ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The United States is “deeply concerned” by an Iraqi parliament bill criminalizing homosexuality and sex-reassignment surgeries with up to 15 years in prison, lamenting that the amendments threaten parts of Iraqi society most at risk, the State Department said on Saturday.
“The United States is deeply concerned by the Iraqi Council of Representatives’ passage of an amendment to existing legislation, officially called the Anti-Prostitution and Homosexuality Law, which threatens constitutionally protected human rights and fundamental freedoms,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
The Iraqi parliament on Saturday passed several amendments to the country’s anti-prostitution law, criminalizing all same-sex practices and sex-reassignment surgeries. Per the new amendments, anyone who engages in consensual homosexual relations shall be imprisoned for a period no less than 10 years and no longer than 15 years.
Promoting homosexuality “in any way” will also be punishable by no less than seven years in jail and a fine of 10 to 15 million dinars. The activities of any organization promoting prostitution or homosexuality in Iraq are also prohibited.
“This amendment threatens those most at risk in Iraqi society. It can be used to hamper free-speech and expression and inhibit the operations of NGOs across Iraq,” Miller said, stressing that the bill also weakens Iraq’s economy and makes it less attractive to foreign investment.
Any individual who undergoes a sex-reassignment surgery, as well as the doctor or surgeon conducting the operation, will face one to three years in jail. The bill excludes cases of medical intervention to “treat birth defects to affirm the sex of the individual” following a court order.
“Respect for human rights and political and economic inclusion is essential for Iraq’s security, stability, and prosperity,” said Miller. “This legislation is inconsistent with these values and undermines the government’s political and economic reform efforts.”
In August 2023, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Iraqi government to withdraw the proposed text, saying the bill would violate “fundamental human rights.”
“The Iraqi government has failed to tackle discriminatory practices that underpin violence against LGBT people… Instead it has promoted anti-LGBT ‘morality’-based legislation that fuels violence and discrimination against already marginalized sexual and gender minorities,” Rasha Younes, senior LGBT rights researcher at HRW, said at the time.
The Iraqi parliament’s passage of the anti-LGBT law rubber-stamps Iraq's appalling record of rights violations against LGBT people, adding insult to injury for Iraqi LGBT people already facing cyclical violence and threats to their lives by armed groups.https://t.co/EjU6zPkddl
— Rasha Younes (@Rasha__Younes) April 27, 2024
In conservative Iraq, gay and transgender people were already at risk of discrimination and persecution, both by the society and security forces. Community members face the threat of arrest, verbal abuse, sexual assault, and even murder.
The community is often perceived as homogenous in Iraq with all non-cisgender individuals viewed as “homosexuals.” Any law criminalizing homosexuality threatens all members of the queer community.
A crackdown on LGBTQI+ people in Iraq in 2009 saw deaths that probably number "in the hundreds," according to a 2022 HRW report.
The queer community faces persecution in the Kurdistan Region as well. In April 2021, security forces in Sulaimani arrested a group of suspected LGBTQI+ individuals in Sarchinar, under the pretext of cracking down on prostitution. The arrests caused uproar from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region’s queer community and civil society activists.
Most laws passed in the Iraqi parliament do not automatically come into force in the Kurdistan Region and need to be approved in the regional parliament first.
