On Iraq, notably the situation of women’s rights and the recent proposal to amend the Personal Status Law

B100091/2024

Motion for a European Parliament resolution on Iraq, notably the situation of women’s rights and the recent proposal to amend the Personal Status Law

(2024/2858(RSP))

The European Parliament,

- having regard to its previous resolutions on Iraq;

- having regard to Rules 150 of its Rules of Procedure;

whereas Iraq is drafting a new, highly restrictive bill on women’s rights amending Personal Status law 188/1959; whereas family matters, including on marriage, divorce and child custody, would effectively fall under the remit of religious courts rather than civil courts, entailing disturbing discrepancies along religious and socio-economic lines; whereas the minimum legal age for girls to marry would be nine years and there are fears of increased violence against women in the future; whereas the Supreme Court approved the most problematic amendments before a third reading which was postponed on October 2nd;whereas the situation of women rights in Iraq was already under heavy criticism before;

whereas Iraq's UN mission UNITAD, which worked on sexual crimes committed by Daesh against women, particularly Yazidis, has had to close on September 17, 2024 following the decision, supported by Russia and China, to discontinue their UNSC mandate a year ago; whereas Iraq's UN Mission UNAMI will also have to close in 2025, while UNICEF has been downsizing; whereas all mentions of gender have since been deleted from public reports, including on sexual crimes and women's role in conflict resolution, at the request of Iraqi authorities; whereas since April 2024 a new law has criminalized the LGBTQ community with up to 15 years in prison; whereas last August, on the event of the ten year commemoration of the Daesh massacre of the Yazidi people in Iraq, Kurdish Iraqi politicians shared hate speech against them ahead of elections;

urges the EU High Representative to publically deplore Iraq’s repressive personal status bill and underlines that the bill would violate Iraq’s international obligations as regards women’s fundamental rights;

calls on the EU delegation to Iraq to intensify its dialogue with Iraqi civil society on the bill, and to pre-condition development grants to judicial training and the establishment of women shelters;

calls to reinforce EU-Iraq cooperation in criminal justice reform, notably to include internationally recognised criminal offenses, notably the use of sexual violence in armed conflicts, to fight impunity for crimes committed by Daesh against women and girls; calls on Iraqi authorities to refer to relevant and competent organisations to specifically train judges and prosecutors on sexual and gender-based violence;

urges EU-Iraq security and counter-terrorism partnerships to include, as strategic priority, the prosecution of international crimes that include sexual and gender-based violence;

calls for a reinforced partnership with the Human rights committee of Iraq’s Parliament, involving legal experts in the process of cancelling the bill, to align with international obligations, in particular on forced marriage and the rights of women and girls, in line with the Convention for the Elimination of Discriminations against Women;

is highly concerned by the lack of legal protection for domestic violence against women and children;

instructs its President to translate this resolution into Arabic and forward it to Iraq’s Parliament and Government.