2.7 Children

2.7 Children

In June 2023, a draft child protection law was introduced to the Iraqi parliament. The bill aimed at safeguarding the children’s fundamental rights and addressed issues such as child labour and child abuse and exploitation.841 According to a Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) report published in July 2025, the bills aiming at protecting children’s rights have still not been adopted neither in the federal Iraq, nor in KRI.842 The Penal Code allows ‘the disciplining by parents and teachers of children under their authority within certain limits prescribed by law or by custom’.843 CRC reported on a hight prevalence of child victims of sexual exploitation, particularly girls, and the stigmatisation of victims, including in the courts.844

Despite a constitutional prohibition against violence,845 corporal punishment of children remained legal, according to a report published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in November 2024.846 However, a decision of the Supreme Court reportedly banned ‘violence against children in any form’, according to a meeting summary of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child released in May 2025. Courts are obliged to follow this interpretation of the law, and the police have acted on it and responded to around hundred cases.847 Sexual abuse, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, including for prostitution and pornography, and trafficking of children are banned as per the provisions of the Penal Code.848

Violence against children is ‘highly prevalent’ in Iraq.849 In 2024, the UN verified 58 grave violations against 50 children in the context of armed conflict in Iraq,850 compared to 47 violations in 2023.851 A UNICEF study found that some 89 % of children faced ‘violent discipline’, of whom almost 31 % experienced ‘severe physical punishment’.852 Cases of violence against children are underreported due to a fear of tribal retaliation and the lack of legal protection.853