Exclusive partial Protection in Private commercial companies Under the Iraqi regime

Abstract

We are aware of the extent of development and changes that Iraq has witnessed after the political change on 9/4/2003 in all fields, especially in the security sector. With the expansion of economic and social activity, the actual need for the development of security and the provision of safety for the economic sector, in particular, emerged. In Iraq, security companies appeared for the first time under the dissolved Coalition Provisional Authority Order No. (17) of 2004, which granted significant privileges to these companies and their employees to the extent that it provided them with legal immunity against Iraqi judicial courts until the issuance of the Security Companies Law No. (17) of 2017, which amended and repealed the Coalition Provisional Authority Order. According to this law, employees of these companies are granted the status of "armed carriers" authorized to protect buildings and individuals; however, they do not fall under the category of "army or police." Considering the significant role these companies play in sharing the state’s important powers and bearing many heavy burdens, the need arose to provide criminal protection for the employees of these companies. Therefore, the research clarifies the main legal issue represented by the extent to which employees of security companies enjoy the same legal protection as state employees when exposed to assault, especially after the widespread proliferation of these companies in Iraq after 2003 and the major security challenges Iraq faced on various social, economic, and political levels. It also examines the adequacy of criminal protection for employees of security companies and determines their legal status in light of Iraqi judicial rulings. Accordingly, we divided the research into three demands: in the first demand, we address the concept of criminal protection; in the second demand, we clarify the personality of private security companies; and then we dedicate the third demand To clarify the legal basis for the protection of workers in private security companies.