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Iraq’s Third Voluntary National Review (2025): A Civil Society Perspective
Iraq’s Third Voluntary National Review (2025): A Civil Society Perspective
As part of efforts to monitor progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Iraq’s Third Voluntary National Review (VNR) for 2025 was recently released, serving as an important reference point for tracking national achievements and challenges. Civil society organizations (CSOs), through a dedicated statement, provided their own assessment of the report, focusing on key social and human rights dimensions such as housing, health, education, and gender equality–related legislation.
Regarding the right to housing, the report highlights a government initiative to establish 16 new cities, four of which have already been referred for implementation. The initiative aims to address the housing gap affecting around 12% of the population by providing more than 100,000 housing units, designed to be modern and sustainable. Yet, civil society organizations pointed out that essential details were missing. The report did not clearly define the target groups, whether low-income households, displaced persons, or young people. Nor did it present clear mechanisms to ensure fair and equitable access to housing, or measurable indicators to assess compliance with international standards for adequate housing. Thus, while these initiatives are significant, they remain in need of further development to truly guarantee the right to housing with social justice, equality, and accountability.
On the right to health, the report noted that government spending in this sector increased to 12.6% of total public expenditure in 2023. It also recorded the reopening of hospitalsafter a long interruption and the adoption of the 2022 Health Insurance Law, which aims to improve quality of care and expand coverage for vulnerable groups. Nevertheless, substantial challenges remain. Individuals continue to bear a high cost for healthcare relative to their income, services remain unevenly distributed across regions, and the report does not provide clear guarantees for free access to health services for the poorest groups. This indicates that justice in access to healthcare is still far from being fully realized.
With regard to education, the report emphasized that free basic education is a constitutional right tied to development and social justice. It also outlined challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and population growth. However, the report failed to set out an actionable plan to address school dropout or improve quality of education. It also lacked detailed analysis of gender and geographic disparities in the sector, as well as sufficient information on education budget allocations. As a result, the report falls short of presenting concrete guarantees and policies necessary to achieve educational equity, especially in rural and marginalized areas.
The section on gender equality focused on amendments to the Personal Status Law, describing them as a “legislative achievement.” Civil society organizations strongly contest this characterization, stressing that the amendment, which entered into force in February 2025, represented a serious setback for women’s and girls’ rights. The revised law reinforced sectarian discrimination in legal rulings, permitted child marriage, legitimized unbalanced forms of marriage such as temporary marriage, and restricted women’s rights to alimony, housing, and custody after divorce. These amendments conflict with Article 14 of the Iraqi Constitution, which guarantees equality, as well as Iraq’s international commitments under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Consequently, civil society calls for a fundamental review—or outright reversal—of the amendment in order to align it with principles of justice, dignity, and equality.
In conclusion, while Iraq’s Third VNR includes encouraging initiatives in areas such as legislation and investment, the assessment by civil society underscores deep structural and rights-related gaps that cannot be overlooked. Real progress toward the SDGs requires practical policies that strengthen equality and justice and enforce accountability, not theoretical formulations or untargeted initiatives. From this perspective, civil society organizations urge a re-examination of housing policies to ensure benefits for poor households and displaced persons, an expansion of free healthcare coverage and a fair distribution of services, the launch of a comprehensive education reform plan that addresses school dropout and considers gender and geographic disparities, and a revision of the Personal Status Law amendment to ensure its consistency with the Iraqi Constitution and human rights obligations.
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