ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraqi President Barham Salih on Sunday met with Yazidi activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad in Baghdad, just days after a bill in parliament that would offer reparations to female genocide survivors from the ethno-religious minority failed to make the quorum needed to be voted on.
Salih called on parliament "to expedite the legislation of the Yazidi female survivors law by the House of Representatives, and expand it to include other affected segments," in a statement published by state media outlet Iraqi News Agency (INA).
The Yazidi Female Survivors Bill, which has languished in parliament for nearly two years without a vote, guarantees job opportunities to survivors of the Islamic State (ISIS) group by allocating them 2% of jobs in Iraq’s public sector, along with a fixed salary and land, according to details previously released.
"The bill was submitted to a vote last week, but quorum was not met due to the interrogation of the Iraqi Central Bank governor,” Yazidi MP Khaleda Rasho told Rudaw English on Monday. “We do not know when the bill will be submitted to a vote again."
Introduced to parliament in April 2019, the bill has had two readings, but a special parliamentary committee was formed to amend the draft legislation after push back.
"Some of the objections that were registered by MPs, such as those submitted by the Women's Committee to change the name of the bill to "Iraqi Women Survivors' Law " instead of Yazidis, and some other objections by the components, have contributed to the delay in passing the law,” Rasho said, describing the delay as "political" not technical.
The MP confirmed that the bill has been amended to apply beyond just Yazidis. Christian, Shabak, and Turkmen women, along with a number of other minorities who suffered at the hands of ISIS may also benefit from the bill now if passed, according to Rasho.
Some worry that the expanding of the bill to apply beyond Yazidi women will ultimately lead to the watering down of the legislation at the expense of people who desperately need it.
“Even though the first draft of the law was specific to the Yazidi women and girls freed from Daesh [ISIS], the Iraqi sides stated that the law must cover all the women from other Iraqi groups and ethnicities because they were subjected to violations by Daesh too,” Bahar Ali, director of the Emma Organization for Human Development, a non-profit women's advocacy group that draws its funding from a number of European development organizations as well as UNICEF, told Rudaw English.
Upwards of 6,000 women and children were taken captive by ISIS as it took the Yazidi heartland of Shingal in August 2014, committing genocide against the ethno-religious community. Thousands are still missing.
Amendments have also arrived from the Yazidi Spiritual Council, recommending the deletion of an article that stipulate that children of Yazidi survivors of sexual violence at the hands of the ISIS be registered as Muslim, in accordance to the Juvenile Welfare Law, which dictates that "a child of unknown parentage is considered an Iraqi Muslim unless proven otherwise."
“This will cause huge problems and divisions within the Yazidi community, so children of survivors should be excluded from this law," Rasho said.
The bill also includes the formation of a committee composed of members representing the ministries of justice and interior, headed by a judge from the Supreme Judicial Council. This committee is concerned with studying each survivor’s case.
"It is important to add a representative from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to the committee, as the genocide center in Duhok governorate owns all the information and documents of the Yazidi survivors," Rasho said.
Clarification: The first publication of this article on February 1, 2021 included a quote from Bahar Ali of the Emma Organisation for Human Development. Miss Ali contacted Rudaw English on February 4, stating there was a misunderstanding about her quote, which was taken over the phone. She maintained that she was misquoted. Rudaw agreed to delete the earlier quote and instead include a statement she provided to Rudaw in writing. The deleted quote was: “We know that many people from different backgrounds have been affected by ISIS, but it is not fair to include other minorities in the law, as it is the Yazidis who have been subjected to genocide.”
