Iraq Rights Committee pulls Demonstration Law

Shafaq News – Baghdad

On Tuesday, Iraq’s Parliamentary Human Rights Committee announced the withdrawal of the draft of the Freedom of Assembly and Peaceful Demonstration Law, while retaining the right to reintroduce it for a future vote in a form that “respects the rights of all Iraqis.”

During a press conference, Committee Chairman Arshad al-Salehi clarified that the earlier version of the bill was rejected for including provisions that infringed on basic freedoms and risked silencing public voices. However, the updated draft removes the requirement for prior government permission to hold a protest, replacing it with a simple notification system. It also deletes ambiguous language such as “disturbing public order,” which observers warned could be misused to suppress dissent.

The committee has renamed the legislation the "Peaceful and Social Demonstration Law" and removed punitive articles that included prison sentences of up to six years, which were deemed excessive. A significant addition to the revised law is a clause allowing public demonstrations to turn into sit-ins, a form of protest not recognized in the original government draft.

According to Al-Salehi, the changes also address the protection of demonstrators and the press. The bill now explicitly bans the use of live ammunition against protesters and prohibits any form of assault on peaceful demonstrators under any circumstances. It further includes a new provision ensuring journalists can cover protests freely, without obstruction, placing the responsibility of their protection on security forces.

While defending the revisions as a step forward in ensuring civil rights, al-Salehi expressed disappointment over opposition from certain organizations. He attributed the rejection to political interests and outside pressure unrelated to human rights advocacy, warning that “without a legal framework to govern demonstrations, the country risks a repeat of the violent episodes seen during the October 2019 protests, where many casualties went unrecognized as martyrs and unaccounted for.”

Highlighting the danger of continued legal ambiguity, al-Salehi referred to the potential return of untraceable violence, often described as the "third party" phenomenon, which had previously led to deaths without clear accountability.