News Center- Kurdistan Save the Children issued a statement on Tuesday regarding the proposed amendments to the Iraqi Personal Status Law No.188 of 1959, warning that the proposed amendments would threaten the significant advances made by women and children in Iraq over many decades.

The proposed amendments could be detrimental to the rights of women and children, with direct impact on marriage, polygamy, divorce, legal guardianship of children and inheritance, the statement said.

Urging parliamentarians to remember that Iraq is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Right of the Child, the statement said, stressing that the proposed amendments egregiously contravene the basic principles of this Convention which call upon signatories to “act in the best interest of the child” who should “never be subjected to any discrimination”, and guarantees the “right to survival and development”.

“Most alarmingly, the proposed changes would lead to a dramatic increase in temporary marriages (permitted in some religious sects) and underage marriages of children arbitrarily deemed by clergymen to be of ‘mature age’.”

“It would effectively eliminate the minimum age for marriage, as well as give potential to bypassing the process of notarizing a consensual marriage by the Iraqi courts, and remove accountability if a marriage isn’t legally notarized, not to mention the documentation issues this could bring about,” said Miran Ali, a member of KSC’s Legal Team.

“Such a development as posing a serious setback to Iraqi society as a whole, in particular to the rights of Iraqi girls,” KSC said.

In the statement, KSC lists the risks of the proposed amendments:

* Physical and psychological health complications resulting from early pregnancy.

* Decreased educational opportunities for Iraq’s women as young brides routinely drop out of school.

* Exposure to domestic physical and sexual violence often prevalent in child marriage cases.

* Adverse impact on economic stability and empowerment as children lack skills and education for meaningful employment.

“Freedom of choice should not come at a detriment to society as a whole. These proposed changes would give significant power to clergymen over the state, and the application of different religious codes will surely lead to further segregation of communities and less respect for Iraqi laws which have been commended over the years as the most advanced in the region,” said KSC President Sara Rashid. “We call on parliament to reject any measures that would turn the clock back on Iraq’s women.”