Returnees and the Service Duty
Many Iraqis left the country before 2003 while of service age, some to study and some to avoid enlistment, and grew older abroad. When they think of coming back to live, they ask whether a recruitment file is waiting for them. The office of lawyer Ali Barakat, in al-Yarmouk, Baghdad, explains what the Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969 provided, and what changed after 2003.
What changed in 2003
Section 3 of CPA Order No. 2 of 2003 released conscripts from their service and its obligations and suspended compulsory service indefinitely. A returnee today finds no standing call to compulsory service that he must answer. No text reviving service has been published since, and proposals in circulation are not treated as law before being enacted and published.
The travel bar in the text
Article 28 barred an Iraqi aged nineteen to forty-five from leaving the country unless he had completed, been excepted from, deferred or exempted from service and had not defaulted. Article 30 required anyone wishing to travel to provide a guarantee securing his return within a set period, and barred court actions about it. These restrictions are built on the existence of compulsory service, so they have no field of application while it is suspended.
Students abroad
Article 29 limited a conscript's travel for study to recognised institutions at a level no lower than his studies in Iraq. Article 36 required him to send proof of continued study each September to the Iraqi mission, and article 37 required the mission to notify the General Directorate of Recruitment of anyone who had finished his studies or reached the set age, and not to renew or extend his passport unless another legal ground for deferment existed. See study deferment.
Sick persons abroad
Article 39 required a sick or disabled person living abroad to submit medical committee reports confirming his illness to the Iraqi mission when called or when his deferment ended, with a signed statement. The mission forwarded them within ten days to the General Directorate of Recruitment, and he was examined by local medical committees on his return.
The window for those abroad
Article 41 gives a conscript outside Iraq fifteen days, instead of seven for those inside, before he is treated as having failed to report. Its paragraph 2 spares from punishment anyone who later completed service, or volunteered and served an equivalent period, without absence or desertion. The full description is in absence from service.
Naturalised Iraqis
Article 60 subjects a naturalised Iraqi to the law from the date of naturalisation unless he is over forty-five, and treats him as an invitee in the first call after naturalisation. Article 4 bars correcting a male's age after eighteen except by examination committees, which matters to anyone returning with incomplete civil records. See who the law covers.
What helps a returnee in practice
Old service documents, such as the booklet or a deferment or exemption letter, remain useful in civil and retirement files, so it is wise to bring them back. Anyone who has lost them will find the route in service completion certificate and documents. A person with an old case before a military court from before 2003 should have its position reviewed on its own papers, since general texts do not settle every individual case.
Before returning
A returnee does well to check his civil register entry and personal documents before starting residence and employment files, since any discrepancy in age or name delays every later step.
Unions and elections
Article 31 tied union membership and voting in public elections after nineteen to service status. This condition too rests on a suspended service, so it has no field of application while the suspension lasts. A union's own membership conditions are set by its own law and should be checked with that union before applying.
Legal basis and sources
- Military Service Law No. 65 of 1969 (Official Gazette No. 1728 of 13/5/1969) — Articles 4, 28, 29, 30, 31, 36, 37, 39, 41 and 60
- Coalition Provisional Authority Order No. 2 of 2003, Dissolution of Entities (Official Gazette No. 3977 of 17/6/2003)
Frequently asked questions
Will I be called up if I return to Iraq?
Compulsory service has been suspended since 2003 and no law has reinstated it, so there is no standing call.
Does the law bar me from travelling because of service?
Article 28 barred travel between nineteen and forty-five, but it rests on a compulsory service that is suspended.
Does the law cover naturalised Iraqis?
Its text subjects a naturalised Iraqi to service from the date of naturalisation unless he is over forty-five.
Related topics and articles
- 01Study 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.
- 02The 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.
- 03Service 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.
- 04Exemption 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.
- 05Absence 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.