[Lifestyle] Draft law aims to address violence against Iraqi children

[-CosmiNNe]

The draft law includes many provisions that support the child, especially with regard to assigning the state the responsibility of protecting him from all forms of violence and taking care of him completely socially, educationally, materially and morally.

However, some of its clauses encounter problems in their application on the ground and are not socially accepted, according to observers, especially with regard to two articles that established mechanisms that allow a child to file a complaint against his relatives in the event of being subjected to violence or violation of rights.

The Iraqi Parliament Building, Al Jazeera Net
Parliament has taken its first step to enact a child protection bill after it stumbled during previous sessions (Al-Jazeera)
High rates of violence
The draft law met with some "objections" from political blocs during its first reading last Sunday, due to its provisions that violate social norms, customs and traditions. This is the same fate that the Anti-Domestic Violence Law faced, which prevented its enactment and was rejected several times during previous parliamentary sessions.

raq was one of the first countries to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989. However, it witnessed a significant increase in the rates of violence against children after 2003, due to the lack of application of laws and the political and security crises that the country experienced, with the absence of health, educational and social care and the exploitation and recruitment of children in military actions and armed conflicts.

Previous reports revealed that about 90% of children between the ages of one and 14 years are exposed to violence in one way or another in different ways.

In 2019, 1606 cases of violence against children were registered, according to the data of the Supreme Judicial Council. As for the year 2021, there were 1141 cases of domestic violence against children, while during the first half of this year 500 cases were registered.

The spread of unemployment and the spread of negative social evils, such as beggary, drug spread, family disintegration and high rates of poverty, contributed to the increase in the phenomenon of child violence. However, the existence of this law - if approved - will work to end all of this and reduce it to a very large percentage, according to Al-Quraishi.

Academic and social researcher Dr. Waad Ibrahim (Al Jazeera 3)
Khalil: The law will protect children from being used in armed conflicts (Al-Jazeera)
societal objections
Among the advantages of the bill is that it prohibits children under the age of 18 from being employed, participating in armed groups, or entering nightclubs or cinemas if the show is not intended for their age, protecting children from drugs and sexual exploitation and preventing the sale of games that incite violence and fighting.

Here, academic and social researcher Dr. Waad Ibrahim Khalil acknowledges that the draft law will protect children from exploiting those who force them, whether in employment in occupations unsuitable for their age or using them in armed conflicts.

However, Khalil points out that it is difficult for the draft law to address all phenomena of violence against Iraqi children because violence is not a recent phenomenon and is linked to deeper roots and many causes in Iraqi society, but it can turn into a means to at least reduce it.

It is common in Iraq that the method of disciplining a child, by beating him or punishing him formally or physically, has been prevalent in society for centuries. But for a child to file a complaint against the father, mother, or guardian, here, Ibrahim acknowledges the “impossibility” of society to accept him, and it is not an easy matter at all “because it contradicts the social educational upbringing.”

 

 

https://www.aljazeera.net/news/lifestyle/2022/11/11/مشروع-قانون-حماية-الطفل-هل-يُعالج