Protection from Domestic and Intra-Family Violence Bill

Article (1) — Definitions

First — Domestic violence: Any act, omission, threat or pattern by one family member against another causing or likely to cause physical, serious psychological, sexual or economic harm, unlawful restriction of liberty or coercive control, within this Law's definitions.

Second — Family: Spouses or former spouses, ascendants and descendants, siblings, co-resident relatives, and persons under legally established parental authority, guardianship, custodianship, custody or family care. Separation or dissolution of marriage does not end protection where danger relates to the former relationship.

Third — Victim: Anyone experiencing or threatened with domestic violence, including children, older persons, persons with disabilities or anyone whose condition prevents self-protection.

Fourth — Coercive control: Repeated or continuing threats, isolation, surveillance, coercion, economic exploitation or control intended to subjugate a family member or substantially remove their ability to make fundamental decisions. Ordinary family disagreement and lawful, proportionate exercise of legal rights are excluded.

Fifth — Economic violence: Unlawfully taking victims' money, income or documents, forcibly preventing control of their assets or lawful work, or deliberately withholding legally owed basic needs, intending harm or control.

Sixth — Digital domestic violence: Using communications, accounts, devices, location services or digital publication for threats, stalking, extortion, unlawful surveillance or disclosure of private data or images to harm or control within a family context.

Seventh — Protection order: An interim or final judicial decision imposing necessary, proportionate measures against domestic-violence risk and protecting victims, children and witnesses.

Eighth — Safe centre: A licensed facility receiving victims and dependants and providing temporary accommodation, protection, health, psychological, social and legal services, with location and data confidentiality where needed.

Ninth — Directorate: The Ministry of Interior's Directorate for Family and Child Protection from Domestic Violence or its lawful successor.

Tenth — Competent court: The territorially competent investigating, misdemeanour or felony court designated by the Supreme Judicial Council for domestic-violence cases, according to proceedings and jurisdiction.

Article (2) — Objectives

This Law aims to prevent violence and abuse within families, provide swift effective protection for all members, ensure access to justice, treatment, shelter and legal aid, hold offenders accountable and address recurring threats to safety and dignity, respecting family life, defence rights and children's best interests.

Article (3) — Governing Principles

Interpretation shall rest on human dignity, legal equality, safety first, non-discrimination, respect for adult victims' wishes and decision-making capacity, children's best interests, data confidentiality, necessary and proportionate intervention, and no use of family protection to keep anyone in danger.

Article (4) — No Reliance on Marriage or Kinship

Marriage, kinship, guardianship, custody, maintenance, custom or so-called honour or reputation motives shall neither legitimise violence nor exclude criminal or civil liability. Marriage or family relationships alone do not establish sexual consent.

Article (5) — Limits of the Law's Scope

Mere disagreement, criticism, refusal to satisfy a wish not legally required, or lawful proportionate exercise of authority is not domestic violence. Definitions shall be strictly construed to distinguish crime or abuse from ordinary disputes, preserving legality and preventing expanded criminalisation.

Article (6) — More Protective Legislation

A harsher penalty or broader protection under another law shall apply. This Law shall not diminish existing rights of children, persons with disabilities, older persons, trafficking victims or others.

Article (7) — Constitutional and Regional Competence

This Law applies within federal competence and in governorates not incorporated into a region. In the Kurdistan Region, constitutional competences and applicable regional legislation shall be respected; no regional protection shall be reduced.

Article (8) — Duty of Prevention

Public bodies shall take reasonable preventive and early-detection measures within their competences, particularly policing, health, education, social care and justice, without surveillance duties intruding on privacy absent legal authority.

Article (9) — Prevention and Awareness Programmes

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, coordinating with Interior, Health, Education, Higher Education, Culture and relevant bodies, shall prepare periodic programmes on seeking help, protection orders, effects on children, non-violent upbringing and treatment and support services. Messages shall be accurate, non-stigmatising and respectful of social diversity.

Article (10) — Specialised Training

The Ministry of Interior, Supreme Judicial Council and Ministries of Health and Labour shall require role-appropriate training for domestic-violence personnel, covering risk assessment, trauma-informed interviewing, child protection, evidence, privacy, disability and malicious allegations without presuming any party truthful or false.

Article (11) — Health Protocols

The Ministry of Health shall establish a unified national examination, treatment, medical-documentation and referral protocol, ensuring urgent care before administrative or criminal formalities and privacy-preserving records with evidential continuity where necessary.

Article (12) — Schools and Educational Institutions

Education authorities shall establish safe reporting of violence against students at home or school, prohibit corporal or degrading punishment, and refer endangered children to competent bodies while avoiding measures increasing their risk.

Article (13) — Perpetrator Programmes

Alongside prescribed measures or penalties, courts may require accredited behaviour-management, addiction-treatment or psychological-support programmes where assessment establishes need. Such programmes shall not replace accountability for serious offences or automatically terminate proceedings.

Article (14) — Preventing Recurrence

Competent bodies shall assess repeat-violence risk in medium- and high-risk cases, considering homicide or suicide threats, weapons, strangulation, stalking, escalation, recent separation and children or persons unable to protect themselves.

Article (15) — Receiving Reports and Complaints

Victims, legal representatives or anyone with substantial information may report to police, the Directorate, Public Prosecution or an investigating judge. Reports shall initially be accepted regardless of territorial jurisdiction, immediately referred appropriately and accompanied by necessary safety measures.

Article (16) — Registering Reports

The receiving body shall immediately register a reference number and clearly explain rights, options and safe contact methods. Marriage or kinship, or absence of a medical report on submission, shall not justify refusal.

Article (17) — Urgent Response

Where reasonable indications show imminent danger to life or physical safety, police shall take lawful crime-prevention, protection and evidence-preservation measures and contact the investigating judge by the fastest available means for appropriate judicial action.

Article (18) — Professional Reporting Duty

Doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers and personnel protecting children or persons unable to protect themselves shall immediately report work-discovered serious imminent danger or violence against children or persons lacking full legal capacity requiring protection. Competent adult victims' confidentiality wishes shall be respected absent serious danger to their or others' lives or a statutory reporting duty.

Article (19) — Informant and Victim Confidentiality

Informant and victim identities, shelter locations and health and social data shall be disclosed only as necessary for investigation, trial or protection under lawful order or authority. Employment discipline or retaliation against good-faith employees reporting lawfully shall be punishable under applicable legislation.

Article (20) — Prohibition of Forced Reconciliation

Police, officials and service providers shall not pressure victims to withdraw, return home or accept settlement. Mediation shall not condition registration, protection orders, treatment or shelter.

Article (21) — Mediation and Settlement

Mediation may be offered only in non-serious disputes excluding sexual violence, serious threats and continuing coercive control, after independent risk assessment and free victim consent. Settlement shall not stop proceedings for offences prosecuted without a complaint or affecting the public interest.

Article (22) — Evidence Collection

Evidence under the Criminal Procedure Code may include medical and psychological reports, photographs, messages, call and location records, lawful recordings, testimony from persons hearing or observing consequences, and physical and digital indications. No direct witness is required where other lawful evidence collectively suffices for the court's conviction.

Article (23) — Medical and Forensic Examination

Judges or investigators may refer victims for medical or forensic examination where needed. Procedures shall respect privacy and informed consent, avoid unnecessary repeat examinations and permit treatment even without continued complaints, unless law requires otherwise.

Article (24) — Children in Proceedings

Child victims or witnesses shall be interviewed as few times as possible in age-appropriate settings, using lawful video recording to reduce repetition. Confrontation with the accused requires necessity for justice and safeguards against secondary harm.

Article (25) — Disability and Language Barriers

Reasonable accommodation, sign language, interpretation and accessible information shall be provided as needed. Communication difficulties shall not justify refusal of complaints or reduced protection.

Article (26) — Applying for Protection Orders

Victims, legal representatives, Public Prosecution or, for children and legally incapacitated persons, competent care bodies may apply to an investigating judge or competent court free of charge using a simple paper or electronic form where available.

Article (27) — Urgent Protection Orders

On apparent danger, a judge may issue an ex parte urgent order for no more than seven days based on preliminary statements, documents or risk assessment, scheduling a hearing for both parties as soon as possible within that period.

Article (28) — Decision Deadline

Judges shall decide urgent applications within twenty-four hours where danger is imminent and others within three working days, giving reasons, duration, scope and notification method.

Article (29) — Duration

After hearing parties, orders may last up to ninety days, renewable for similar periods while danger persists. Courts may vary or terminate them on an interested party's application after hearing the other party, unless safety requires otherwise.

Article (30) — Contents

Necessary, proportionate orders may prohibit interference, contact, threats or approach to specified places; arrange collection of belongings; prevent location tracking or account access; temporarily surrender licensed weapons to competent authorities where serious danger exists; and impose other lawful harm-prevention measures.

Article (31) — Shared Residence

Where necessary for life or safety, judges may temporarily exclude the respondent from a shared home during an order, even if its owner, without affecting underlying ownership or tenancy. Alternative accommodation, children's interests and conduct severity shall be considered.

Article (32) — Maintenance and Interim Family Measures

The competent personal-status court or legally designated judge may urgently order temporary maintenance, regulate child contact or suspend dangerous visits. Protection orders shall not decide final custody, divorce or ownership.

Article (33) — Weapons

Where risk assessment identifies weapon use or threats, the judge shall notify the competent licensing or possession authority for lawful suspension, withdrawal or seizure. Return requires a lawful decision after the risk ceases.

Article (34) — Notification and Enforcement

Orders shall immediately be notified to parties, competent police and necessary enforcement bodies, recorded securely on paper or electronically. An implementing body's ignorance shall not be invoked against victims where the order appears in an accessible central register.

Article (35) — Appeal

Interested persons may appeal to the competent higher court within seven days of notification. Appeal does not stay enforcement unless the court orders otherwise for substantial reasons without endangering victims.

Article (36) — Orders Are Not Punishment

Protection orders are temporary preventive measures, not criminal convictions or sole proof of an offence. Criminal proceedings retain evidential standards and fair-trial safeguards.

Article (37) — Safe Centres

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs shall organise government and accredited safe-centre networks ensuring access in each governorate when needed, permitting contracts or partnerships with licensed NGOs under uniform safety, quality and accountability standards.

Article (38) — Admission to Safe Centres

Victims may enter on request or judicial or protection-body referral without a criminal case. Accommodation is voluntary for competent adults; detention or prevention of departure requires an independent legal basis.

Article (39) — Essential Services

Centres shall directly or by referral provide temporary housing, food, health and psychological care, social counselling, legal aid, child protection and assistance with documents, financial rights, education and work to support safe independence.

Article (40) — Accompanying Children

Victims' children may accompany them, with education, healthcare, child-protection rules and best interests preserved. Shelter residence alone shall not separate children from a non-abusive parent without a judicial decision based on actual risk.

Article (41) — Shelter Location Confidentiality

Confidential centre addresses and residents' names shall not be published. Public day-service centres may operate with access procedures separated from confidential accommodation. Deliberate unlawful disclosure of a secret location endangering someone shall aggravate disciplinary or criminal liability as appropriate.

Article (42) — Legal Aid

Eligible victims shall receive services under Legal Aid Law No. (7) of 2024; protection-order and safety-related applications receive procedural priority. Competent bodies shall explain entitlement and application routes.

Article (43) — Temporary Economic Support

Within existing social-protection programmes, the Ministry of Labour may provide short-term emergency assistance to victims losing housing or income through violence under transparent criteria, without permanent cash entitlements outside social-protection and budget laws.

Article (44) — Return or Relocation

Shelter aims to enable safe, informed choices, not force return or separation. Individual exit plans shall address housing, income, school and health safety and data protection where needed.

Article (45) — Specialised Courts

The Supreme Judicial Council shall continue designating courts or investigating and misdemeanour panels for domestic-violence cases in appellate districts, allocating work for prompt access without excessive travel. No court outside the ordinary judiciary is created.

Article (46) — Public Prosecution

Within its powers, Public Prosecution shall pursue public-interest cases and monitor protection of children and persons unable to protect their interests, and may seek protection and non-interference orders where justified.

Article (47) — Expeditious Procedures

Life- and safety-related applications receive priority without prejudice to defence rights or appeal periods. Lawful electronic notification, video links and other digital methods may reduce delay and protect privacy.

Article (48) — Hearings and Privacy

Courts may close hearings as necessary to protect children, private life or safety, while judgment delivery and open justice follow general rules. Unlawful publication identifying children or sexual-assault victims is prohibited.

Article (49) — Avoiding Unnecessary Confrontation

Courts may avoid direct victim–accused confrontation for substantial fear or trauma reasons, preserving the essence of defence rights and lawful examination of evidence.

Article (50) — Assessing Withdrawal

Delayed reporting, temporary return home or continued contact with the accused shall not automatically negate violence. Conversely, a report alone does not suffice for conviction; courts shall weigh all evidence and circumstances under proper procedures.

Article (51) — Malicious Allegations

Anyone proven knowingly to have fabricated domestic violence to harm another shall face general false-reporting or perjury provisions as appropriate. Insufficient evidence, acquittal or withdrawal alone does not create liability.

Article (52) — Compensation

Victims retain rights to compensation for material and moral harm under civil and special law. Criminal courts may determine civil claims within their jurisdiction.

Article (53) — Breach of a Protection Order

Deliberate breach after notification is punishable by detention for up to one year or a fine of one to five million dinars unless a more serious offence is constituted. Detention may reach three years where accompanied by violence, serious threats, weapon use or repetition during the order.

Article (54) — Serious Coercive Control

Repeated intentional coercive control of a family member causing serious fear for safety or compelling substantial daily-life changes is punishable by detention for up to three years unless subject to a harsher penalty. Both pattern and consequence must be established; isolated disagreement or lawful conduct is insufficient.

Article (55) — Sexual Coercion within Families

Penal Code sexual-offence provisions apply to coercive acts or acts without valid consent regardless of marriage or kinship. Family or marital relationships alone neither establish consent nor justify exemption or mitigation.

Article (56) — Serious Economic Violence

Intentionally and unlawfully taking a family member's money or essential documents, or forcibly blocking access to them to subjugate or impoverish them, is punishable by detention for up to one year or a fine of one to five million dinars unless a more serious offence applies. Purely civil property or maintenance disputes without coercion or unlawful appropriation are excluded.

Article (57) — Digital Violence in Families

Relevant criminal laws govern threats, extortion, stalking, privacy violations, unlawful account or device access and private-content publication. Family relationships inform risk assessment and protection orders without double punishment for one act.

Article (58) — Official Failures and Pressure on Victims

Officials or public-service assignees deliberately refusing reports within their remit, destroying evidence, revealing secret shelters or coercing withdrawal face applicable criminal or disciplinary laws. Good-faith assessment errors do not create liability unless amounting to actionable gross negligence.

Article (59) — Aggravating Circumstances

Subject to the Penal Code, aggravation includes acts against children, pregnant women, older persons, persons with disabilities or unable to defend themselves; in a child's presence; using weapons; after a protection order; by multiple perpetrators; involving detention, strangulation or death threats; or because victims reported or cooperated with courts.

Article (60) — No Reliance on Honour Motives

So-called honour, reputation or customary motives shall not constitute legal excuses or judicial mitigation for domestic-violence offences. Penal Code Articles (128), (130) and (131) shall not be applied to mitigate covered offences on those grounds.

Article (61) — Amendment of Penal Code Article 41

The phrase “a husband's disciplining of his wife” is deleted from clause (1) of Article (41) of Penal Code No. (111) of 1969, as amended. Remaining disciplinary provisions shall not authorise beating, injury or degrading treatment of children or students contrary to the Constitution and special laws.

Article (62) — Repeal of Penal Code Article 398

Article (398) of Penal Code No. (111) of 1969, as amended, is repealed. Subsequent marriage between offender and victim shall not suspend sexual-offence proceedings or enforcement, or mitigate punishment.

Article (63) — Article 409 and Honour-Related Motives

Article (409) of Penal Code No. (111) of 1969, as amended, is repealed. Previously covered acts shall be classified under general homicide or injury provisions according to consequence and intent, with fair-trial safeguards.

Article (64) — National Coordination

The Council of Ministers shall establish a national coordination committee from relevant existing bodies, chaired by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs with Interior, Justice, Health, Education, Planning and relevant judicial and oversight bodies, to coordinate implementation and joint protocols without interfering in judicial independence or individual investigations.

Article (65) — Data and Statistics

Competent bodies shall establish a standardised statistical system for anonymised reports, protection orders, referrals, shelter, investigations, judgments and recurrence, classified by age, sex, governorate and violence type insofar as privacy permits. Annual aggregate indicators shall not identify individuals.

Article (66) — Service Quality Oversight

The Ministry of Labour shall set safe-centre licensing, inspection and complaint standards; Interior shall set response-time and documentation standards. Each body shall monitor its units within its powers. Public expenditure remains subject to applicable oversight and audit.

Article (67) — Funding

Implementation shall use competent bodies' federal-budget allocations. Lawful grants and assistance may be accepted without compromising national decision-making independence or victim confidentiality. Reports, protection applications and emergency shelter shall be free to victims.

Article (68) — Regulations, Instructions and Commencement

The Council of Ministers, ministers and competent bodies shall issue necessary regulations, instructions and forms within one hundred and eighty days of publication. Protection orders and report registration begin upon commencement; shelter networks, protocols and phased training shall be completed within eighteen months. The Law takes effect ninety days after Official Gazette publication.