With Iraq’s Parliament completing its review of the draft Anti-Domestic Violence Law, Human Rights Watch has called on the parliament to make key amendments to the draft law in order to further protect women’s lives. Despite women’s groups campaigning for years for legislation on domestic violence, only the Kurdistan Region of Iraq currently has legislation on domestic violence in place. The draft law going through the Iraqi parliament does not annul provisions in the Iraqi Penal Code, HRW also noted. The Iraqi Penal Code has provisions that condones domestic violence in the case of so-called honor-based violence.So-called honor-based violence and honor killings remains a problem in both Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, with Zhyan group – a coalition of thirty non-governmental organizations – leading the fight against it in the region.
