Sondos calls for law to prevent trafficking

United Nations expert Sondos Abbas revealed that record of 1500 cases of women's loss in Iraq, it was noted that most of them work in another Arab country, they are exploited with women of several origins in the regular sex trade.

She stressed that reasons for the spread of the phenomenon of trafficking in human beings and women in particular to the weakness of state institutions and law in the protection of the Iraqi family, as well as the extreme poverty experienced by some Iraqi families.

She added that improving the role of women lies in building the capacity to confront crises in Iraq, pointing to the advancement of women from different minorities as an element of recovery, steadfastness and peace.

She stressed the necessity of social reconciliation because of its positive effects in solving crises, problems and dilemmas, especially with regard to those who have been harmed and the loss of a victim of his family

She rejected proposed amendments to the country's Personal Status Law (PSL) that would allow religious judges to impose discriminatory law on family matters.

She said that the amendments would have covered areas including inheritance and divorce, and, by giving powers to impose family laws to certain religious communities, would have allowed girls to be married as young as age eight under some of these laws.

She added that two leading women’s rights organisations say that some parliament members have threatened to continue to push for the amendments to secure votes in some parts of the country in the May 2018 parliamentary elections.

She proposed the amendments on 1 November 2017. The proposed amendments would enshrine Shia and Sunni religious establishment control over marriage-related matters and require courts to make exceptions to existing legal protections.

She said the members also threatened to continue to push for the amendments unless the women’s rights committee dropped key protections in a domestic violence bill pending before parliament since 2015.

“The proposed amendments seek to establish sectarianism and undermine the principle of citizenship and national identity of Iraq”, she added. “The amendments would violate key rights enshrined in Iraq’s constitution and laws, and would treat women as inferior to men.”