The United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 issued in 2000 and subsequent resolutions are an important turning point in striving to end violence against women during armed conflicts. It also represents the beginning of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. UNSCR 1325 is the first official and legal document issued by the Security Council asking parties at conflict to respect women’s rights and support their participation in peace negotiations, as well as reconstruction and development. It also recognizes the importance of women’s positions in internal peace and security and emphasizes the important role that women play in preventing and resolving conflict in peace negotiations and the processes of building and maintaining peace. UNSCR 1325 also reflects the international community’s awareness of the seriousness of the phenomenon of violence against women and the necessity to reduce it.

The resolution consists of four main pillars that can contribute to reduce violations against women by prevention, protection, participation and peacebuilding & recovery. Stressing the importance of increasing women presentation on all decision-making levels in national, regional, and international institutions. It is necessary to take the right measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence during conflict, especially rape and other types of sexual abuse (Article 10). The resolution emphasized on all country’s responsibilities to employ a mechanism for preventing impunity and prosecuting those involved in crimes against humanity including those committed against women. It also emphasizes the necessity to exclude those crimes from amnesties (Article 11). UNSCR 1325 is a binding document for all member states. Preparing a National Action Plan (NAP) is an important tool to execute international resolutions.

Iraq’s NAP and UNSCR 1325

Iraq initiated a National Action Plan to execute UNSCR 1325 and is the first Arab country to adopt the Women, Peace and Security agenda. The Iraqi Council of Ministers approved the action plan to be included in the national strategy for the advancement of women’s status in April of 2014. It aims to increase the participation of women in decision-making roles, reconciliation committees, peace negotiations and the amendment of legislation and laws which ensures them protection and prevention from gender-based violence during and after conflicts.

Many factors affected the execution of the Iraq NAP as scheduled, such as the conflicts seen in various areas of Iraq, which changed priorities. The economic crisis which was accompanied by low oil prices, which affected the sources of funding and the cancellation of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs which was the only national mechanism responsible for the follow-up of the execution of the plan, in addition to the insufficient management skills necessary for the role at national levels.

Despite the weak measures that have been taken to ensure the full protection of women during conflict and increasing their participation in peace efforts, the plan was able to provide many opportunities that support the institutionalization of work on the agenda for Women, Peace and Security. It also worked to spread awareness of UNSCR 1325 and contributed to developing the capabilities of workers in government institutions to draft plans within their institutions. It’s also one of the most important tools that enabled NGOs to obtain support to implement programs that serves women in Iraq by providing those organizations with an outlet to voice their demands.

Cordaid and the British National Action Plan

Cordaid is working in collaboration with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) to enforce both the Iraqi and British National Action Plan across Iraq. As part of the British NAP 1325, this 2,5-year program will establish an effective partnership between approximately 36 Iraqi civil society organizations (CSOs) and women’s rights organizations (WROs) to promote the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Within the program the partners aim to support strong, resourceful women and men in Iraq to strengthen resilient communities. The overall goal as formulated is Iraqi grassroots women-led, feminist and women’s rights organisations that are self-reliant and interconnected, advancing a localised transformative WPS agenda, contributing to inclusive peace and security in communities across federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI).

This program has defined three pathways to enforce the UNSCR 1325 across Iraq:

1. 36 CSOs, grassroots women-led, feminist and women’s rights organisations, are implementing programming on self-defined WPS priorities that meet the identified needs of women and girls in their communities.
2. 36 CSOs, particularly grassroots women-led, feminist and women’s rights organisations, are enabled to operate as self-reliant development actors who can manage and access funding opportunities, implement programming on self-defined WPS priorities that meet the identified needs of women and girls in their communities.
3. A women’s network of CSOs, representing the diversity of Iraqi communities, is lobbying and advocating for inclusive political processes and (inter)national policies on peace and security in Iraq. The program aims to deepen local partnerships through capacity building, lobbying, and advocacy, as well as information and knowledge sharing. Learning and critical reflection through plenary workshops will strengthen the collective efforts to enable women and men to play a role as bridge builders and change agents at different levels.

Second NAP for UNSCR 1325 in Iraq 2020-2024

The draft of the second action plan for Resolution 1325 for the years 2020-2024 was developed through consultative sessions held in Baghdad, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, and a participatory approach was adopted to ensure the participation of all concerned parties in the federal government, the Kurdistan Regional Government, and representatives of civil society organizations with a few minor adjustments. The plan had several phases:

Priorities of the Second NAP and Framework for Implementation of UNSCR 1325

The second NAP for the implementation of UNSCR 1325 is centered on strategic pillars, namely: participation, protection, and prevention. Details of these goals and what fall under them have been agreed upon based on the needs and circumstances of the stage that Iraq is going through. These pillars are the same on which the first national action plan was based, and thus it maintains what the first plan has achieved on the one hand and expands on the aspects that the first plan fell short of achieving in an extension and improvement of the work and effort exerted previously without repetition or omission.

It is worth noting that the three pillars of the strategy are related to programmatic interventions on the issue of Women, Peace and Security without addressing other implementation elements that are no less important. But their real place is in other implementation frameworks, including, for example, monitoring, evaluation, and media, as each of them will be issued a detailed implementation plan based on its implementation by a team of specialists.

It is worth noting that the three pillars of the strategy are related to programmatic interventions on the issue of Women, Peace and Security without addressing other implementation elements that are no less important. But their real place is in other implementation frameworks, including, for example, monitoring, evaluation, and media, as each of them will be issued a detailed implementation plan based on its implementation by a team of specialists.

Under each of the three strategic pillars of the second NAP are a number of components (results) by which the pillar is completed. The first pillar is concerned with enhancing the participation of women in leadership and decision-making in a way that enhances building and keeping peace, and under it is the effective participation of women in achieving and sustaining peace through engagement. In influential positions for peace building and decision-making in the security sectors and justice systems, as well as the participation of women in all stages of reconstruction at the national and local levels through participation in work in effective institutions in the field of relief.

The second pillar is protection. This pillar is concerned with protecting women and girls affected by conflict from all forms of gender-based violence, especially sexual violence, and putting an end to impunity. Including elements such as establishing mechanisms to ensure the protection of women and girls, especially in camps, displacement sites and areas they’ll return to, taking effective measures for reporting and intervention and achieving accountability and justice in order to prevent the perpetrators from impunity. In addition to protecting women and girls affected by conflict from sexual violence, which has been used as a weapon of war.

The third pillar is prevention. Its scope is the prevention of gender-based violence of affected women and girls before, during and after conflict. It is achieved by creating a safe and supportive environment for women and girls based on community cohesion and by changing the religious and societal discourse in a direction more tolerant and accepting of the other. This includes the protection of women in conflict within the institutional framework in order to be represented by binding measures, increasing the ability of women affected by conflict by improving livelihood opportunities and access to services. Especially since most women as a result of the conflict are the breadwinners for their families and integrating gender into early warning systems to prevent conflict-related violence.