SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani said on Thursday that the law of combating domestic violence and the personal status law need to be amended in order to end violence against women in the Kurdistan Region.
Talabani said during a consulting meeting with the high council of women affairs that the law of combating domestic violence adopted in 2011 does not respond to today’s issues, despite of some good points in the law.
“The law has weak points as how it has good ones, and it needs to be amended now,” Talabani noted, adding that the personal status law, which deals with family law, should also be amended.
“Violence against women still continues and we still have a very long way to eliminate it,” he said.
On November 25, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) deputy premier said more than 8,000 women had faced violence in the Kurdistan Region in the past 10 months.
As many as 3,846 cases of violence against women, including sexual assault, have been recorded in the Kurdistan Region in the first six months of 2020, according to the directorate general to combat violence against women and family.
There were three cases of murdering, 13 cases of suicide, 26 cases of self-immolation, 3,769 cases of complaints and 35 other cases of sexual assault, the directorate’s figures showed.
The Kurdistan Region has launched the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, an international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls.
