Parliamentary Legal Committee: No marriage for minors in the proposed amendment to the Personal Status Law

Key Issues

The Parliamentary Legal Committee reassured the community circles that the marriage of minors is not allowed in the proposed amendment to the Personal Status Law, while revealing the reason for not submitting the Code of Provisions with the new proposal. Committee member, MP Raed Al-Maliki, stated in a statement to the National Iraqi News Agency / NINA /, that "the number of objecting MPs during the second reading session did not exceed six MPs, and this is an indication that the objections are limited in principle," noting that there are many demands to submit the Code of Provisions with the new amendment proposal. He added, "The reason for not submitting the Code with the text of the proposed amendment currently is because the proposal aims to clarify the freedom to commit to practicing personal status, and to outline the procedures related to setting the Code and identifying the parties responsible for it and the time frame for its work, similar to other Iraqi legislation such as the Financial Management Law and the Treaties Law, which focused on clarifying the procedures for issuing other legislation such as the General Budget Law and the Laws of Agreements and Treaties." He explained that "the new amendment proposal supports the procedures for issuing the Code of Judgments, which will also return to the House of Representatives later for approval." Regarding the legal age for marriage, the MP who adopted the amendment proposal confirmed that "the problem of determining the age and legal age for marriage has been overcome, and any code that will be issued will not allow the marriage of children or minors, and this is what will be included in the final version of the proposed amendment to the law." The House of Representatives concluded, in its session last week, the second reading "report and discussion" of the proposed amendment to Personal Status Law No. 188 of 1959. Source: National Iraqi News Agency