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Gender-based violence in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is a pervasive problem that impacts an unknown number of women and girls who are subjected to rape and sexual abuse, severe domestic violence, honor killings, female genital mutilation, and so called "honor suicides" where females are pressured to commit suicide to avoid shame to their families.  Many victims of gender-based violence are unjustly caught up in the criminal justice system where they face discrimination and harmful procedures and laws.  Other victims of gender-based violence encounter significant barriers to seeking legal rights in the Courts of Personal Status due to legal, social, cultural and economic barriers. In addition to discriminatory laws and practices, various Iraqi laws and procedures encourage violence against women. The KRG is grappling with the enormity of the problem, and although steps have been taken to confront the issue, there remains a lack of awareness about violence against women, a lack of training among those appointed to address the issue, and a lack of documentation about incidences and context of the circumstances surrounding gender-based violence.

Summary

Heartland Alliance is working to improve the way in which gender-based violence is identified, documented and addressed in the criminal justice system and the family court system in the northern Iraqi governorates of Erbil, Sulaimaniya and Duhok, with the aim of improving the legal response to victims of gender-based violence in the court systems. In partnership with the Chicago-Kent College of Law, Heartland Alliance is working to develop monitoring instruments that will identify how victims of gender-based violence are impacted by the legal system, and is developing an incident-tracking software and database to store data collected by Heartland Alliance's local non-governmental organization (LNGO) partners in the targeted governorates. This data is necessary to develop a tangible resource of information in order to advocate for changes in laws, policies and practices in the Iraqi criminal justice and family court systems in the KRG. After collecting this information, Heartland Alliance will prepare a report to demonstrate how the legal system discriminates against and is harmful towards women, and will use the report to raise awareness among judicial and legal personnel on the patterns and prevalence of gender-based violence in the region. 

Activities

Heartland Alliance is working to document and track incidents of gender-based violence by:

• Assessing the types of information to be entered to the database by LNGOs on a range of issues related to incidences of gender-based violence, as well as how victims experience the criminal and family court and detention systems, including incidents of police misconduct at time of arrest such as abuse, torture, human rights violations, human trafficking, denial of due process, length of detention, access to lawyers, witnesses, evidence, fair hearings and how mediation and reconciliation intersect with the legal system;
• Developing software and installing it in current LNGO computer systems, and training LNGO lawyers and social workers on how to use it;
• Collaborating with Ministry of Human Rights (MoHR) to discuss current data collection systems, gaps and needs of the MoHR and other government agencies to improve data collection on gender-based violence throughout the KRG;
• Creating a report of harmful and discriminatory practices impacting victims of gender-based violence in the criminal justice system and the Courts of Personal Status; developing recommendations and plans for the MoHR to develop systems for tracking gender-based violence in the KRG;
• Convening judges and lawyers from Duhok, Sulaimaniya and Erbil to discuss findings in the report and to develop a coordinated response to address problems identified under the project, and to develop strategies to respond to gaps and barriers in the legal system to improve judicial understanding of and responses to victims of gender-based violence.