Compensation for those injured in terrorist operations: who hears the claim, and what is examined?

Compensation for those injured in terrorist operations is not a discretionary grant decided outside the law, and it is not compensation for a workplace injury in the private sector. The general path is the Law on Compensation of Those Affected by War Operations, Military Errors and Terrorist Operations No. 20 of 2009, as amended. Injury is one of the harms this law covers, alongside other situations such as martyrdom, disappearance and kidnapping. The claim is usually heard by a sub-committee for compensation in the governorate. In general terms, the committee examines the link between the injury and a covered operation, and what the investigation and the medical report establish.

The office sets out the detail in the sections that follow, and on the practice-area page: Compensation for those injured in terrorist operations.

What is the compensation law, and where do these injury claims sit within it?

The official title of the statute is the Law on Compensation of Those Affected by War Operations, Military Errors and Terrorist Operations No. 20 of 2009, as amended. It is also widely known by a shorter name: “the Law on Compensation of Victims of Terrorism No. 20 of 2009.” That is a popular label. What matters is the official title and the published text.

The law was amended by the First Amendment Law No. 57 of 2015 (Iraqi Official Gazette, issue 4395, 25/1/2016), and then by the Second Amendment Law No. 2 of 2020 (Iraqi Official Gazette, issue 4571, 13/1/2020). Any later amendment is read from its official source before a particular article is relied on.

The aim stated in Article 1, after its amendment by Law No. 57 of 2015, is to compensate every Iraqi person — natural or legal — who suffered harm as a result of war operations, military errors or terrorist operations, and to determine the gravity of the harm, the bases of compensation, and how it is claimed. Injuries from terrorist operations, in that sense, fall within a wider frame that is not limited to terrorism alone, and is not limited to injury alone.

The law also created (Article 1, Third, after the 2015 amendment), within the Martyrs Foundation (Mu’assasat al-Shuhada’), a directorate named the Directorate of Martyrs of Victims of War Operations, Military Errors and Terrorist Operations. That directorate is charged with attending to, and following, the affairs of the martyrs and the injured persons covered by the law, in all fields. Its existence does not cancel the role of the compensation committees in hearing the claim; the two paths are read together from the law in force.

Where is a claim for injury from a terrorist operation filed?

The body that recurs in the text, and in applicants’ questions, is the sub-committee for compensation in the governorate. Official and news sources have called on those who have not progressed their file to attend the sub-committees.

Under Articles 3 and 6 of the law, sub-committees are formed to receive claims from injured persons or their relatives, to audit the file, and to identify the harm and determine its gravity. The sub-committee is chaired by a judge nominated by the president of the court of appeal region. The Central Compensation Committee, under Articles 5 and 7, authenticates the sub-committees’ recommendations on property compensation and decides objections to sub-committee decisions. Claims are first received by the sub-committee.

The law also distinguishes, as to where the claim is filed, between employees of the State and the public sector and other claimants: claims by those employees are filed with a committee formed in each ministry or body not attached to a ministry (Article 3, Third, and Article 6, Sixth). The law also mentions the investigative papers prepared by the police station among the materials attached to the claim to prove the incident (Article 6, Sixth). Proof of the link between the harm and a covered operation is a basic element in the examination of the claim, and the investigative papers the law mentions are attached according to the competent body and governorate.

Payment of amounts, after a decision is issued, is described as being made through the Ministry of Finance and the governorate concerned, in coordination — in cases of martyrdom, disappearance, kidnapping or injury — with the Directorate of Martyrs of Victims of War Operations in the Martyrs Foundation, under Article 16 of the Second Amendment Law No. 2 of 2020. The time for payment and any order of priority are read from the text in force and from the procedures of the Ministry of Finance and the governorate after the decision is issued.

What is generally examined in an injury claim?

An injury-compensation claim is usually asked about matters of this kind:

1. The description of the harm: that the claim concerns an injury — not only some other kind of harm — arising from a terrorist operation or from one of the other operations covered by the law.
2. What the investigation establishes: investigative papers, or what stands in their place, pointing to the incident and its character, as the law and the committee require.
3. The medical report: a report of the official medical committee is a basic element in proving the injury and its gravity. Under Law No. 20 of 2009 and Instructions No. 4 of 2018, the official medical committee describes the injury and determines the resulting disability percentage; the competent compensation committees rely on that report when describing the entitlement and characterising the injury and its consequences in the file.
4. The claimant’s identity and link to the file: the documents that prove the injured person’s identity, or the standing of the person filing on behalf of relatives.

Article 6 (Fourth, (h)) provides that the sub-committee issues compensation decisions in cases that include martyrdom and injury within a period not exceeding sixty days from the date a claim that meets the legal requirements is filed. That statutory period applies to a claim that meets the legal requirements, and it runs from the date the complete claim is filed.

If the medical condition later worsens after an earlier decision, Article 6 (Seventh) requires the committees to reconsider their decisions on the application of the injured person whose condition has worsened as a result of the terrorist act, where the injury was established by the first medical-committee report and is supported by a recent report of the official medical committee. That does not necessarily mean an increase in the entitlement.

How does injury differ, for awareness purposes, from martyrdom?

The law gathers, within the scope of compensation (Article 2): martyrdom, disappearance, kidnapping and injury, as well as other harms such as property damage and matters connected with work or study. The awareness difference is not whether “a law exists,” but how the situation is described, what is required to prove it, and what kind of decision may follow.

• In injury, the enquiry is whether the person remains alive and harmed, and what medical effect the injury has had.
• In martyrdom, the enquiry is the fact of death and its link to a covered operation, and who has standing to claim under the text.
• Disappearance and kidnapping are paths with their own proof, read from the law. They are not treated automatically as injury.

These descriptions distinguish the kinds of harm the law gathers together, and each description has its own proof and conditions. Whether a person is covered by the Martyrs Foundation, or by another path, is read from the frame of that statute and its conditions, independently of the title of a compensation claim under Law No. 20 of 2009.

This path is also distinct from compensation for a workplace injury under the labour law, and from expropriation for public benefit. Mixing the titles sends the claim to the wrong body.

Legal basis and sources

1. Law on Compensation of Those Affected by War Operations, Military Errors and Terrorist Operations No. 20 of 2009
2. First Amendment Law No. 57 of 2015 (Iraqi Official Gazette, issue 4395, 25/1/2016)
3. Second Amendment Law No. 2 of 2020 (Iraqi Official Gazette, issue 4571, 13/1/2020)

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