Sunni Muslims call for greater role in constructing Iraqi constitution News
Sunni Muslims call for greater role in constructing Iraqi constitution

[JURIST] A leading Sunni Muslim group in Iraq announced Wednesday that it would not participate in writing the new Iraqi constitution unless Sunnis were given a fair number of seats on the drafting committee. The parliamentary committee in charge [JURIST report] and the US government [JURIST report] both want increased Sunni involvement, but the Shiite majority is unsettled [JURIST report] by calls for greater Sunni representation, especially given that few Sunnis voted in the January National Asembly elections. Currently, Sunnis hold only two of the 55 seats on the drafting committee. The Gathering of the Sunni People is demanding that 25 Sunnis be named to the committee. A draft of the constitution is due in little more than two months (August 15). Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

South Africa becomes first country on continent to legalize same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriages became legal in South Africa on November 30, 2006 as the country's Civil Union Act, 2006 went into effect, making South Africa the only country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Read the Civil Union Act, 2006.