A Workshop on Draft Law for Protection against Domestic Violence
A Workshop on Draft Law for Protection against Domestic Violence
Iraqi Al-Amal Association held a workshop on the draft law for Protection against Domestic Violence in Beirut on 19th – 21st of July 2012 in cooperation with the State Ministry for Women’s Affairs and the support of the Dutch organization Hivos, which was attended by the draft writing team, including representatives of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Human Rights and the General Secretariat for the Council of Ministries, in addition to an elite of experienced members of parliament and the Kurdistan Regional Parliament, judges, and legal experts, representatives of CSOs, media figures and academics. Ms. Layla Awadha a lawyer and the representative of the Lebanese organization (KAFA / Enough Violence and Exploitation) had facilitated the workshop.
The workshop started with reviewing the stages of preparing the law’s draft and the deliberations which been conducted by the draft writing team with many officials and non officials parties, and visits to Kurdistan region and Jordan that took place to view their experience in the issuance of law against domestic violence.
A discussion was made on domestic violence phenomena in all its types and forms and its negative impact on disintegration of family relationships and increasing crime rates against women, and the importance of law to curtail the domestic violence phenomenon, as part of the legislative system for building a state ruled by rights and law, and in particular to protect Human Rights which are enshrined in Iraqi constitution.
One of the sessions was dedicated to discuss violence and Iraqi laws, especially the Penal Code No. 111 of 1969 and its amendments, and the Personal Status Law No. 188 of 1959 and its amendments, where emphasizing on the importance of rushing the reviewing and auditing the Constitution and the legislations according to the needs of current reality, to recover the community from violence, and to meet Iraq’s international obligations regarding Human Rights conventions and treaties.
The workshop also dealt with a presentation of the Law against Domestic Violence at Kurdistan Region – Iraq No. 8 of 2011 and its applications, as well as the Lebanese law project to protect women from domestic violence, in order to utilize them in the law draft.
The attendees were divided in workgroups for several sessions to check the draft law for the Protection against Domestic Violence, and then presented their results at the workshop’s main meeting, there were a thorough and free debates on already committed crimes in which women and girls being the usual victims, and its legal and judicial procedures and to establish alternatives that are appropriate to the Iraqi legal and judicial reforming project.
An agreement was reached that the workshop had achieved its goal in crystallizing and finalizing the law draft which will be submitted to the State Ministry for Women’s Affairs, hoping that the necessary measures would be taken quickly for getting the government’s approval on the draft, and refer it to the Parliament before the end of this year.