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 (January 2017)
The conflict between the ISIL/Da’esh and Government forces, with assistance from allied militias, continues to dominate discussions on the human rights situation in Iraq. In its consideration of a report on the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), the Security Council must urge accountability for serious human rights violations 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. The Council should thus ensure that UNAMI is regularly engaging with women’s organizations and taking concrete steps to support women’s participation in all peace and security processes. The Council should consider the following recommendations:
- Apply a gender lens to humanitarian planning and assistance efforts throughout the country as relates to women, men, girls and boys, including the humanitarian response to the ongoing Mosul offensive.
- Urge the Government of Iraq to clarify the shelter policy and allow Iraqi NGOs to operate shelters and provide much needed services to survivors of SGBV as well as fully fund and implement in consultation with women’s organizations Iraq’s National Action Plan (NAP) on SCR 1325 (2000).
- Urge the Government of Iraq to legally allow displaced women and girls to obtain Civil Status Identification documents without requiring verification of their identity by a male relative.
- Call on the Committee for Women, Family, and Child of the Iraqi government to incorporate the civil society proposed amendments to the draft Family Protection Law, and compel the Council of Representatives to adopt the bill.
- Urge the Government of Iraq to ratify the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court and recognize that the fight against impunity for the most serious crimes committed against women and girls have been strengthened through the work of the International Criminal Court, ad hoc, and mixed tribunals (SCR 2242 (2015), OP 14).
- Urge the Government of Iraq to ensure that investigations and prosecutions of all human rights abuses, including those perpetrated by national and their allied forces in military efforts to combat ISIL / Da’esh, are conducted in accordance with international standards.
- Expand the scope of current documentation efforts to include other gender-based crimes including crimes against women as human rights defenders, LGBT persons and others who defy their gender ascribed roles.
The conflict between the ISIL/Da’esh and Government forces, with assistance from allied militias, continues to dominate discussions on the human rights situation in Iraq. In its consideration of a report on the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), the Security Council must urge accountability for serious human rights violations 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. The Council should thus ensure that UNAMI is regularly engaging with women’s organizations and taking concrete steps to support women’s participation in all peace and security processes. The Council should consider the following recommendations:
- Apply a gender lens to humanitarian planning and assistance efforts throughout the country as relates to women, men, girls and boys, including the humanitarian response to the ongoing Mosul offensive.
- Urge the Government of Iraq to clarify the shelter policy and allow Iraqi NGOs to operate shelters and provide much needed services to survivors of SGBV as well as fully fund and implement in consultation with women’s organizations Iraq’s National Action Plan (NAP) on SCR 1325 (2000).
- Urge the Government of Iraq to legally allow displaced women and girls to obtain Civil Status Identification documents without requiring verification of their identity by a male relative.
- Call on the Committee for Women, Family, and Child of the Iraqi government to incorporate the civil society proposed amendments to the draft Family Protection Law, and compel the Council of Representatives to adopt the bill.
- Urge the Government of Iraq to ratify the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court and recognize that the fight against impunity for the most serious crimes committed against women and girls have been strengthened through the work of the International Criminal Court, ad hoc, and mixed tribunals (SCR 2242 (2015), OP 14).
- Urge the Government of Iraq to ensure that investigations and prosecutions of all human rights abuses, including those perpetrated by national and their allied forces in military efforts to combat ISIL / Da’esh, are conducted in accordance with international standards.
- Expand the scope of current documentation efforts to include other gender-based crimes including crimes against women as human rights defenders, LGBT persons and others who defy their gender ascribed roles.
Relevant Resources
