29/04/2024 (Agence Europe) – On Sunday 28 April, the spokesperson for the European External Action Service (EEAS) voiced the EU’s concerns about the adoption of legislation in Iraq providing for a prison sentence of 10 to 15 years for people engaging in consensual same-sex sexual relations. In a press release, he called on Iraqi legislators to respect their country’s international human rights obligations and to effectively implement Article 14 of the Iraqi Constitution, which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of origin, religion, membership of minorities and for other reasons. He recalled that Iraq ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1971, which stipulates that laws shall prohibit all discrimination and guarantee all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground. (CG)