ORAL STATEMENT
Humanists International
UN Human Rights Council, 59th Session Session (16th June – 9th July 2025)
Universal Periodic Review of Iraq
Mr President,
We thank the delegation for its presentation.
Despite constitutional guarantees of equality, women and girls in Iraq continue to face widespread violence, entrenched by legal discrimination, impunity, and the failure of state institutions to ensure protection and justice.[1]
We remain gravely concerned by the lack of legal protection against marital rape, which is unrecognized as a crime. This reflects a broader culture of impunity surrounding gender-based violence and denies women their right to bodily autonomy and access to justice.[2] We note that the recommendation by Denmark, for Iraq to “repeal article 398 of the Penal Code, which exempts offenders of rape from prosecution if they marry their victim”[3] was not accepted.
Likewise we note with alarm Iraq’s refusal to repeal article 41(1) of the Iraqi Penal Code, which gives a husband a legal right to punish his wife.
We were extremely saddened to see a recommendation to re-establish the previous ban on the marriage of children under the age of 18 was not accepted. Child marriage remains prevalent across Iraq, with UNICEF finding that almost a third of women aged 20-24 were married before the age of 18.[4] There have been cases of girls as young as 12 being married.[5] And whilst recent amendments to Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law retained the legal minimum age of marriage of 18, exceptions granted by religious or tribal authorities can override these protections and permit marriage from the age of 15. Such practices violate Iraq’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women.
Whilst we acknowledge Iraq’s adoption of a national strategy for combating violence against women and girls, it will mean little if the very laws that are needed to protect women and girls against violence and discrimination are not in place.
Thank you.
[1] https://www.unicef.org/iraq/stories/violence-against-women-and-girls-scourge-affecting-several-generations, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/02/iraq-action-must-be-taken-on-gender-based-violence-after-murder-of-tiba-ali-by-her-father/, , https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/iraq#49dda6https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/violence-against-women-permeates-all-aspects-life-iraq
[2] https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/03/10/iraq-personal-status-law-amendment-sets-back-womens-rights
[3] A/HRC/59/14, Para 117.100
[4] https://www.unicef.org/media/108161/file/SOWC-2023-full-report-English.pdf
[5] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/28/iraq-court-hearing-resumed-for-the-marriage-of-12-year-old-girl
'UPR outcome of Iraq', Humanists International