Within the framework of the project “EU Action for Promoting the right to fair trial, improving detention conditions and abolishing torture.”
On 15 July 2023, the Investigator Organization for the Supporting the Rule of Law and Democracy (IOL) held a conference at the Babylon Hotel in Baghdad, supervised by (Dr. Khaled Shawani), the Minister of Justice in the Federal Government, funded by the European Union (EU), and in partnership with the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) and Public Aid Organization (PAO) to discuss the draft of the Juvenile Welfare Law in Iraq, which was prepared by a committee under the supervision of the Ministry of Justice to comply with Iraq’s international standards and obligations. Also, the representative of the Ministry of Justice, the Deputy Minister, Dr. (Burhan Mazhar Al-Qaisi), the head of the Committee responsible for preparing the draft, and (Director of the Juvenile Reform Department, Mr. Kamel Amin Hashem) participated in the conference.
Also, the relevant official authorities from the government, members of the formed committee, representative of the European Union, the United Nations Children’s Fund, representatives of the Supreme Judicial Council, including judges, prosecutors, members of the Iraqi House of Representatives that were comprised of the representative from the (legal committee, ‘Women, Family and Children Committee’, and the Human Rights Committee), advisors from the state council, two representatives from the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, High Commission for Human Rights, as well as academics experts and consultants participated in the conference. In addition, international and local NGOs participated, such as ICRC, Heartland Alliance, and UNICEF.
It is worth mentioning that the conference has started with the welcoming speech by the Chairman of the Administration Board of IOL followed by a speech of the Deputy of Minister of Justice, Dr. Burhan Al-Qaisi. After that, the representative of the European Union, Mrs. Barbara gave her speech followed by a speech from UNICEF, and then the project manager gave a brief about the project.
During the conference, three panels were held to give their opinion and suggestions regarding their revision on the draft of law as the draft were distributed among the participants to review it, and many discussions happened during each panel. The recommendations and notes were collected from the participants, hence, they will be sent to the relevant authorities, especially the recommendation to increase the criminal responsibility age for juveniles into a reasonable age that is no less than 12 years of age.
