (NACD). These decisions have the force of laws, so cancelling these decisions requires the intervention of the legislative authority and the issuance of laws to cancel them. Therefore, now, the Iraqi parliament has recently passed a law to repeal the decisions of the former RCCD.  Through the use of qualitative method, this study attempts to answer this question whether the law to cancel the decisions of the RCCD will work to consolidate social peace in Kirkuk?