CRC/C/OPSC/IRQ/CO/1
Adopted by the Committee: 30 January 2015
Published by the Committee: 4 February 2015
Issues raised:
Ratification and national policies:
The Committee welcomes the establishment of two child helplines The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, 2000 (Palermo Protocol), in February 2009; The ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (no. 182), in July 2001 (para.4,5).
Sexual exploitation:
The Committee notes with concern that the existing policies and programmes are insufficient to address the root causes of the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which include severe gender-based discrimination and violence, poverty, discrimination of children belonging to minorities, internal displacement and migration, lack of access to education and children being forced to live and/or work in the streets. The Committee is extremely concerned that: Many children remain unregistered, which makes them especially vulnerable to offences under the Optional Protocol; and Iraqi refugee children, especially girls, who return to Iraq from Syria are particularly vulnerable to all forms of exploitation and trafficking, as they often do not have a community to which they return and lack access to any kind of State support (para.16).
Sale of children:
The Committee notes with deep concern the high number of children remaining under the control of the so-called ISIL and the existence of “markets” where abducted children and women, in particular from minority groups, are sold among members of the so-called ISIL to serve as sexual slaves. The Committee is also deeply concerned that: Girls have continued to be used as “gifts”, “rewards” or “bargaining tools” or exchanged as “compensation” for dispute resolution between tribes; The practice of Muta’a, which consists of the practice of “temporary marriage” with the view to forcing the girl into prostitution after the marriage, has been re-emerging in the State party, with a high number of families, often driven by poverty and/or unemployment, selling their daughters, many of whom as young as eleven, into these marriages; Girls, who have fallen victim to abduction and/or sale, face severe stigmatization which leads to underreporting of the crimes they were subjected to and to high risks for them to be rejected by their families, forced into marriage with their abductor, or to be victims of crimes committed in the name of so-called “honour” ; Girls are reportedly sold and trafficked within the State party, as well as outside, including to Yemen, Syria, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, with many Iraqi girls who had fled to Syria having being sold into the sex trade; and girls, including very young ones, are reported to travel very easily with forged passports and/or with their supposed “husbands” (para.18).
Criminal justice system:
The Committee notes with concern that while trafficking was recently criminalized, the legislation of the State party does not cover all offences under the Optional Protocol such as the sale of children. Furthermore, the Committee is very concerned that article 398 of the Penal Code (Act No. 111 (1969)), provides for the impunity of perpetrators of a child sexual offence if they enter into a valid marriage with the child victim (para.20).
The Committee notes with concern that investigations, prosecutions and convictions for offences under the Optional Protocol, are very low. Furthermore, the Committee is deeply concerned about numerous reports of police and other law enforcement authorities’ complicity in the trafficking of children, including assistance in the forging of documents by government officials, as well as police officers patronizing brothels. The Committee is concerned that cases of government officials’ complicity in trafficking-related offences are very rarely investigated and prosecuted (para.22).
The Committee is very concerned that in case a child under age 15 is a victim, or witness of a crime, his or her testimony is sometimes not given due consideration and that he or she cannot file a complaint without his or her parents’ consent. The Committee also regrets that a child under 15 cannot file a complaint without his or her parents. Furthermore, the Committee notes with concern that: Victims of trafficking and of prostitution being reportedly mistreated or abused during interrogation; incarcerated, fined, convicted, deported or otherwise penalized for unlawful acts such as prostitution and immigration violations; There are cases of girls sold into prostitution kept in prison to “protect” them from reprisals for bringing shame on their family/community; Identification mechanisms of child victims of offences under the Optional Protocol have not been put in place, and that officials have not been trained or provided with any guidance to identify these child victims or children at particular risk, such as undocumented foreign migrant children or children arrested on prostitution charges (para.26).
The Committee is concerned that the State-run shelter has reportedly remained vacant, despite the presence of trafficking victims in the State party, and that the trafficking support units operated by the Ministry of Health have not undertaken any efforts to identify and assist victims of trafficking since their establishment in 2013. The Committee is furthermore concerned that:
Upon release from prison, child victims of prostitution have difficulties in finding assistance, especially when having been sold into prostitution by their families; Although a national trafficking referral mechanism was created in 2012, it has not yet been finalized and implemented; There are reported cases of health care facilities unequipped or unwilling to treat victims of sexual exploitation (para.28).
