Iraq’s Penal Code provides a defence to criminal liability for "the disciplining by parents and teachers of children under their authority within certain limits prescribed by law or by custom,"^[1] but Iraq’s 2005 Constitution states that "all forms of violence and abuse in the family, school and society shall be prohibited."^[2] In 2019, The the Supreme Court of Iraq ruled dismissed in 2019 a complaint that the relevant article of the Penal Code violated the constitutional requirements for equality before the law without gender discrimination and constitutional prohibitions against violence in the family and at school, and were thus invalid.^[3]

The 1978 law on the primary school system provides that "corporal punishment is strictly prohibited in any form."^[4] At two conferences held in December 2015 in Baghdad and in Erbil, education authorities signed agreements with UNICEF to end corporal punishment in all 21,160 primary and basic education schools in Iraq by 2022.^[5] Iraq reported to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2015 that school regulations explicitly prohibit corporal punishment, without providing further details.^[6] Iraq pledged claimed that to eliminate corporal punishment is already prohibited, except for the death penalty, n all settings at its UN Universal Periodic Review in 2020.^[7]

In 2015, visits to Iraqi classrooms by UNICEF and the Ministry of Education found that 75 percent of students from pre-primary through class 6 of primary school have been beaten at least once.^[8] Previous surveys also found high prevalence of corporal punishment at school. A 2008 analysis by Save the Children UK of 750 children and their families found corporal punishment in schools was common. For example, 48 percent of teachers in the South Region said they had used physical violence to "discipline" children.^[9] More broadly, social practices and attitudes may reflect a lack of understanding of violent discipline’s harms. UNICEF studies published in 2017 and 2018 found that nearly 80 percent of children ages 2 to 14 were subject to violent discipline, including more than 25 percent of children ages 2 to 4 who experienced severe physical violence within the last month, and that more than 20 percent of Iraqis think physical violence is necessary to raise or educate children.^[10]

Kurdistan Regional Government

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Education Basic System Law of 2009 prohibits "physical and psychological abuse of students."^[11] In 2007, the KRG Ministry of Education issued instructions for schools to prohibit the corporal punishment of children, with sanctions, an information plan for parents and teachers, and a monitoring system to ensure compliance.^[12]

^[1] Article 41(1) of the Iraqi Penal Code, No. 111 of 1969. Positive Discipline Strategy Implementation Guidelines (2nd draft) Consultation Workshop, Baghdad, December 2015, pp. 12-13, https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/pd_strategy_implementation_guidelines_federal.pdf; and see https://endcorporalpunishment.org/reports-on-every-state-and-territory/iraq/ (updated April 2017). For the penal code, https://www.unodc.org/res/cld/document/irq/1969/penal_code_html/Iraq_The_Penal_Code_1969ENG.pdf.

^[2] Constitution of Iraq (2005), article 29(4), https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Iraq_2005.pdf?lang=en

^[3]  The Federal Supreme Court of Iraq, judgment 27/2019, April 9, 2019, court held on April 8, 2019, that penal code article 41(1) violates articles 14, 29(4) and 30(1) of the constitution. Kirkuknow.com, "Federal court: thhttps://www.iraqfsc.iq/krarat/1/2019/27_fed_2019.pdfe right to discipline does not allow violence against wife, children and students," April 9, 2019, https://kirkuknow.com/ar/news/59084.

^[4] Law No. 30 of 1978, Article 53(2), available at http://wiki.dorar-aliraq.net/iraqilaws/law/18259.html; see also "Positive Discipline Strategy Implementation Guidelines (2nd draft) Consultation Workshop", Baghdad, December 2015, pp. 12-13.

^[5] UNICEF Iraq, "Iraq makes important gains for school children," December 28, 2015, https://medium.com/stories-from-unicef-in-iraq-english/iraq-makes-important-gains-for-school-children-853d61c1b5ff

^[6] https://endcorporalpunishment.org/reports-on-every-state-and-territory/iraq/

^[7] 20 December 2019, A/HRC/43/14, Report of the Working Group, para. 147.(155); 26 December 2019, A/HRC/43/14/Add.1, Report of the Working Group: Addendum, p. 9.

^[8] Positive Discipline Strategy Implementation Guidelines (2nd draft) Consultation Workshop, Baghdad, December 2015, p. 16.

^[9] Global Initiative to End all Corporal Punishment of Children, Iraq, https://endcorporalpunishment.org/reports-on-every-state-and-territory/iraq/ (accessed July 22, 2019).

^[10] UNICEF, A Familiar Face: Violence in the Lives of Children and Adolescents, November 2017, pp. 22, 25, 32; UNICEF, Violent Discipline in the Middle East and North Africa, 2018 (using 2011 data), p. 42.

^[11] Positive Discipline Strategy Implementation Guidelines (2nd draft) Consultation Workshop, Baghdad, December 2015, p. 14.

^[12] Positive Discipline Strategy Implementation Guidelines (2nd draft) Consultation Workshop, Baghdad, December 2015, p. 13.