Shafaq News- Baghdad<\/p>\n
Iraq’s Council of Representatives
\nhas failed to advance the third amendment to Law No. 20 of 2009, the Law on
\nCompensation of Victims of War Operations, Military Mistakes, and Terrorist
\nOperations, leaving thousands of eligible families without full legal
\nrecognition.<\/p>\n
The Coordination Committee of
\nMartyrs’ Families has issued a 30-day ultimatum to parliament, warning of civil
\nprotests and demonstrations if the legislative process is not completed within
\nthe deadline.<\/p>\n
Roots of the Crisis<\/p>\n
The dispute traces to mid-2023, when
\nsome individuals were removed from the beneficiary registry of the Martyrs
\nFoundation \u2014the Iraqi state institution responsible for formally recognizing
\nand administering benefits for security personnel and civilians killed in
\nmilitary operations, terrorist attacks, or military errors, a status the Iraqi
\nstate designates as martyrdom and which carries legally defined pension and
\ncompensation entitlements under Law No. 20 of 2009\u2014 without legal
\njustification, according to Abu Ishaq, spokesman for the Coordination Committee
\nof Martyrs’ Families.<\/p>\n
Those removed were members of Iraq’s
\nsecurity forces across various formations who died in active service, Abu Ishaq
\nsaid. Their removal from the foundation’s database left their families without
\nthe formal state recognition that triggers pension payments and other
\nentitlements under the law.<\/p>\n
“Our demands began gradually,
\nthen became a formal legislative amendment aimed at reinstating the removed
\nindividuals and securing their rights,” he told Shafaq News.<\/p>\n
A Stalled Legislative Path<\/p>\n
The third amendment to Law No. 20 of
\n2009 \u2014a law that has been amended twice previously, in 2016 and 2020, and
\napplies retroactively to events from March 20, 2003, the date of the US-led
\ninvasion that toppled Saddam Hussein’s government\u2014 reached its first reading in
\nIraq’s Council of Representatives during the fifth legislative term. It was
\ndeferred when elections for the sixth term intervened.<\/p>\n
A temporary committee was
\nsubsequently formed to follow up on the amendment, but it was unable to
\ncomplete its work due to internal disagreements and an expanding agenda. The
\npermanent Committee on Martyrs, Victims and Political Prisoners, established after
\nthe new term began, has since been unable to convene officially because it
\nlacks a quorum\u2014 six members are present against the seven required under the
\ninternal regulations of the Council of Representatives, Iraq’s 329-seat federal
\nlegislature.<\/p>\n
The Financial Objection<\/p>\n
Parliamentary calls to return the
\namendment to the government because it carries a financial burden have drawn
\nsharp rejection from families and from official documentation. Sahar al-Shawi,
\na teacher and mother of a martyr from the Ministry of Interior, told Shafaq
\nNews the amendment imposes no new financial obligations. Its core provisions
\nare limited to extending salary payments, an arrangement already in place under
\na prior government decision, and reinstating the removed individuals to the
\nMartyrs Foundation database, which she described as an administrative measure,
\nnot a budgetary one.<\/p>\n
A formal letter from the Martyrs
\nFoundation, dated May 25, 2025, and reviewed by Shafaq News, confirms that
\nreinstating the removed individuals carries no financial cost and can be
\nexecuted administratively upon passage of the amendment. The implementing
\ninstructions of Law No. 20 of 2009, issued in 2018 by the Ministry of Finance,
\nestablish that the administrative machinery for processing such cases already
\nexists within state institutions, further undermining the financial objection
\nraised by some lawmakers.<\/p>\n
“Those who were removed are
\nalready receiving salaries from their respective ministries,” al-Shawi
\nsaid. “Returning them to the law gives them moral rights, not financial
\nones.” She challenged the objection directly: “If there is a
\nfinancial burden, why has the government continued paying salaries to martyrs’
\nfamilies until now?”<\/p>\n
Human Cost of the Delay<\/p>\n
The prolonged stall has had direct
\nconsequences for families who hold official martyrdom rulings but have received
\nno monthly salary due to procedural complications. “There are families
\ndeprived of salaries despite holding all legal entitlements,” al-Shawi
\nsaid, adding that temporary measures such as salary extensions address the
\nsymptom without resolving the underlying legal problem.<\/p>\n
Abbas al-Fartusi, a relative of a
\nmartyr, called on Iraq’s political blocs to fulfill what he described as a
\nnational responsibility by nominating members to complete the committee’s
\nquorum. “Blocking the committee means blocking one of the most important
\nhumanitarian laws before parliament,” he told Shafaq News, warning that
\nfailure to pass the law would carry serious consequences for martyrs’ families
\nacross Iraq.<\/p>\n
Parliamentary Positions<\/p>\n
Broad consensus exists within
\nparliament for passing the law, according to MP Nazik Ahmed, who noted that
\nlawmakers had gathered signatures at the start of the current term to form the
\nCommittee on Martyrs, Victims and Political Prisoners, though the effort had
\nnot yet produced results. “We will work to convey the demands of martyrs’
\nfamilies to the parliamentary presidency and accelerate the procedures,”
\nshe said.<\/p>\n
Support for the amendment is not
\nlimited to Arab Iraqi blocs. MP Sarwa Mohammed confirmed that Kurdistan Region
\npolitical blocs \u2014representing Iraq’s Kurdish component, which holds a
\nconstitutionally recognized autonomous region in the north of the country\u2014
\nwould back any legislation serving martyrs’ families. “The martyrs
\nsacrificed for Iraq, and everyone must support the rights of their
\nfamilies,” she said.<\/p>\n
In a video recording posted on his
\nFacebook page, MP Hussein al-Battat, a member of the Committee on Martyrs,
\nVictims and Political Prisoners, said the law may need to be resubmitted to the
\ngovernment for its opinion following certain procedural amendments. He
\nnonetheless confirmed the law commands significant attention within the
\ncommittee and is among the carried-over legislation that must be resolved in
\nthe current term.<\/p>\n
Ultimatum<\/p>\n
The Coordination Committee of
\nMartyrs’ Families attributed the prolonged delay to an absence of political
\nwill, describing the stall as unjustified given the humanitarian nature of the
\nfile. Its statement said the delay reflects the absence of political will to
\naddress a file of acute humanitarian sensitivity.<\/p>\n
The committee’s 30-day deadline runs
\nfrom the date the statement was issued. Should parliament fail to act within
\nthat window, the committee has stated it will escalate to organized civil
\ndemonstrations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shafaq News- Baghdad Iraq’s Council of Representatives has failed to advance the third amendment to Law No. 20…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[32036,94,32035,32037],"class_list":{"0":"post-90543","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iraq","8":"tag-council-of-representatives","9":"tag-iraq","10":"tag-iraqs-parliament-stalls-on-martyrs-compensation-law-families-issue-30-day-ultimatum","11":"tag-martyrs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116492320382510572","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}