Domestic violence in Iraq..a worrying statistic and a continuous escalation

POSTED ON[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] BY [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

[size=52]Domestic violence in Iraq..a worrying statistic and a continuous escalation[/size]

[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/size]
[size=45]Reports  | 09/22/2022[/size]
[size=45]On Thursday, the Public Relations Department of the Supreme Judicial Council published a statistic on the rates of domestic violence with regard to children, women and the elderly during the year 2021 and the beginning of this year until June of it, announcing the registration of an escalation in the number of its cases, especially during the period of the invasion of the Corona pandemic and beyond.
And the judicial statistic stated, “The courts recorded during the year 2021, the year in which the Corona pandemic spread dramatically, (1141) cases of domestic violence against children, and the Baghdad Court of Appeal, Karkh, had the largest share with (267 cases, while the number of cases of violence related to Women (18,602) cases, while cases of violence against the elderly amounted to (2,622) cases, of which the Babylon Court of Appeal registered (426) cases.”
The statistics for the first half of this year indicate that “the number of domestic violence cases reached (10,143), distributed between (500) cases of violence against children, (7947) cases of violence against women, and (1696) cases related to violence against the elderly.”
Commenting on these figures, the Personal Status Judge of the Diyala Court of Appeal, Judge Seif Hatem, said, according to a statement by the Media Center of the Supreme Judicial Council, that “the Corona pandemic contributed to the exacerbation of family disputes due to families staying in homes and the difficult economic crisis that accompanied it due to the cessation of many businesses, Where violence against women has increased, and warnings of psychological disorders and behavioral deviations have increased in the event of people staying for long periods at home, as women and children have been exposed to more violence than before.”
Judge Hatem explains that “violence against children will show its severe effects in the coming years. It is expected that psychological disorders and behavioral deviations may occur that may lead them to commit crimes, the most dangerous of which is drug abuse,” noting that “all cases of family violence that were brought to court were not serious, but rather The complaints were about cursing, physical abuse, abrasions, and complaints about children.”
He points out, "This rise in the number of lawsuits due to the effects of the Corona pandemic and its negative consequences, as well as due to the negative effects of social networking sites, economic reasons or other family problems," noting that "social traditions and other concerns may prevent some women from filing lawsuits against their husbands for fear of retaliation or extremism.”
He stressed, "Domestic violence did not depend on husbands' violence against their wives, but on the contrary, as cases of wives' violence against their husbands were recorded, in addition to fathers' violence against their children and vice versa. The Directorate of Family and Child (domestic violence) recorded 768 cases in 2019, 735 cases in 2020, and 1,361 in 2021. and 985 in 2022.”
In the opinion of the judge, “The reasons for the growth or spread of the phenomenon of domestic violence before the pandemic are due to the general economic situation and the recession after 2014 and the attack of ISIS terrorist gangs, in addition to the negative role of social networking sites and audio-visual media, for example, when a suicide case occurs in a village, we note that Hundreds of websites publish and promote the news negatively and in all details, which encourages the recurrence of such cases.
The Supreme Judicial Council had issued a statement on 10/1/2021 that included the formation of a court specialized in cases of domestic violence, in addition to its work, to be located in a center for each appellate district.
For her part, Judge Saima Naim Owaid, who specializes in domestic violence cases in the Baghdad Court of Appeal, al-Karkh, says, according to the statement, that “domestic violence is any physical or psychological harm to which any family member is subjected, based on what the Federal Court of Cassation has settled on from a husband to the family.” Or a wife, children, or any individual who is related by kinship and live together, and although there is no precise legal text that defines who are covered by domestic violence, the opinion has been settled that they are members of the family and its parties.
Judge Awaid adds, “The failure to identify or leave the door open to identify family members did not make the procedures difficult for the court, because we are looking at a case until the court considers it because the family and its parties are not difficult to identify or the degree of kinship to the husband and wife’s family, so we talk about matters that pertain to the family itself, such as custody issues. For example, especially after the end of the marital relationship, it is not difficult for a judge or any legal person to determine the persons involved in domestic violence cases.”
Regarding cases of domestic violence during the Corona period and beyond, the judge said, “The percentage has increased relatively, and the detention of families for reasons of quarantine has affected their behavior, but the same procedures are taken in court. A specialist in social and psychological research.
The judge prefers, “there are punitive texts specific to domestic violence, since the applicable law is the Iraqi Penal Code,” pointing out that “the importance of this court lies in the specificity of its claims, as it looks differently from the rest of the cases in the control offices and police stations that always look at the common points of the parties to the case. It is not due to the economic and security conditions and what the country has gone through, where peace can only be reached after pressures.” Ended 29/H[/size]
[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]