Where to file a compensation application: the subcommittee in the governorate

The first practical question in a compensation file is where to file the application. The law does not open filing directly before the central committee in Baghdad. The application is filed with the “Subcommittee for Compensation of Those Harmed by War Operations, Military Errors and Terrorist Operations” in the governorate — or in Baghdad or the Kurdistan Region — together with supporting documents, in line with the subcommittee’s functions in Article 6.

How the two levels relate is in The subcommittee and the central committee.

Who forms the subcommittee, and where does it sit?

After Law No. 2 of 2020, one or more subcommittees may be formed in Baghdad, in the Kurdistan Region and in every governorate not organized in a region, and three subcommittees in governorates that have witnessed, or are witnessing, the operations mentioned in the law. The committee is attached to the Directorate of Martyrs of Victims of War Operations, Military Errors and Terrorist Operations in the Martyrs Foundation, and works in coordination with the governorate. As needed, it may open offices in administrative units, districts and sub-districts. The governorate must provide what the committees need to work.

It should not be assumed that every governorate has only one committee, or that its seat is fixed in the governorate centre with no closer office. At the same time, the receiving office differs by governorate and administrative unit, so the governorate diwan, the subcommittee office or the Directorate of Martyrs of Victims in the Martyrs Foundation is asked for the current receiving address. The office of Ali Barakat in Al-Yarmouk, Baghdad, is not a filing office, and the firm has no other branches.

An employee of a ministry, or of a body not attached to a ministry, has an additional path: Article 3(3) provides for a committee in each ministry or body not attached to a ministry. That does not, in the cases where the application must be filed with the subcommittee, replace knowing which committee handles the application (the governorate subcommittee or the ministry committee). If it is unclear whether the ministry committee or the governorate committee is the right filing body, that should be clarified before the objection period runs out.

What does the subcommittee receive?

Under Article 6 after the First Amendment, as amended in some of its paragraphs in 2020, the subcommittees receive applications from those harmed, or their families, and from the injured of the Popular Mobilization Forces, with supporting documents; they audit them; and they assess the damage and its gravity in the light of the bases prepared by the Ministry of Finance. They issue compensation decisions in cases of martyrdom, disappearance, kidnapping, injury and Popular Mobilization wounded within a period not exceeding sixty days from the date a legally complete application is filed. Property-compensation recommendations are raised to the central committee within thirty days of their issue for ratification, subject to the ratification route that Article 13 of Law No. 2 of 2020 set for some property decisions before the presidency of the governorate Court of Appeal. The steps are set out in Steps in a compensation file.

If the family of a martyr, a missing person or a kidnap victim moves to another governorate, Article 6 of Instructions No. 4 of 2018 allows the file to be transferred when necessary, with the consent of the Directorate of Martyrs of Victims. Details are in Transferring a file between governorates.

The three central committees are based in Baghdad. They are a forum for objection, ratification and review, not the citizen’s first counter in their governorate. Taking a file to Baghdad at the outset, without passing through the subcommittee, adds a delay the law does not require.

Legal basis and sources

1. Law No. 20 of 2009, as amended — Article 3 after Law 2 of 2020
2. Article 6 after the First Amendment
3. Law No. 2 of 2020 — amendment of Article 3
4. Law No. 57 of 2015 — subcommittee functions in Article 6
5. Instructions No. 4 of 2018 — Article 6

Frequently asked questions

Related topics and articles

• 01The compensation sub-committee and the Central Committee: who decides what?The governorate compensation sub-committee, the Central Committee in Baghdad and ministry committees under Iraq's Law No. 20 of 2009.
• 02The first and second central committees for compensationAfter Law 2 of 2020 there are three central compensation committees in Baghdad, one of them for the Kurdistan Region.
• 03Steps in a file for compensation of those harmed by terrorist and war operationsA compensation file starts with a complete application to the subcommittee, then a decision or recommendation, objection or ratification, and payment.
• 04Transferring a compensation file from one governorate to anotherInstructions 4 of 2018 allow a subcommittee to transfer a compensation file, when necessary, to the governorate where the family lives.
• 05Medical report and disability percentage in a terrorism injury compensation fileHow the medical committee sets the disability percentage for terrorism injuries in Iraq, how it shapes entitlement, and the five-yearly re-examination.

Always check the text in force and its amendments in the official source.

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