On November 17, 2021, Heartland Alliance International (HAI), represented by Salah Barzngy, HAI’s Iraq Country Director, and the Independent Human Rights Commission (IHRC) of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), represented by IHRC head Dr. Muna Yukhna Yaqu, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to bolster the protection of human rights in the KRI.
“This memorandum of understanding will be a roadmap for future work between us [IHRC] and HAI, especially in the field of human rights and the sectors both parties agreed on in the MoU,” Mohammed Gomashini, the IHRC Head of Relations and Media, said on the sidelines of the signing ceremony.
The MoU is an extension of the previous MoU entitled “Cooperation Agreement between the Independent Commission for Human Rights- Iraqi Kurdistan and Heartland Alliance International Organization-Iraq” the two parties had signed on December 10, 2018. The MoU is pertinent to “Enforcing Rights: Strengthening Human Rights Protection and Monitoring in the Kurdistan Region (ERII)”, a two-year HAI program with the generous support of the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in KRI to strengthen and bolster efforts against human rights evaluations.
The MoU aims to establish and activate an online monitoring system to respond to human rights violations under the supervision of the IHRC. “I hope this example will make us proud because of the online monitoring system regarding human rights violations. The monitoring system is only available in the Kurdistan Region,” said Gomashini, positing that KRI citizens can report violations to IHRC more easily and reduce red-tape.
HAI will establish and monitor the use of the online monitoring and reporting database to collect complaints and respond to human rights violations in order to effectively and accurately document all human rights violations. HAI will also train IHRC staff members on the use of the online database and provide feedback and follow-up as the IHRC rolls out the tool. Regardless, the responsibility of monitoring and overseeing the system will lie solely with the IHRC.
“This MoU between HAI and IHRC has an important role in KRI citizens regaining trust in this important institution [IHRC] that has the role of monitoring Human Rights in KRI. The MoU is part of HAI’s strategy for strengthening human rights in the KRI, strengthening monitoring systems and following up on human rights complaints,” HAI country director Salah Barzngy said.
“The MoU stresses the importance of civil societies’ role in supporting the rights of citizens. Therefore, another part of the agreement relates strengthening the human rights organizations in KRI and creating a non-formal web of organizations with the support of IHRC and other parties,” added Barzngy.
IHRC Head of Relations Department, Sulaiman Mohsen said, “We are sure that we can do great things with HAI on the agreed points in the MoU. We as IHRC in the Kurdistan Region agreed that we will work with HAI for one year. We agreed on starting a new online system for human rights complaints that we as IHRC will supervise.”
In addition, the MoU aims to improve collaboration among stakeholders and government agencies in KRI such as the IHRC, the Human Rights Committee in the Parliament, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Interior (MoI), and relevant organizations working in the field of human rights.
“HAI seeks to strengthen the enforcement of existing laws that protect against human rights abuses in the KRI and build the institutional capacity and performance of key stakeholders to properly enforce laws and monitor human rights abuses. We are specifically working closely with both the Kurdistan parliament and IHRC,” ERII’s Project Manager Tavga Aziz, said.
“By rolling out the online complains mechanism, that will increase the effectiveness of the IHRC role in following up the cases and strengthening the documentation, data analysis and reporting system to have better quality of the reporting,” Aziz added.
This MoU marks the third of such agreements between the two parties in the framework of different projects since IHRC’s establishment in 2010. “As ERII project, this is the second such agreement, and this demonstrates both parties’ willingness to move forward on conducting some specific activities that will serve both parties’ objectives in promoting human rights,” said Tavga Aziz.
HAI, in compliance with its main principles to ensure justice and rule of law, strives to ensure that governmental institutions in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region are responsive to national and international human rights standards regarding protecting victims of human rights violations, particularly survivors of torture, religious and ethnic minority groups, victims of gender-based violence, human trafficking, and those subjected to forced detention in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
About “Enforcing Rights II: Strengthening Human Rights Protection and Monitoring in the Kurdistan Region” project:
Enforcing Rights II seeks to increase the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) and the Kurdistan Parliament’s responsiveness and accountability to human rights violations by strengthening enforcement of the KRI’s legislative framework governing the protection and monitoring of severe human rights violations and increasing the capacity of stakeholders to report and document human rights violations in the KRI.
