UN Authority Figures

UN General Assembly Third Committee, the Social, Humanitarian
and Cultural Affairs Committee, Rapporteur: Iraq

Women believed to have links to the Islamic State militant group suffer "harrowing" sexual exploitation and discrimination in Iraq's refugee camps. Female-led households are abused, mistreated and deprived of food and health care.
Source: Reuters, April 16, 2018

Mission of the Third Committee, the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee, of the General Assembly: The Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee deals with "a range of social, humanitarian affairs and human rights issues that affect peoples all over the world...the advancement of women, the protection of children, indigenous issues, the treatment of refugees, the promotion of fundamental freedoms through the elimination of racism and racial discrimination..." (General Assembly - Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Affairs Committee website, "Third Committee")

Term of office: 2019-2020

Iraq's Record on "human rights issues that affect peoples all over the world...the advancement of women, the protection of children, indigenous issues, the treatment of refugees, the promotion of fundamental freedoms through the elimination of racism and racial discrimination":
"Human rights issues included reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings by some members of the Iraq Security Forces (ISF), particularly Iran-aligned elements of the PMF; forced disappearances; torture; arbitrary detention; harsh and lifethreatening prison and detention center conditions; ... unlawful recruitment or use of child soldiers by Iran-aligned elements of the PMF that operate outside government control; trafficking in persons; criminalization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) status or conduct; violence targeting LGBTI persons; threats of violence against internally displaced persons (IDPs) and returnee populations perceived to have been affiliated with ISIS; and restrictions on worker rights, including restrictions on formation of independent unions and reports of child labor... Humanitarian protection experts assessed that conditions in IDP camps were highly conducive to sexual exploitation and abuse... the law does not specifically prohibit domestic violence but stipulates that men may discipline their wives and children "within certain limits prescribed by law or by custom." The law provided reduced sentences for violence or killing if the perpetrator had "honorable motives" or if the perpetrator caught his wife or female relative in the act of adultery or sex outside of marriage. Domestic violence remained a pervasive problem... Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C): NGOs...reported the practice of FGM/C persisted... The law permitted honor as a lawful defense in violence against women, and so-called honor killings remained a serious problem throughout the country... There were reports that women and girls were sexually exploited through so-called temporary marriages, under which a man gives the family of the girl or woman dowry money in exchange for permission to "marry" her for a specified period. Destitute IDP families living in camps reportedly were especially vulnerable to this type of exploitation..."
(U.S. State Department's Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2018, Iraq)

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