Title: “No One Represents Us”
Lack of Access to Political Participation for People With Disabilities in Iraq
Author: Human Rights Watch
Place of publication: USA
Publisher: Human Rights Watch
Release date: 2021

Iraq is holding parliamentary elections on 10- 10- 2021. Without change, hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities will face barriers to participation and some of them may not be able to vote.
The exact number of people with disabilities in Iraq remains unknown because the government has not collected reliable statistics. In 2019, the United Nation’s Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities said the country, after decades of violence and war, had one of the largest populations of persons with disabilities in the world. Despite this, the government has failed to remove the obstacles people with disabilities face when trying to engage in politics, which limit their ability to vote or hold office.

Iraq’s discriminatory legislation and a host of practical barriers primarily stand to blame. The former requires urgent reform to bring Iraq up to international standards. Many of the latter should and can be rectified now, before the October election, so all Iraqis can participate equally in the political process.[1]