UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the<br />
Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), both of which guarantee the<br />
right to marry at one’s free will. Under Iraq’s Personal Status Law, 672 forced marriage is<br />
prohibited and punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment. 673 The legal age for marriage<br />
is 18, 674 however a 1979-amendment to the Personal Status Law lowered the minimum age<br />
for marriage to 15 years with the consent of the parents, an adult brother or an adult married<br />
sister. Despite these legal provisions, many women and young girls are forced to marry and<br />
risk enduring violence if they reject their families’ choice, including “honour killings”.<br />
Marriages of girls below the age of 15 are done according to religious customs and are not<br />
legally recognized. In rural areas of Northern Iraq, a practice called Jin bi Jin, meaning<br />
“a woman for a woman”, can be a form of forced marriage as it involves the exchange of<br />
women between two families where no bride price is paid. Similar practices can also be<br />
found in other areas of Iraq. Another custom, known as “exchange-for-blood marriage”,<br />
involves giving a girl or woman in marriage to another family as compensation for<br />
a killing. 675<br />
c) Single Women and Women Head of Household<br />
This group is made up of women on their own, or with their children, because their family<br />
members or spouses were killed, 676 kidnapped or otherwise targeted, and because they risk<br />
or have already faced harassment or attacks themselves. 677 Depending on the perpetrators,<br />
additional factors such as a woman’s ethnicity, religion or professional background may put<br />
her at even greater risk. Women in this group are typically targets of kidnapping, rape or<br />
other forms of sexual harassment and abuse, including forced prostitution and human<br />
trafficking. Women who do not benefit from any type of family network or tribal links to<br />
protect them are even more at risk and are likely to be prime targets for traffickers. Those<br />
who have no means of livelihood are further likely to fall prey to trafficking and<br />
prostitution in order to survive. 678<br />
672 See “Personal Status”.<br />
673 Article 9 of the Personal Status Law, see above footnote 52.<br />
674 Article 7 of the Personal Status Law, see above footnote 52.<br />
675 See AI, Iraq – Decades of Suffering, February 2005, p. 22/23, http://web.amnesty.org/library/pdf/MDE<br />
140012005ENGLISH/$File/MDE1400105.pdf; BBC News, Tribal justice takes hold in Iraq, 2 February<br />
2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3449869.stm.<br />
676 According to Iraqi Government officials and NGOs, more than 90 women become widows each day due<br />
to continuing violence in the country; see IRIN, Iraq: Widow numbers rise in wake of violence, 26 April 2006,<br />
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=26320; according to the Iraqi organization Women Against<br />
War, there are an estimated 400,000 widows in Baghdad alone; see: Joshua Partlow, Widows Often Find Help<br />
Elusive in Iraq, The Washington Post, 23 July 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/<br />
2006/07/22/AR2006072200920_pf.html. See also Dahr Jamail and Ali Al-Fadhily, Iraq: Widows Become the<br />
Silent Tragedy, IPS, 7 December 2006, http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35751; AP, Violence in Iraq<br />
increasingly targeting women, 22 November 2006, http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=<br />
20061122-105650-7783r.<br />
677 According to UNAMI HRO, women are also targeted as “a means to punish other members of the<br />
family”; see UNAMI HRO, October 2006 Human Rights Report, p. 12, see above footnote 66.<br />
678 See UNHCR, 2005 Eligibility Guidelines, p. 21, see above footnote 8.<br />
125