Parliament sits to debate prison conditions, question government minister

The Kurdistan Parliament on 16 September sat to debate prison conditions and inmates' rights and welfare. MPs heard the Parliament committee’s report on inmates in Kurdistan Region, and heard from the KRG minister the measures being taken to improve prison conditions.

Speaker Dr. Rewas Faiq presided over the sitting, which was the sixth of the current autumn session, with Deputy Speaker Hemin Hawrami and Secretary Muna Kahveci also present.

Speaker Faiq asked Parliament’s Committee on Social Affairs and Protection of Human Rights to read their report on their findings on men’s and women’s prisons and youth offender centres in the governorates of Erbil, Slemani and Duhok.

The Kurdistan Regional Government Minister for Labour and Social Affairs, Kwestan Mohamad commented on the committee’s findings regarding prisoners’ rights and prison conditions, and explained the Ministry’s steps to improve conditions.

MPs made their observations and Minister Kwestan responded to their questions.

MPs held a minute’s silence in remembrance of the Christian and Muslim victims of the Soria village massacre of 16 September 1969, in which a Ba’ath army officer ordered a mass execution of the men and boys of Soria in Duhok governorate.

Speaker Faiq raised the recent brutal murder of a Kurdish family in their home in Baghdad, the young woman Sheelan Dara and her parents. Speaker Faiq said, “We ask the Federal Government and the responsible authorities to provide better security for the public in general and for Kurdish, Christian, and all other ethnic and religious components of Iraqi society."

Deputy Speaker Hawrami presided over the final part of the sitting on behalf of Speaker Faiq.