The European Union Integrated Rule of Law Mission in Iraq, (EUJUST LEX), is a
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
mission to support and train judges, prison officials and other justice-sector workers in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
, to improve the rule of law and protection for human rights.
EUJUST LEX is part of the European Union's
External Action service. The mission has around 50-60 staff, with members from several different EU (and non-EU) states. It is divided into three main teams - supporting courts, police, and prisons respectively.
History
Support for the rule of law was requested by
Ibrahim al-Jaafari
Ibrahim Abd al-Karim al-Eshaiker ( ar, إبراهيم عبد الكريم الأشيقر; born 25 March 1947), also known as Ibrahim al-Jaafari, is an Iraqi politician who was Prime Minister of Iraq in the Iraqi Transitional Government from 2005 ...
, who was president of Iraq's interim government. EUJUST LEX was created by decision 6328/05 of the Council of the European Union; it started operations in July 2005, with Stephen White as the head of mission. The mandate has been extended repeatedly; the most recent extension, approved in June 2012 by a meeting of 27 EU ambassadors, continues until 31 December 2013. It was initially headquartered in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, for security reasons, with a small liaison office in the British embassy in Baghdad; but this moved to
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
in early 2011. There are also offices in
Erbil
Erbil, also called Hawler (, ar, أربيل, Arbīl; syr, ܐܲܪܒܹܝܠ, Arbel), is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It lies in the Erbil Governorate. It has an estimated population of around 1,600,000.
Hu ...
and
Basra
Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...
.
, EUJUST LEX had trained over 5000 Iraqi officials and the total cost of the mission was around €118 million.
References
External links
EEAS website
EUJUST LEX photos
{{Common Security and Defence Policy/missions, state=collapsed
Government of Iraq
Rule of law missions of the European Union