Parliament amends Law on Missing and Disappeared to include the disappeared through ISIS’s crimes

The Kurdistan Parliament on 23 November 2021 passed amendments to the Law on the Missing and Disappeared, to include those who disappeared through ISIS’s crimes. MPs also held the first reading of three bills. Parliament marked the 10-year commemoration of the death of France’s First Lady Danielle Mitterand, a champion of the Kurdish cause.

Speaker Dr. Rewaz Faiq, with Deputy Speaker Dr. Hemin Hawrami and Secretary Muna Kahveci alongside her, said, “Today marks ten years since the passing of Madame Danielle Mitterrand, the loyal friend of the people of Kurdistan. The woman who, in the aftermath of the Anfal and in the people’s Uprising, during the establishment of our institutions, in the internal peace process, at the first sitting of the unification of the Kurdistan Parliament in 2002, throughout all was a loyal friend and supporter of our people. To honour her memory, to honour all the departed friends of the Kurdistani people and Kurdistan’s martyrs, let us stand for a minute’s silence."

The first readings were held of the legislative proposal on Combating Violence against Families and Women, the legislative proposal on amendments to the Law on Civil Evidence, Law No. 107 of 1979, and the Bill on Weapons. Speaker Faiq directed the relevant standing committees to work on them to prepare them for their second readings.

For the Bill on Weapons, the Speaker asked Parliament’s Interior Committee to complete it within seven days of receiving the Parliament Presidency’s request, and she also asked all MPs to study the bill.

MPs spent many minutes discussing the student demonstrations in Slemani and other areas, in demand of the reinstatement of the student financial allowance, as well as the violence that took place. At the request of MPs, a committee will be formed comprising members of the Interior and Higher Education committees, to look into the students’ demands and the violence at the demonstrations.

Speaker Faiq closed the sitting by announcing that the next day, 24 November 2021, MPs will sit for the second reading of the Bill on Private Security Companies, in the presence of the KRG Minister for the Interior.