ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Civil society organizations (CSOs), foreign diplomats and the secretary general of the Kurdistan Region’s High Council for Women and Development identified the gap between the law and the reality on the ground as one of the main elements hindering progress on the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, at a conference sponsored by the Italian foreign ministry in Erbil on Monday.
Italian Consul to Erbil Michele Camerota noted that when talking about the Kurdistan Region, like it is the case for anywhere else, "there is of course a spread between regulations, rules and the society, because even here, where we acknowledge that the legal framework is quite advanced, especially compared to other countries in the region, at the end there is a gap between law and the reality,” adding that this gap is precisely where CSOs work, and emphasizing the importance of cooperation between the civil society and institutions, in light of the ability of CSOs to “reach people where we cannot.”
In the framework of a project funded by the Italian foreign ministry, the Italian international non-governmental organization Un Ponte Per, born in 1991 to provide support to Iraqi civil society in the aftermath of the Gulf War and present in Iraq since then, organized the conference, focused on the localization of the women, peace, security agenda. The event featured interventions by representatives of CSOs working on activities focused on the implementation of resolution 1325 in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.
UN Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security focuses on the role of women in the “prevention and resolution of conflicts” as well as their participation in politics and reconstruction efforts post conflict.
In 2014 Iraq became the first country in the region to launch a 1325 national action plan. Baghdad and Erbil currently have two different national action plans.
“There is no legal cause nor political challenge to the engagement of youth and women, there are misunderstandings and ideas related to the old-fashioned culture in the area, that can be considered as a challenge to their roles in the community,” said Khanzad Ahmad, secretary general of the Kurdistan Region’s High Council for Women and Development.
“Change needs time,” she added, stressing that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is committed to addressing said issues in practice.
Ahmad noted the importance of increasing the participation of youth and women in both the private and public sectors within the context of the implementation of the WPS agenda, and emphasized that the KRG “is trying to put into force laws that will grant youth more opportunities.”
Dutch Consul General to Erbil Jaco Bereends, who also participated in the event, noted that despite the international community’s collective efforts, “we are not yet where we should be” when it comes to involvement of women in decision making and protection of women before, during and after conflict.
Drawing onto his experience meeting with Yazidi women who survived sexual violence and other atrocities carried out by Islamic State (ISIS) during its occupation of the Yazidi heartland of Shingal (Sinjar), Beerends stressed the need to “make use of their determination and involve them in solutions as much as possible.”
The Yazidi Survivors’ Law, passed by the Iraqi government in 2021, was hailed by several participants as a great step towards the implementation of the WPS agenda in the country. However, the fact that the law has yet to be fully implemented exemplifies the challenges holding back Erbil and Baghdad from fully implementing the agenda.
“There are a lot of parts of the Yazidi Survivors’ Law they did not implement until now, for example one article talked about opening a court to try the crimes committed by ISIL against Yazidis," Sozan Safar, representative of Dak organization, and member of the Kurdistan Region’s 1325 board,told Rudaw English.
“If the laws are implemented correctly then they are great, but they [the KRG and the Iraqi federal government] are not implementing the laws in a complete way. The laws are there, the national action plans are there, but still we don’t have funds,” Ghazala Jango, representative of Youth Bridge Organization, an NGO operating mainly in Shingal (Sinjar), told Rudaw English.
Jango, like other participants, stressed the idea that one of the main obstacles to the full implementation of the women, peace and security agenda in the KRI and Iraq is a lack of continuous funding, which results in short-term, intermittent actions that lack continuity and hence prevent the achievement of sustainable impact.
“This is a big issue, if you don’t have funds why do you have action plans for the 1325 agenda, you will depend on other countries for its implementation,” highlighted Jango, noting that what is needed is for a specific budget to be allocated for this purpose.
The conference took place one day after the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, celebrated on November 25, in honor of which the Canadian, German, Dutch, and United Kingdom consulates in Erbil, in cooperation with the Kurdistan Region's High Council for Women and Development, launched the 16 Days of Activism campaign during a ceremony at Erbil’s Zaniary Tower, urging authorities, activists, and civilians to join forces to effectively combat violence against women and girls.