Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq’s Council of Representatives
has failed to advance the third amendment to Law No. 20 of 2009, the Law on
Compensation of Victims of War Operations, Military Mistakes, and Terrorist
Operations, leaving thousands of eligible families without full legal
recognition.

The Coordination Committee of
Martyrs’ Families has issued a 30-day ultimatum to parliament, warning of civil
protests and demonstrations if the legislative process is not completed within
the deadline.

Roots of the Crisis

The dispute traces to mid-2023, when
some individuals were removed from the beneficiary registry of the Martyrs
Foundation —the Iraqi state institution responsible for formally recognizing
and administering benefits for security personnel and civilians killed in
military operations, terrorist attacks, or military errors, a status the Iraqi
state designates as martyrdom and which carries legally defined pension and
compensation entitlements under Law No. 20 of 2009— without legal
justification, according to Abu Ishaq, spokesman for the Coordination Committee
of Martyrs’ Families.

Those removed were members of Iraq’s
security forces across various formations who died in active service, Abu Ishaq
said. Their removal from the foundation’s database left their families without
the formal state recognition that triggers pension payments and other
entitlements under the law.

“Our demands began gradually,
then became a formal legislative amendment aimed at reinstating the removed
individuals and securing their rights,” he told Shafaq News.

A Stalled Legislative Path

The third amendment to Law No. 20 of
2009 —a law that has been amended twice previously, in 2016 and 2020, and
applies retroactively to events from March 20, 2003, the date of the US-led
invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein’s government— reached its first reading in
Iraq’s Council of Representatives during the fifth legislative term. It was
deferred when elections for the sixth term intervened.

A temporary committee was
subsequently formed to follow up on the amendment, but it was unable to
complete its work due to internal disagreements and an expanding agenda. The
permanent Committee on Martyrs, Victims and Political Prisoners, established after
the new term began, has since been unable to convene officially because it
lacks a quorum— six members are present against the seven required under the
internal regulations of the Council of Representatives, Iraq’s 329-seat federal
legislature.

The Financial Objection

Parliamentary calls to return the
amendment to the government because it carries a financial burden have drawn
sharp rejection from families and from official documentation. Sahar al-Shawi,
a teacher and mother of a martyr from the Ministry of Interior, told Shafaq
News the amendment imposes no new financial obligations. Its core provisions
are limited to extending salary payments, an arrangement already in place under
a prior government decision, and reinstating the removed individuals to the
Martyrs Foundation database, which she described as an administrative measure,
not a budgetary one.

A formal letter from the Martyrs
Foundation, dated May 25, 2025, and reviewed by Shafaq News, confirms that
reinstating the removed individuals carries no financial cost and can be
executed administratively upon passage of the amendment. The implementing
instructions of Law No. 20 of 2009, issued in 2018 by the Ministry of Finance,
establish that the administrative machinery for processing such cases already
exists within state institutions, further undermining the financial objection
raised by some lawmakers.

“Those who were removed are
already receiving salaries from their respective ministries,” al-Shawi
said. “Returning them to the law gives them moral rights, not financial
ones.” She challenged the objection directly: “If there is a
financial burden, why has the government continued paying salaries to martyrs’
families until now?”

Human Cost of the Delay

The prolonged stall has had direct
consequences for families who hold official martyrdom rulings but have received
no monthly salary due to procedural complications. “There are families
deprived of salaries despite holding all legal entitlements,” al-Shawi
said, adding that temporary measures such as salary extensions address the
symptom without resolving the underlying legal problem.

Abbas al-Fartusi, a relative of a
martyr, called on Iraq’s political blocs to fulfill what he described as a
national responsibility by nominating members to complete the committee’s
quorum. “Blocking the committee means blocking one of the most important
humanitarian laws before parliament,” he told Shafaq News, warning that
failure to pass the law would carry serious consequences for martyrs’ families
across Iraq.

Parliamentary Positions

Broad consensus exists within
parliament for passing the law, according to MP Nazik Ahmed, who noted that
lawmakers had gathered signatures at the start of the current term to form the
Committee on Martyrs, Victims and Political Prisoners, though the effort had
not yet produced results. “We will work to convey the demands of martyrs’
families to the parliamentary presidency and accelerate the procedures,”
she said.

Support for the amendment is not
limited to Arab Iraqi blocs. MP Sarwa Mohammed confirmed that Kurdistan Region
political blocs —representing Iraq’s Kurdish component, which holds a
constitutionally recognized autonomous region in the north of the country—
would back any legislation serving martyrs’ families. “The martyrs
sacrificed for Iraq, and everyone must support the rights of their
families,” she said.

In a video recording posted on his
Facebook page, MP Hussein al-Battat, a member of the Committee on Martyrs,
Victims and Political Prisoners, said the law may need to be resubmitted to the
government for its opinion following certain procedural amendments. He
nonetheless confirmed the law commands significant attention within the
committee and is among the carried-over legislation that must be resolved in
the current term.

Ultimatum

The Coordination Committee of
Martyrs’ Families attributed the prolonged delay to an absence of political
will, describing the stall as unjustified given the humanitarian nature of the
file. Its statement said the delay reflects the absence of political will to
address a file of acute humanitarian sensitivity.

The committee’s 30-day deadline runs
from the date the statement was issued. Should parliament fail to act within
that window, the committee has stated it will escalate to organized civil
demonstrations.