However transitional, temporary or interim, the Iraqi constitution signed yesterday was a triumph of the rule of law over tyranny. Many Americans will dislike the means used to arrive at this historic point, others will object to provisions within the constitution itself. But the expressed desire of a people to participate in their government and to live under rules that apply to all equally is worth celebrating.

The interim constitution begins, “The people of Iraq, striving to reclaim their freedom, which was usurped by the previous tyrannical regime, rejecting violence and coercion in all their forms, and particularly when used as instruments of governance, have determined that they shall hereafter remain a free people governed under the rule of law.”

The new charter, called the Transitional Administrative Law, bans discrimination based on gender, nationality, religion or origin. It protects the right of free expression, including the right to demonstrate and strike peaceably. Torture – “in all its forms, physical or mental” – is prohibited. Fair and speedy trials are guaranteed; counsel may be retained; the accused are innocent until proven guilty and have the right to remain silent. Slavery and involuntary servitude are forbidden. The right to privacy is guaranteed. “There shall be no taxation or fee except by law.”

Similarities between the U.S. Constitution and the new Iraqi one point out that the rights enjoyed here are not, as they feel to those who know no other way, natural, but had to be created and must to this day be protected. But there are differences too, chiefly that Islam is specifically the state religion of Iraq and from Islam will come legislation governing day-to-day life in Iraq. And Iraq will have two official languages, Arabic and Kurdish.

A larger difference, however, was the means by which the document was signed by the 25 members of Iraq’s Governing Council – apparently only after Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani gave his consent would five holdouts sign and even then they protested some of the components of the constitution. Shiite leaders oppose giving minority Kurds veto power over a permanent constitution and they oppose powers given to two deputy presidents, likely not to be a Shiite but a Kurd or Sunni Arab, according to news reports. They further do not support a portion of the interim charter that says a permanent constitution would not go into effect if two-thirds of the voters in any three provinces reject it, which gives power to minorities to veto the constitution.

The permanent constitution is scheduled to be in place no later than the end of January 2005. The next major deadline, to install the Iraqi Interim Government and dissolve the Coalition Provisional Authority, is scheduled to occur at the end of June. These major events will arrive with more protests, more maneuvering, more behind-the-scenes power. But the fact that they are expected to occur at all is reason for hope. Enough has gone horribly wrong in Iraq in the last year that hope cannot be the only emotion, but this latest example of progress is worth celebrating.