Enhancing Women’s Participation in Peace Processes in Ninewah

  • Country: Iraq

  • Objective: Facilitate active contribution of key stakeholders to the development of a joint strategy for involving women in peacebuilding and laying the foundation for an active network of stakeholders for future monitoring of the action plan implementation.

  • Duration: 15 April 2020 – 31 August 2020

  • Contact: Michaela Eckart

Women are particularly affected by the extremely violent social structures in Iraq. Especially in the region of Ninewah women were victims of violence by the IS. Rape, forced marriage and slavery followed the capture of Iraqi villages and towns by IS fighters. Religious minorities and in particular Yazidi women were exposed to cruel persecutions. These traumatic experiences will affect the lives of women and communities for a long time. 

“A Strategy for Women Participation in Peace Processes in Ninewah” aims at contributing to the improvement of the social and economic situation of women in the Ninewah governorate through enhancing their involvement in peacebuilding processes. It intends to equip stakeholders, particularly women, with tools and skills that could be used for the improvement of their role in political life in Ninewah in the long run. 

To this effect, a diverse group of Iraqis from the Ninewah governorate will over the course of July 2020 develop the content for a draft strategy paper on the role and improved participation of women in peace, reconciliation, transitional justice and conflict resolution processes in Ninewah. The individual stakeholders have different religious and ethnic backgrounds and range from members of civil society, women’s organizations and officials in public administration to tribal and religious figures. 

In June 2020, elbarlament conducted in-depth interviews with more than 60 stakeholders across the governorate and is organizing three focus groups in July in order to discuss topical issues regarding the peacebuilding process in Ninewah. 

Based on the interviews, an additional study on peace building in Iraq based on the stakeholders’ input provided during the focus groups, elbarlament will develop the draft strategy paper and hand it eventually over to the President’s Office. It could serve as a good practice example for the entire Iraq. 

The draft strategy paper will consist of recommendations to policy makers, key stakeholders and the Iraqi national government on how to include women in reconciliation and peace processes, notably in the Ninewah governorate. Furthermore, it will provide measures on how recommendations could be implemented through a National Action Plan. 

In order to have a sustainable impact, elbarlament will conduct a workshop on peace-building and conflict resolution in Ninewah, as well as an online training course on the principles of UNSCR 1325 together with local and international experts in July 2020.

The other main component of the project consists of several research projects.  A first project will be a stakeholders mapping, which aims at identifying key actors in the field of women empowerment and peacebuilding on the local, provincial and national level. Through the stakeholders mapping we will be able to engage key officials, experts and practitioners and establish links for possible participation in the planned project activities such as trainings for security personnel and government officials. Since the inclusion of women in peacebuilding processes in Iraq is still an understudied topic, an additional study will tackle the challenges to women´s meaningful participation in peace processes in Iraq and highlight the opportunities, best practices, and possible areas of intervention. The study will pay particular attention to how women can influence peacebuilding and reconciliation.

Furthermore, elbarlament will collaborate with experienced researchers to conduct four  thematic research papers which will be published on the dialogue platform and serve to complement existing knowledge gaps. The research papers will focus on 1) the legislative framework of women’s  participation in societal and peacebuilding processes in Iraq, 2) best practices of peacebuilding in Iraq that highlight the engagement of women on the local level whether through formal or informal participation in peace processes in their communities, 3) the engagement of men and boys in peace building processes and 4) women’s social and economic empowerment as a vehicle to enhance their ability to participate in the peace process. 

The programme is aimed at women who are active in civil society and women from politics, for example parliamentarians and female government members from central Iraq, the provinces and the autonomous region of Kurdistan. The project brings together women from different ethnic and religious groups: Kurdish women, women from the Shiite south and from Sunni regions, and women from religious and ethnic minorities. In addition, the project addresses decision-makers and state representatives at a decentralized level in all provinces of Iraq and Kurdistan. In the course of training workshops, tribal and religious leaders as well as – female and male – police officers, prosecutors, judges and members of the armed forces will be trained and sensitized in the topics of conflict transformation, dialogue and gender.

The main guidelines of the project are the UN Convention on the Rights of Women (CEDAW) and the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on the Participation of Women in Peace Processes, which has been in existence for 20 years in 2020, its 10 subsequent resolutions, and the National Action Plan (NAP) from 2014-2018 for Iraq, which aims at gender mainstreaming in all political fields and processes of conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peace building in Iraq. The anniversary year and the associated international attention should be used to implement UNSCR 1325, a purpose that elbarlament will serve by organizing a conference at the end of 2020.

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