Military Service and Deferment
"Is military service compulsory in Iraq?" The question returns whenever national service is in the news. Answering it means reading two texts together: the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969, which still sits among Iraq's published legislation, and Coalition Provisional Authority Order No. 2 of 2003, which suspended compulsory service. A third text, the Military Service and Retirement Law No. 3 of 2010, governs those who join the army today as volunteers. The office of lawyer Ali Barakat, in al-Yarmouk, Baghdad, follows these texts and explains what they mean for young men, their families and Iraqis returning from abroad.
The position in force today
Compulsory service in Iraq has been suspended since 2003. A Coalition Provisional Authority order released conscripts from their obligations and left any future return of conscription to later Iraqi governments, and no statute bringing it back has appeared in the Official Gazette since then. The national "Flag Service" bill that appears in the news is still only a bill, and is not treated here as law. Even the Military Penal Code of 2007 refers to flag service as something that depends on a law still to be issued. Who the old rules covered, and who they cover now, is in who is covered by the Military Service Law?.
The Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969
The law was published in Official Gazette No. 1728 of 13/5/1969 and remains on the books with its amendments. Article 1 defines military service as the duties owed by every Iraqi male up to the age of forty-five. It distinguishes the invitee, who has turned eighteen, from the conscript, who has turned nineteen and been called up. While compulsory service is suspended, the provisions built around calling up and enlisting conscripts have no practical field of operation. They remain the reference for reading old records and for understanding what could return if a new decision lifted the suspension. More in who the Military Service Law covers.
Length of service by education
Under the 1969 law, service was not the same length for everyone: it shortened as the level of education rose, lengthened for those who dropped out or stalled in their studies, and rewarded a clean record without absence. Liability began in the year an Iraqi turned nineteen. The detailed periods appear in the topic on who the law covers, linked above.
Dependency
Articles 9 and 10 dealt with the conscript who supports a relative listed in the first schedule to the law, where that relative has no other supporter among the relatives in the second schedule. The general rule was that the supporter is still enlisted but paid as a volunteer soldier, with a power for the Council of Ministers to defer a whole intake of supporters. Article 10 required the supporter to have turned nineteen and to be in a physical or financial position to support, as assessed by the examination committee. Article 11 disregarded marriage contracts or divorce deeds registered after the examination of the conscript's birth year had begun.
Deferment, exception and exemption
The law separates three positions. Exception, in article 6, covers serving army and police officers and students at military colleges. Exemption, in article 7, covers a volunteer who has served in the army for a period equal to the service of his age group. Deferment in peacetime, in article 8, covers a person with a temporary illness, the youngest son where a brother is already serving, and a student while he continues his studies. See study deferment and exemption from military service.
Failing to report and absence
Two ideas are often confused: failing to report, which was the act of someone who never joined while conscription was running, and absence, which is leaving the unit after joining. The first was dealt with by the 1969 law and sent to military courts; the second is governed today by the Military Penal Code for anyone actually serving. Time limits and consequences are in absence from service: legal description and effects.
The reserve
Article 1 defines reserve service as the duties of a person who completed compulsory service or missed it. Article 15 lists the grounds for recalling reservists and who decides in each case, and article 14 ends reserve duty for soldiers at forty. See reserve service and recall.
Rights of the conscript and the employee
Article 24 requires offices and companies with at least ten staff to keep the job of any employee who is enlisted. Article 25 preserves his promotions and increments and counts his service for promotion and retirement. Article 53 gives an enlisted employee either his leave salary or the salary of his rank, whichever is higher. See rights of the conscript during service.
Documents and records
Papers proving completion, exemption, exception or deferment came from the Ministry of Defence, and students and deferred persons once had to carry a service booklet and keep it updated. Some departments and embassies still ask for such papers in older files. What each document means and how to obtain a copy is in service completion certificate and documents.
Objecting to recruitment decisions
Article 4 lets a conscript object, within thirty days, to an examination committee's decision changing his recorded date of birth. The objection goes to a committee chaired by the governor or his deputy, whose decision is final. Article 62 allows a fresh medical examination before an appellate medical committee. See challenging recruitment office decisions.
Returning from abroad
Someone who left Iraq as a young man during the conscription years and now comes back to live usually asks about the old travel restrictions, about students and patients who were abroad, and about naturalised Iraqis. The suspension since 2003 changes most of the answers. See returnees and the service duty.
Volunteering today
The only way into the army today is to volunteer, under the Military Service and Retirement Law No. 3 of 2010 as amended, with conditions on age, nationality, conduct, fitness and education, and a long renewable term. The comparison with the 1969 law is in Military Service Law versus the Military Service and Retirement Law. Military pensions belong to the retirement section: does the Unified Pension Law apply to military personnel?.
A volunteer leaving service
Volunteering is a contractual commitment that does not end at the volunteer's will alone. Leaving before the term is over depends on approval from the Minister or his delegate, and the end or cancellation of the contract passes through a discharge decision. Anyone who walks away from his unit before that decision may face the absence and desertion provisions, so the right route starts with a written request and following up until the decision is issued.
The Flag Service bill: what can be said
The media regularly discuss a national Flag Service bill, and young men and their families ask whether conscription is back. The legal answer today is simple: the bill has not become law and has not been published in the Official Gazette, so it binds no one. What people circulate about its periods, categories and ages describes a text that is not in force and could change entirely before it passes, or never pass at all. The sound way to follow it is to wait for an enacted law to appear in the Gazette and then read its transitional provisions to see whom it covers and when it starts. The office does not build advice on a draft.
Reading an old military document
Many people hold a service booklet, a deferment letter or an exemption certificate issued before 2003, and are sometimes asked for it by a government office or an embassy. Before submitting it, check three things: the issuing body and its signature, the article it relied on, and the date and how it relates to the year of suspension. If the document is incomplete or damaged, it is better to ask the competent Ministry of Defence department for confirmation than to rely on an uncertified copy.
What to bring to a first meeting
A first meeting is much shorter if the person brings his national ID, any military document he holds however old, the letter in which an authority asked him to prove his service status if there is one, and a short timeline: when he reached the age of liability, when he travelled or came back, and whether he joined, volunteered or was deferred. Those facts alone show which law governs his situation, and whether the matter is administrative and solved by a letter, or calls for a challenge or a defence.
Who comes to the office
This section is used by young men asking where they would stand if service returned, students asking about deferment, volunteers wanting to leave before their contract ends, Iraqis abroad planning to return, and families looking for the old service records of a relative. The office can be reached on +964 770 848 7526 or at alibaltaae@gmail.com.
Legal basis and sources
- Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969, as amended (Official Gazette No. 1728 of 13/5/1969)
- Coalition Provisional Authority Order No. 2 of 2003, Dissolution of Entities (Official Gazette No. 3977 of 17/6/2003)
- Military Service and Retirement Law No. 3 of 2010 (Official Gazette No. 4143 of 8/2/2010)
- Law No. 41 of 2013, First Amendment to the Military Service and Retirement Law (Official Gazette No. 4294 of 21/10/2013)
- Military Penal Code No. 19 of 2007 (Official Gazette No. 4040 of 9/5/2007) — Articles 5, 33 and 35
- Military Service and Retirement Law No. 3 of 2010, articles 30, 33 and 35, and its amendment by Law No. 41 of 2013
Frequently asked questions
Is military service compulsory in Iraq now?
No. CPA Order No. 2 of 2003 suspended compulsory service indefinitely, and no new law reinstating it has been published.
Has the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969 been repealed?
It remains among the published laws, but the compulsory service it organises is suspended.
What are the conditions for volunteering in the army?
They are set by article 30 of Law No. 3 of 2010, including an age of eighteen to twenty-five for technical branches or thirty for others.
Is the Flag Service bill in force?
No. It remains a bill that has not been enacted or published in the Official Gazette.
Topics in this area
- 01The Military Service Law: Who Is CoveredWho the Iraqi Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969 addresses: males up to forty-five, the invitee and the conscript, the age of liability, civil register ages, naturalised Iraqis, and the effect of the 2003 suspension.
- 02Study Deferment from Military ServiceHow the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969 regulated student deferment: article 8, failing two years, postgraduate study up to thirty, studying abroad, the service booklet, and the annual review of deferred persons.
- 03Exemption from Military Service under the Statutory GroundsThe difference between exception, exemption and deferment in the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969: articles 6, 7, 8, 9 and 63, medical unfitness, the youngest son, the supporter, and the exemption document.
- 04Absence from Service: Legal Description and EffectsThe difference between failing to report under the Military Service Law and absence or desertion under the Military Penal Code No. 19 of 2007: periods, penalties, surrender, and the volunteer who leaves his unit.
- 05Reserve Service and RecallWho is a reservist under the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969, the grounds for recall and who decides them, the age at which reserve duty ends, exceptions, salary and job during recall, and the penalty for not reporting.
- 06Rights of the Conscript during Service: Salary and LeaveWhat the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969 preserves for the conscript: the job, promotion and the higher salary for employees, travel at state expense, treatment, priority in hiring, and soldiers' leave under Law No. 3 of 2010.
- 07Service Completion Certificate and DocumentsThe military service booklet and documents confirming completion, exception, exemption or deferment under the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969: who issues them, where they were required, a lost booklet, and the penalty for forgery.
- 08Challenging Recruitment Office DecisionsRoutes of objection under the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969: changes of birth year and the governor's committee within thirty days, medical re-examination and the appellate medical committee, detention for age assessment, and the limits of administrative appeal.
- 09Returnees and the Service DutyWhat the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969 said about travel and residence abroad: the travel bar between nineteen and forty-five, students and sick persons abroad, the fifteen-day window, naturalised Iraqis, and the effect of the suspension on returnees.
- 10The Military Service Law versus the Military Service and Retirement LawA comparison of the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969, covering suspended compulsory service, and the Military Service and Retirement Law No. 3 of 2010, covering officers and volunteers: scope, entry, duration, leaving, retirement, and the shared penal code.