From 2003 to 2011, IHRLI designed and managed human rights and rule of
law projects in Iraq. These programs built on partnerships with Iraqi
law schools, NGOs, the Iraqi government and a variety of international
institutions. IHRLIs programs supported legal education reform, trained
Iraqi NGOs to conduct high quality human rights research, gathered and
analyzed narratives of human rights violations, provided capacity
building and sought to improve protections of fundamental human rights.
The projects were managed by IHRLIs staff in Chicago as well as an in
country staff of as many as 60 managers, trainers, assistants and
others. IHRLIs Iraq team worked throughout the country with its central
administrative office located in Sulaimaniya.
Building Gender Capacity and Human Rights in Iraq (2010 2011)
The Building Gender Capacity and Human Rights in Iraq
project supported the human rights of women and sexual minorities in
Iraq by increasing the capacity of civil society organizations,
advocates, young lawyers, and educators to recognize and promote these
vulnerable populations. For many years, Iraqs secular orientation
enabled women, subject to the authoritarian demands of the regime, to
enter and excel in many professions. In the post-Saddam era, women face a
series of new challenges including the rising influence of
fundamentalist Islam. In addition, sexual minorities in Iraq face
extreme hardships in living their everyday lives due to negative popular
perceptions and the belief that sexual minorities are a threat to Iraqi
life, religion, and society. This project addressed these issues
through a country-wide initiative that linked capacity building,
training, legal advocacy, and gender reform among those sectors of
society best able to assist women and sexual minorities: emerging local
human rights organizations and advocates; young lawyers, and educators.
Iraq Responsive Governance and Conflict Resolution Project (2009 2011)
This project supported political processes that
peacefully resolve disputes while strengthening rule of law skills and
developing the capacity of civil society organizations. It expanded
existing activities with Iraqi law schools including curriculum
development, conferences, publications, human rights trainings, improved
research facilities and moot courts and other participatory learning.
The project also helped to set up a research center focusing on human
rights and public policy. Additionally, it expanded externship/mentoring
programs for young women and strengthened the organizational capacity
of human rights NGOs and womens groups. The project also included a
program linking Sharia and reconciliation and encouraged transitional
justice efforts and peace-building within select communities.
Iraq Pre-Deployment Training (2008 2011)
IHRLI provided training to rule of law professionals
prior to their deployment as legal advisors to the Iraqi government.
Over the past eight years, the U.S. and other governments have spent
considerable resources on sending rule of law professionals to Iraq and
other countries. However many skilled legal professionals have limited
knowledge of local culture, international human rights standards, civil
law (as opposed to common law) systems, local legal structures, and
other important elements of the social and professional contexts where
they are sent to provide expert advice. To address this issue, IHRLI
provided rule of law advisors and others with training on civil law,
Sharia, human rights, international law, Iraqi society and culture and
the Iraqi legal system.
Iraq Womens Leadership Project (2008 2011)
The Iraq Womens Leadership Project strengthened the
capacity of young women leaders. The project brought together a select
group of law and professional students with committed women leaders for
sustained, participatory training and mentoring in partnership with the
universities in Baghdad, Hilla and Sulaimaniya. The project incorporated
experiential learning, seminars, moot courts and related activities.
Participants prepared reports on their research, gain practical skills
and learn firsthand about womens rights advocacy with a focus on the
special challenges faced by women in the transitional period.
Additional Information
Iraq Legal Education Project (2008 2011)
In this project, IHRLI worked with the faculty, staff
and students at a number of Iraqi law schools. The project provided
assistance for the development of new courses, moot courts, research
projects, conferences and publications. IHRLI also assisted schools with
developing library resources, research facilities, language labs, books
and basic infrastructure improvements. The goal of the project was to
work cooperatively with partner law schools in Iraq to support the
sustainable development of legal education and assist the nation in
preparing new generations of skilled legal professionals. IHRLI worked
with Iraqi faculty, students and others to enhance the law schools
intellectual and institutional commitment to human rights and
international law. The project developed programming that will ideally
be sustainable over the long term, building bridges between scholars and
practitioners in Iraq and the U.S.
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Iraq History Project (2005 2009)
The Iraq History Project (IHP) gathered and analyzed
first person narratives of severe human rights violations committed
under the government of the Baath Party and Saddam Hussein (1968
2003) and by a variety of groups after the U.S.-led invasion (2003
2008). While some data on past and recent human rights violations in
Iraq is available, the suffering of the Iraqi people has been
inadequately documented making it difficult to understand the severity
and impact of political violence over the past four decades. The IHP
addresses this issue by collecting over 8,900 testimonies representing
over 55,000 pages of personal narratives. The material documents the
individual experience of torture, massacres, assassinations, rape,
kidnapping, disappearances and other violations. The IHP is one of the
largest independent human rights data collection projects in the world
and provides important insight into both past and current violations in
Iraq. The project provides Iraqis with an opportunity to talk about
their experiences of political violence, analyzes patterns of violence
to provide a better understanding of the systematic nature of political
violence, and presents policy suggestions regarding transitional justice
in Iraq and mechanism of improving human rights protections.
Raising the Bar: Legal Education Reform in Iraq Project (2003 2005)
IHRLI began working in Iraq with a Legal Education
Reform Project linking DePaul University College of Law with a number of
Iraq law schools with a special focus on the Universities of Baghdad,
Basra, and Sulaimaniya. In this project, IHRLI provided substantial
infrastructural assistance along with support for faculty training and
educational innovation. IHRLI organized a series of conferences held in
different parts of Iraq to encourage interaction between law faculty,
government officials, members of the judiciary, and local leaders. IHRLI
organized study tours to Egypt and Italy for forty Iraqi professors
from eleven major universities and worked with law faculty to expand
existing curricula and develop courses on human rights, international
criminal law and international commercial law. IHRLI also assisted Iraqi
law students in traveling to Washington, DC to participate in the
Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.
Comprehensive Strategic Plan for the Iraqi Judiciary (2005 2007)
IHRLI assisted ISISC with a series of high-level
meetings in Jordan, Italy, Iraq and Egypt to develop a plan for
comprehensive judicial reform in Iraq. Participants in the meetings
included the Chair of the Higher Judicial Council, the Minister of
Justice, the Minister of Judicial Affairs of Kurdistan as well as
representatives of the Office of the Prime Minister, the State Shoura
Council and the Ministry of Human Rights. The meetings ran from 2006
through 2007 and led to the creation of a comprehensive plan for
reforming Iraqi criminal justice procedures and the countrys judiciary.
The project also supported the adoption by the Supreme Judicial Council
of the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct and assisted in the
creation of the National Commission for Criminal Justice.
Gender Justice in Iraq (2005)
This project linked a seminar in Amman, Jordan in
November 2005 with the publication of a book promoting gender justice in
Iraq. The seminar involved seventeen women leaders from Iraq and ten
from throughout the Arab world including Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait,
Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, and Syria. Participants included
current and former ministers, parliamentarians, academics, and
representatives of non-governmental organizations. The group drafted a
series of essays published as Gender Justice and Womens Rights in Iraq
in Arabic, Kurdish, and English.
Supporting the Iraqi Constitutional Processes (2005)
IHRLI assisted the process of drafting the new Iraqi
Constitution by creating an advisory group to assist in the drafting,
provided technical legal aid, and preparing a series of five books in
Arabic (with three edited volumes in Kurdish). The book series was
designed to benefit newly elected officials, their advisors and
assistants, representatives of civil society, and local leaders. The
publications include: Iraqi Constitutional Studies Basic Principles
for the New Iraqi Constitution A collection of articles on key
constitutional issues by Iraqi legal professionals and academics; A
Compilation of Iraqi Constitutions and Comparative Study of
International Human Rights Standards A collection of all the Iraqi
constitutions from 1925 to the present including a comparative review
and an analysis of these documents in relation to international human
rights standards; A Compilation of Arab Constitutions and Comparative
Study of International Human Rights Standards A collection of all Arab
world constitutions including a comparative study on due process
protections and an analysis of these constitutions in relation to
international human rights standards; A Compilation of Legislation and
Regulations of Select Arab Legal Systems A compilation of selected of
Arab laws and regulations relating to legislative organization and
procedure.; and, Public Freedoms and Democracy A collection of essays
on the rights and freedoms necessary for democracy. IHRLI printed
approximately 2,500 copies of each book and aided in their wide
distribution to key political actors, government ministries, United
Nations staff, Iraqi law schools, judges, professionals, political
parties, and others.
Seminars and Trainings for High-Level Iraqi Officials (2005 2006)
IHRLI assisted ISISC in designing and organizing a
series of three intensive ten to fourteen day seminars on post-conflict
justice, federalism and domestic security in Iraq. Each event involved
approximately forty high-level Iraqis including government officials,
representatives of key political parties, members of the constitutional
drafting committee, judges, police and security officials, civil society
leaders and clerics. Seminars linked lectures by international experts
with open discussions among diverse groups of Iraqis and concluded with
the preparation of working documents and guidelines related to each
theme. In addition, in 2005, ISISC and IHRLI hosted a week-long training
seminar for approximately seventy members of the Iraqi Special Tribunal
(now the Iraq High Criminal Court) involved in prosecuting Saddam
Hussein and high level members of the Baathist regime. The seminar
provided the Tribunals judges, investigative judges, and others with
support and training on the use of forensic and scientific evidence.
IHRLI and ISISC also presented an Arabic language analysis of internal
problems with Tribunals statute along with various training materials.