Iraq
Iraq
Women are crucial allies to the efforts to eliminate extremism in Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has contributed to a political landscape in Iraq historically characterized by sectarianism, ineffective judicial systems, high levels of government corruption, and high rates of violence against women, including sexual and gender-based violence. ISIL continues to use sexual and gender-based violence and rape as weapons of war— and targets women, particularly Yazidi women and other non-Shiite minorities, for sexual slavery among fighters.
Iraq acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1986, launched the National Strategy on Combating Violence against Women in 2013, and launched its National Action Plan pursuant to Resolution 1325 in 2014. Iraq’s National Action Plan was the first launched in the Middle East. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Iraq has also developed a National Strategy for the Advancement of Iraqi Women, but due to the political climate it hasn’t been effectively implemented; similarly, laws banning forced and early marriages are rarely enforced.
Based on the work of NGOWG members and their partners, the NGOWG advocates for the Government of Iraq to clarify their shelter policies, in order to allow and support Iraqi NGOs in their efforts to operate shelters and provide much needed services to survivors of SGBV. Further, the NGOWG urges the Security Council to ensure that the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) is regularly engaging with women’s organizations, and will continue to take concrete steps to support women’s participation in all peace and security processes.
Current and Past Recommendations to the UN Security Council (Monthly Action Points)
Iraq (July 2017)
In extending the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), the Council should add a provision calling for gender to be considered a cross-cutting issue across the entire work of the mission, while preserving existing WPS language from previous resolutions adopted on UNAMI. Additionally, the Council should include provisions that mandate UNAMI to conduct regular consultations with women’s organizations, and report on specific steps taken to support women’s meaningful participation in peace and security processes (SCR 2242 (2015)). The Security Council must urge accountability for serious human rights violations against all groups by all sides, including SGBV, sexual slavery, abduction and human trafficking by ISIL and reports of beatings and unlawful detention by Government forces and allied militias during military offensives. In the face of crimes up to and including an ongoing genocide against the Yazidi (as per the Human Right Council in A/HRC/32/CRP.2) and possibly other ethnic minorities, the Council should also take immediate measures in line with the UN Genocide Convention. Additionally, the Council should add new language to recognize and condemn violence and persecution against individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (A/HRC/32/CRP.2), and call for expanding the scope of current documentation and reporting efforts to record all gender-based crimes including crimes against women human rights defenders, LGBTIQ persons, men and boys, civilian women and girls with actual or perceived ties to ISIL, and persecution of individuals who do not conform to gender norms to ensure accountability for all perpetrators. In this regard, the Council should request an update on the implementation of the UN-Iraq Joint Communiqué on the prevention and response to SGBV in Iraq. The Council should urge the government to pass the draft Family Violence Protection law with proposed amendments from Iraqi women’s rights organizations, including provisions that legalize non-governmental shelters for women and other at-risk individuals. Lastly, the Council should call on the government to allocate adequate funding for the implementation of Iraq’s National Action Plan (SCR 2242 (2015), OP 2), and to establish a system for monitoring its implementation.
Relevant Resources
