Instructions No. 4 of 2018 facilitating implementation of the compensation law
Compensation Law No. 20 of 2009 sets the rules, and the instructions show how some of those rules are carried out in the daily work of the committees, the ministries and the National Pension Authority (Hay’at al-Taqa‘ud al-Wataniyya). Instructions No. 4 of 2018 — “Instructions for facilitating implementation of the provisions of the Law on Compensation of Those Harmed by War Operations, Military Errors and Terrorist Operations” — were issued under Article 18 of the law, published in Al-Waqa’i Al-Iraqiya No. 4516 of 5/11/2018, and enter into force from the date of publication. They repealed Pension Rights and Grant Instructions No. 4 of 2011. The Instructions rank below the law. After Law No. 2 of 2020 entered into force, any provision in the Instructions that conflicts with the Second Amendment is read in line with the amendment. Instructions No. 6 of 2022 on the work of the central committees were later issued (Official Gazette issue 4665 of 24 January 2022); they deal with the formation and work of the three central committees and are outside the subject of this article.
Notice to the Directorate of Martyrs of Victims, and the salary
Article 1: the ministry or the body not attached to a ministry is to notify the Directorate of Martyrs of Victims of War Operations, Military Errors and Terrorist Operations in the Martyrs Foundation of the decisions issued for its personnel who are covered, so that the rights and privileges can be followed up, except the compensation amount. The subcommittees are to send final decisions concerning an Iraqi citizen to the Directorate for follow-up in accordance with the law. The Directorate is a link, not a first filing counter that replaces the subcommittee.
Articles 2, 3 and 4 arrange a missing or kidnapped person’s file, and the salary file after the decision. The file includes a copy of the investigation, the judicial announcement, the deed of absence and appointment of a guardian, the file at the Department for the Care of Minors, and confirmation of non-departure through border crossings, including crossings in the Kurdistan Region. After the disappearance is established, the subcommittee treats the missing person as a martyr for pension purposes until a deed of death, then decides whether or not to treat the person as a martyr. What is sent to the National Pension Authority includes the name, birth details, the legal inheritance deed, the death certificate and deeds of guardianship, together with a guarantee by an employee or a pensioner for four years in the paper attachments. The committees request confirmation of due issue, and the Authority completes payment if the conditions are met. Details are in the pages on the deed of absence and the documents.
Article 9 confines the processing of pension files of covered citizens — other than personnel of state departments and the public sector — to the subcommittees. A state employee often passes through their service body as well as this path, not as a replacement for a coverage decision.
Worsening, transfer, re-examination, and the legal person
Article 5: when the condition worsens, the injured person files an application with the ministry committee if they are an employee, or with the subcommittee if they are not, and the committee raises the application to the medical committees to revisit the first report. This is the injured person’s path, not the National Pension Authority’s.
Article 6 empowers the subcommittee to transfer the file, when necessary, to the governorate where the family of the martyr, missing person or kidnap victim lives, after the Directorate of Martyrs of Victims consents. A separate page explains the limits.
Article 8: the medical committee issues a decision that the injury resulting from the covered operations caused partial or total disability, and determines the disability rating. The National Pension Authority then requests a re-examination every five years, to reassess pension entitlements in the light of the rating. The five-year path is not an application for worsening, and is explained in Medical re-examination.
Article 10 ties some files to a report of the competent medical committee. Article 11 applies to a covered legal person the bases for property compensation issued by the Ministry of Finance (the 2017 bases, as the text states). Compensation of a company or a legal body is not measured as a bodily injury is measured, but under the property bases.
Article 7 deals with payment of the grant provided for in the law, from the rewards heading and victim-compensation accounts, after it is established that the martyrdom, injury or disappearance resulted from one of the acts covered, with a mechanism for virement or an approach to the Budget Department if funds are insufficient for employees, and allocation of a citizen’s grant through the Martyrs Foundation’s budget after a ratified decision. The amount of the grant is that provided for in the text and in the ratified decision in the file.
How are the Instructions used in a file?
They are used to order documents, referrals, re-examination and transfer, not to revive a rule repealed in the law, and not to pass over the sixty-day objection period or the two thirty-day judicial challenge periods. If an instruction conflicts with Article 7 after the 2020 amendment — on who may object, or on the sixty days — the law governs. The Instructions do not name a street address for a committee, and do not replace the Personal Status Court or the Personal Matters Court in issuing deeds of absence and of death.
It helps to keep on file a copy of the approved Instructions and their publication date, alongside the law and its two amendments. Where an old 2011 instruction is relied on, it should be pointed out that it was expressly repealed. Where an administrative step is relied on that has no basis in the Instructions or the law, the file is brought back to the written basis: an article of the law, or an article of the 2018 Instructions so far as it is consistent with the Second Amendment. If a dispute remains about the meaning of an article of the Instructions, an objection or challenge is brought against the decision issued, not against the Instructions themselves, within the legal time limits.
Legal basis and sources
- Instructions No. 4 of 2018 (Al-Waqa’i Al-Iraqiya No. 4516 of 5/11/2018)
- Law No. 20 of 2009, as amended — Article 18
- Law No. 2 of 2020
Frequently asked questions
Do the Instructions replace a reading of Law No. 20 of 2009, as amended?
They do not replace reading the law; the Instructions are an implementing instrument lower in rank than legislation, and are always read and applied so far as they do not conflict with Law No. 20 of 2009 and its amendments in Laws No. 57 of 2015 and No. 2 of 2020.
What replaced the 2011 Instructions?
Article 12 of Instructions No. 4 of 2018 expressly repeals Pension Rights and Grant Instructions No. 4 of 2011; what governs procedurally is the 2018 text published in Al-Waqa’i Al-Iraqiya, so far as it accords with the law in force.
Are Instructions No. 6 of 2022 part of this article?
No. They deal with the formation and work of the central committees; this article is about Instructions No. 4 of 2018.