Student Activity: Toward a More Sustainable Campus through Innovative Design and Practical Application
On 30th Oct 2023, Assist Lecturer, Hemen Rasheed Agha, lecturer of Public Law at the Department of Law at Cihan University – Sulaimaniya presented a seminar on ‘The Iraqi Penal Code and Women’s Rights: Constitutional and Human Right Implications’. He expressed concirens about Gender-based violence, including “honor killings,” that has become prevalent issue in Iraq. He also stressed the fact that although the Iraqi Provisional Constitution guarantees equal rights to women, many Iraqi laws still do not comply with the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and those laws which are in line with the CEDAW are often not implemented properly. The Iraqi Penal Code permits “honour” as a mitigation for crimes of violence committed against family members, and the Code allows for lenient punishments for “honour killings” on the grounds of provocation or if the accused had “honourable motives.” Article 409 of the Iraqi Penal Code allows penalties of as little as six months in prison for “honour killings.” The prevalence of honor-based violence in Iraq is related to the belief that a family’s honor is dependent upon the sexual conduct and behavior of women. The invisibility of women’s harms has also included a lack of reparations with a gender perspective. The need to advance the humanization of women’s rights is crucial, and States have a responsibility to incorporate a gender perspective in legal systems.
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