Committee's recent meetings - 12 July 2021
Protection of Women's Rights Committee
7 July – The committee met with Melanie Smart, acting UK Consul General in Kurdistan Region. They discussed the challenges for women and the committee’s role in scrutiny and legislation.
The acting UK Consul General commended the committee for proposing a new domestic violence law to replace the current one that was passed in 2011, which has gaps and shortcomings.
The committee said that the legislative proposal has been sent to the KRG to study it and once it is returned by the Council of Ministers the committee will work on it with relevant stakeholders, especially civil society organizations, the UN and the international community, to pass a comprehensive law that will solve the problems with the current law.
7 July - The committee, led by chair Lanja Dizayee (KDP), discussed the legislative proposal for a new Law on Domestic Violence, which has been formally sent to the KRG for its views. They discussed how to coordinate with the government on the proposal.
30 June - The committee, led by chair Lanja Dizayee (KDP), held their regular meeting. The MPs discussed setting up a program for a series of meetings with the relevant authorities in the ministries and administrations of the Kurdistan Regional Government. Through the meetings the committee aims to discuss the problems facing them, whether in terms of legislation or investigation. As the first step of the plan, the committee decided to visit the provinces of Duhok and Slemani as soon as possible.
Reconstruction and Investment Committee
8 July – The committee, led by the chair Hawre Mala Star (PUK), read all the notes and requests sent by the public and either responded to them or sent them to Parliament’s Presidency for further follow-up.
Legislative Committee
7 July – The committee, led by the chair Dr. Bizhar Kochar (KDP), met with the Kurdistan Islamic Scholars Union to discuss several laws including Sharia and marriage law, and both sides agreed on more cooperation to evaluate them together.
Endowments and Religious Affairs Committee
8 July – The committee, led by the chair Hawraman Gacheney (KJG), discussed the increasing use of spells and black magic in the Kurdistan Region, which the committee believes has become a dangerously growing phenomenon. The committee considered it necessary to work with the interior, religious affairs, culture ministries to take legal action against the perpetrators and to raise public awareness of the dangers posed by them.
The committee read all the notes and requests sent by the public and either answered them or sent them to Parliament’s Presidency for further follow-up.
Integrity Committee
7 July - The committee, led by the chair Shirin Amin (Change), read all the notes and requests sent by the public and either answered them or raised them with the relevant authorities for further follow-up.
They also discussed the bill on second amendments to the Law on the Integrity Commission and decided to continue exchanging views on it at their next meeting.
Social Affairs and Protection of Human Rights Committee
7 July – The committee, led by the vice-chair Gulistan Said Muhammad (Change) discussed participating in a special panel on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
The committee read all the notes and requests sent by the public and either answered them or sent them to Parliament’s Presidency for further follow-up.
The committee discussed their visits to the prisons and social care directorates in Duhok and Slemani governorates and decided to continue them and also to do the same in Erbil soon.
Another topic of the meeting was alternative sentencing and the death penalty, and the committee talk with Parliament’s Presidency about preparing a draft resolution on this issue.
Peshmerga Committee
7 July – The committee, led by the vice-chair Osman Sedary (PUK), exchanged views on the Bill on Signs and Medals, which was sent to Parliament by the KRG.
The MPs read the report by MP Safeen Gardi (KDP) on the visit by the ad hoc joint Parliament committee that looked into the impact of the military conflict between Turkey and the PKK on the villages and residents of the border areas. The committee benefited from his report.
The committee also discussed Chalang NGO’s report, which came to them via Parliament’s Integrity Committee, about the 1,133 pensions given for supposed high-rank military retirements.
All the notes and requests sent to the committee were read and either received a reply or were sent to Parliament’s Presidency for the necessary follow-up.
Culture and Municipalities committees
7 July – The two committees met with the NGO Women’s Leadership Institute of Iraq and discussed guidelines and instructions to facilitate implementation of Law No. 4 of 2019, the Law on Commercial Advertising in Kurdistan Region – Iraq. In particular, they discussed the draft of guideline number 2 of 2021, which the KRG Culture Ministry sent to the committee.
The two committees asked the Women’s Leadership Institute of Iraq to give their feedback on the draft guideline within a week, so that their views can be taken into account. The committees said that the relevant KRG ministries asked them to look at the draft guideline.
Culture, Civil Society, Sports and Youth Committee
6 July – The committee, led by the chair Salma Fatih (PUK), discussed allegations in the news that at some sports clubs in Kurdistan Region some sportswomen were harassed or assaulted. They decided to create a sub-committee together with members of Parliament’s Protection of Women’s Rights Committee, to investigate the case.
Legislative and Municipalities committees
5 July – The two committees held a joint meeting to prepare the final report on the first amendments to Law No. 3 of 2019, the Law on the Ownership of Illegally Taken or Used Land in Kurdistan Region’s Municipalities.
All the suggestions that MPs had made on the articles of the law at its second reading at the last Parliament sitting were compiled into the joint final report and directed to the Presidency of Parliament to put to vote at the sitting of 6 July.
Municipalities, Transport, Communication, Travel and Tourism Committee
5 July – The committee, led by the chair Luqman Wardi (PUK), met with Abbas Muhammad, Head of the Finance and Economy Committee of Erbil Provincial Council, and Dler Hussein, a member of the committee.
Mr. Muhammad and Mr. Hussein informed the MPs about the mechanism for payments for waste and garbage collection services and for stores’ advertisements.
They pointed out that there are shortcomings and problems in the process of taking this money between the governorates, and asked the Parliament committee to scrutinize and solve this issue.
MPs appreciated the efforts made by the provincial committee and said that they received a number of complaints about this issue. They stressed that follow-up and fair regulation of this issue is needed, they also said that this will be discussed at their next meeting.
30 June - The committee, led by the chair Luqman Wardi (PUK), held their usual meeting. The chair asked the members to prepare their notes on the Bill on Tourism in Kurdistan Region.
The committee decided to hold a workshop soon with the participation of experts and academics to exchange their views on the bill. The committee’s final report will be prepared and directed to Parliament’s Presidency for the bill’s second reading.
The committee also discussed the problems of rubbish collection and the companies providing this service in Erbil province. It was decided to host the financial and economic committee of Erbil provincial council to follow up on the issue.
At the end of the meeting, all the notes and requests sent to the committee were answered, and several of them were directed to the relevant authorities.
Relations and Kurdish Diaspora Committee
30 June - The committee, led by chair Rebwar Babkayi (KDP), held their weekly meeting.
The main topic of the meeting was the issue of youth migration abroad, whose numbers are increasing currently. After exchanging views, the committee decided to direct a note to the Presidency of Parliament to ask for a special meeting on youth migration abroad as soon as possible.
The committee believes that youth migration is a loss to the nation whose effects will be felt in the near future, and must be discussed in detail with the relevant authorities and solved as soon as possible.