The Legal Committee of the Iraqi Parliament will hold two crucial meetings, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, to make it easier to pass three controversial laws.
“The Parliamentary Legal Committee will meet this evening to review the readiness of the General Amnesty Law, Personal Status Law, and Property Restitution Law, all listed on the agenda for Sunday’s session,” says committee member Aref Al-Hamami.
He also said that the committee will meet again on Sunday morning to finish these bills before the session, with the goal of passing them quickly.
Al-Hamami said that there is a lot of “political and parliamentary consensus” to pass these laws during the session on Sunday, which shows that everyone is working together to get them passed.
Personal Status Law The Personal Status Law, which was passed by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qasim in 1959, applies to all Iraqis, regardless of their religious affiliation. However, Iraqis would be able to select whether Shia or Sunni law would govern personal status matters like marriage under the proposed amendments.
The amendment says that religious opinions will take precedence if parties in a family case disagree about which legal source applies. This modification gives religious texts more weight than current civil law.
In addition, the amendments mandate that the State Council and the Shia and Sunni Endowment Councils jointly draft a comprehensive code of religious rulings on personal status issues. Within six months of the law’s passage, this code would need to be presented to Parliament for approval.
Personal status courts’ approval of Muslim marriage contracts is another important provision. Before recognizing any contracts, these courts must ensure that they meet both religious and legal requirements.
Within the Coordination Framework, Shia voices argue that the amendments address family-related issues and are constitutional. Political parties and activists from civil society, on the other hand, have criticized the changes, calling the current law the “best in the region.”
Rivals likewise guarantee the alterations license youngster marriage, deny spouses of provision and authority freedoms, and supplant common regulations with organization explicit strict texts. They argue that this change hinders the advancement of women’s rights in Iraq.
Since its first enactment in 2008, when it was passed alongside the General Budget Law and the Law of Governorates Not Incorporated into a Region, the General Amnesty Law (GAL) in Iraq has been a key component of political compromises. This was a sign of a political deal in which each major faction—Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish—got a law that was good for them.
A second version of GAL was enacted in 2016 as part of a political agreement that was primarily motivated by Sunni demands. The fact that it was voted on alongside the “Popular Mobilization Authority Law” and the “Baath Party Ban Law” reinforces the idea that the law is the result of political concessions. Since then, Sunni blocs have made GAL a major demand, particularly during negotiations for the “State Administration” coalition, which brought together Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish parties to form the current government headed by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
The law faces opposition within the Shia Coordination Framework due to concerns that it could permit the release of individuals convicted of terrorism, murder, and other serious crimes, despite the fact that it is an essential requirement for Sunni participation. Officials have proposed amendments to exclude terrorists, those involved in human trafficking, drug offenses, and crimes that threaten national security in order to address these concerns.
Law on Property Remedies The goal of the proposed law, which is supported by the five Kurdish blocs that make up the Iraqi Parliament, is to overturn decisions made by the Baath Party about agricultural lands in areas that are covered by Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution. In the 1970s, these decisions resulted in the confiscation of Kurdish and Turkmen farmers’ lands, which were then redistributed to Arab settlers, most notably in Kirkuk. The bill aims to correct the ethnic disparity caused by the Baathist regime’s policies and return these properties to their original owners.
The Kurdish blocs have worked together to pass the law, meeting with Shiite and Sunni groups multiple times to make sure it moves forward. Notably, representatives from Kurdistan met with the Chairman of the Government Committee for the Implementation of Article 140, Hadi al-Amiri, to obtain support and thwart opposition from other parliamentary blocs.
