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CIVIL SOCIETY IN IRAQ PROJECT |
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The Civil Society in Iraq Project seeks to support segments of Iraqi civil society who strive to initiate an authentic, self-determined process of democratization based on the principles of equal citizenship rights regardless of ethnic or confessional belonging, full participation of women and a civic culture of democratic interaction on the grassroot level. Contributing to the build-up of an active and professional civil society, responsible and reliable media, and the rehabilitation of the population from experiences of physical and psychological violence are crucial objectives of this effort. The central part of this project is a series of seminars, workshops and trainings taking place in Beirut with the aim of building capacities among a core group of activists, who then transfer their knowledge back to Iraq, and connect to organizations and experiences acquired in Lebanon and the region. |
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Civil Society in Iraq Project - Seminar 8:
Human and Women’s Rights Training for Iraqi Judges in Personal Status Courts
Beirut, Beirut, 11-16/07/2008
Five-day workshop on gender issues and human rights for Iraqi family court judges and academics in cooperation with Kafa -Enough Violence and Exploitation and the Iraqi Al-Amal Association. |
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This training was conceptualized and organized in cooperation with the Iraqi Al-Amal Association and the Lebanese organization Kafa – Enough Violence and Exploitation. It aimed at providing a group pf 14 Iraqi judges and legal experts with a comprehensive understanding of human rights issues in addition to identifying social and political forces behind obstructing a reform of existing legal regulations and practices. The participants explored concepts of gender quality and violence against women and analyzed Iraqi legislation with regards to the standards of the CEDAW convention. The trainees debated their daily practice in personal status courts and identified cases in which women are discriminated against, followed by suggestions to alter them in order to guarantee women’s rights and their protection. Through looking at the Lebanese and Moroccan experiences regarding their personal status laws, the trainees were confronted with a good-practice example of a personal status law in an Arab country in line with human rights and gender equality (Morocco). Whereas the Lebanese was used as a showcase of the problems that occur by tailoring those laws based on a sectarian system with in terms of national unity in general and the status of women in particular. By presenting and discussing the Lebanese case, the Iraqi judges were strengthened in their resistance against the confessionalization of Iraq family law, as envisaged by controversial Article 41 of the new constitution. |
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Civil Society in Iraq Project - Seminar 7:
Gender Training for Iraqi Civil Society Activist
Beirut, 12-20/07/2007
In this workshop, a group of 18 Iraqi activists, journalists, law experts, and social workers received a training on a multitude of issues related to gender, violence against women in addition to lobbying and group facilitation techniques. |
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The project aims at ameliorating and solidifying the understanding of the concepts of gender, gender democracy, gender equality, and gender mainstreaming among a group of Iraqi civil society activists. Through intensive training, Iraqi males and females are sensitized to these concepts and to the roots and different forms of violence against women, enabling them to properly address these issues and to treat the problems obstructing gender friendly policies and perceptions from the origin. On the practical side, the goal is to acquaint trainees with different campaigning and lobbying tools as well as group facilitation techniques to enhance their performance and advocacy work and to increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of their teams. This will eventually exert more fruitful pressure on all sectors of society to adopt gender friendly attitudes and to push the government to integrate gender as a core component in all policies and decision-making processes. |
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Download Agenda in Arabic |
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Civil Society in Iraq Project - Seminar 6:
Training of Trainers in Conflict Resolution and Group Facilitation
Beirut, 3-9/4/2007 |
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Training workshop for Iraqi civil society activists, conceptualized and organized in cooperation with the Iraqi Al-Amal Association and the Lebanese Network for Conflict Resolution (LNCR)
This workshop was designed to solidify and consolidate the skills and knowledge on Conflict Resolution and Group Facilitation gained by a group of young Iraqi civil society activists in a previous workshop held in November 2006 (link to Seminar 5). They together with a number of new participants, who were briefed by their colleagues on these issues, were offered a first-hand training experience by the LACR expert. Additionally, a Training of Trainers (TOT) workshop was delivered to the participants to enable them to function as multipliers within the Iraqi society and transmit their skills and knowledge in Group Facilitation and Conflict Resolution to others via their own training and public awareness work, an endeavor that a considerable number of participants had already embarked on or were preparing to undertake before attending this seminar.
The material the group was taught in the previous Seminar 5 was refreshed and when necessary thoroughly reviewed. The TOT training workshop covered the following specialized topics:
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Download Agenda in Arabic |
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Civil Society in Iraq Project - Seminar 5:
Conflict Resolution and Group Facilitation
Beirut, 05-10/11/2006
Dual training workshop for activists from Iraqi Civil Society, conceptualized and organized in cooperation with the Iraqi Amal Association and the Lebanese Network for Conflict Resolution (LNCR). |
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The training is designed as a contribution to enhancing the capacities of Iraqi civil society to participate in Iraq’s democratization process. Based on consultation with Iraqi participants in former events and their recommendations, the project focuses on enhancing the skills of young NGO activists in conflict resolution methods and group facilitation processes.
The conflict resolution course aims at training the group to communicate differently, listen better and truly understand the nature of a conflict, to accurately name their personal patterns of conflicts, to understand their reactions, to analyze and identify the underlying causes of conflict, to respond more effectively and deal with conflict assertively and constructively, to prevent conflicts from developing and escalating, and to learn how to resolve conflicts and outstanding problems through collaborative problem solving techniques.
The group facilitation course seeks to increase the group’s understanding of collaborative group dynamics, to improve their skills at making groups work more effectively, and to achieve synergy in group issues and decisions. |
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Download Agenda in Arabic |
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Civil Society in Iraq Project - Seminar 4
Media Skills Workshop for Iraqi Journalists
Beirut, 25/09/06 - 05/10/2006
Workshop for fifteen Iraqi print, broadcast and online journalists organized by the Institute for Professional Journalists (IPJ) and hbf at the Lebanese American University (LAU), Beirut. |
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Iraqi journalists meeting the editor-in-chief of Lebanese daily Sada Al Balad, Bechara Charbel |
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Journalists’ safety in war zones, political considerations and common experiences between Iraqi and Lebanese media were high on the agenda of this workshop. Among its participants were Mona Ziade, from the Lebanon country office of the World Bank and a veteran editor/correspondent who discussed the difference between news and opinion; Lebanese daily As-Safir editor Zuheir Hawari who talked about the art of interviewing; pan-Arab daily Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat correspondent/editor Sana El Jack who tackled feature story writing; IPJ director Magda Abu-Fadil who underlined the importance of media ethics; LBCI TV’s anchor and talk show host Shada Omar and producer Marwan Matni who elaborated on broadcast news; and LAU professor Mahmoud Tarabay who touched on cultivating sources, online journalism and ways to improve one’s writing style.
The event hosted fifteen journalists from media such as Nawa Radio, Kurdish satellite TV, Al Diyar TV, Azzaman newspaper, Voices of Iraq news agency, Yanabeeh magazine, Al Jeel magazine, Iraqiyoun news agency, As-Sabah newspaper and the Baghdad correspondent of the Washington Post, to name a few.
During the first five days, consecutive workshops were held at LAU, where participants engaged in debates about pressing professional issues such as the sustainability of journalism as a professional career in a war-torn country, appropriate ways to cover tragedy and bloodshed, confronting dangers and threats which often oblige Iraqi journalists to publish under pseudonyms, and the need to distinguish between news content, editorials and analysis. During another three days of the workshop, the Iraqi participants visited a variety of Lebanese media organizations, such as the LBCI TV’s newsroom and program studios, the Lebanese dailies An-Nahar and Sada Al Balad, the joint venture Lebanese-Iraqi TV station Al Sumariya, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency and Radio Lebanon. |
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Two of the journalist who participated in the seminar were murdered recently in the violence in Iraq. The article "A Tribute to Sarwa and Sahar: Two Valiant Iraqi Journalists" speaks on those journalist. |
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Civil Society in Iraq Project - Seminar 3:
Rehabilitation from Violence Trauma
(Beirut, 24-26/06/2005)
Against the backdrop of continued violence in Iraq, the third seminar focused on the psycho-social rehabilitation from trauma. |
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The seminar, which was designed after consultations with and according to suggestions from Iraqi participants of the first two seminars, dealt with types of trauma caused by experiences of violence (torture and imprisonment, war, domestic violence, kidnapping, physical assaults, etc) and was organized and conceptualized in cooperation with the Arab Resource Collective (ARC).
The seminar provided an introduction into the history, meanings and applications of the concept under the title “What do we mean when we talk about trauma?”, and focused on the exchange of experiences and resources that have proven successful in rehabilitation measures. The seminar also included small workshop-like introductions into basic listening skills, techniques of stress release and advocacy work, and a field visit to the former detention center at Khiyam in South Lebanon. |
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Civil Society in Iraq Project - Seminar 2:
NGO Legal Framework and Freedom of Association
(Beirut, 13-14/12/2004)
This Seminar brought together around 45 participants including social activists, lawyers, and representatives of civil society organizations from various Arab countries, including Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Palestine, Syria, Morocco, Bahrain, and Jordan. |
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A one-day training workshop for the Iraqi participants followed, concentrating on how to manage an electoral campaign and how to monitor the elections in Iraq. Participants exchanged experiences on legal reforms and association laws that exist in various Arab countries. They also discussed the concepts and standards related to freedom of association in the Arab countries with a special focus on fundraising, the internal management of associations, and the partnership contracts with the public sector. Discussions also shed a light on the bylaws that regulates the practices of political parties and syndicates, as well as the impact of international and regional blocks on the role of civil society organizations. Case studies on these issues from each of Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Palestine, Syria, Morocco, Bahrain, and Jordan were presented.
Several recommendations and follow up mechanisms resulted from the seminar, including:
1. Organizing a workshop on the situation of freedom of association in Iraq, where social activists and legal experts can be brought together.
2. Establishing a watchdog center on freedom of association, where the programs of the Arab Initiative for Freedom of Association can be updated to include the Iraqi and Gulf experiences and practices.
3. Organizing a workshop for lawyers’ specializing in laws of association from various Arab countries.
4. Establishing an Arab resource center for civil society organizations which could offer technical, legal, and other services for Arab organizations.
5. Developing a work plan through which civil society organizations in the Arab countries can practically tackle the issues of freedom of association, in partnership with the Arab initiative for Freedom of Association. |
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Civil Society in Iraq Project - Seminar 1:
Civil Society from Arab Perspectives
(Beirut, October 15-17, 2004)
Conference organized in cooperation with the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) |
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The first seminar took place 15 to 17 October, 2004 in Beirut with the participation of civil society activist from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Syria and Tunisia and dealt with the theme “Civil Society from Arab Perspectives: Experiences and Challenges in Iraq and the Region”. It opened with the discussion of a paper which was commissioned to serve as a basis for discussion: “Arab Civil Society: Assessing Interpretations and Determining Challenges” (by Zeina Halabi). The study analyses the different adoptions and transformations of the concept of “civil society” in the region and takes Iraq as a case-study. This session was followed by presentations on Iraqi civil society organizations: their priorities, approaches, and sectors of work.
The second day focused on crucial issues with regards to civil societies in the region: civil society under conflict and occupation, Islam and the Islamist understanding of civil society, the effects of international funding on civil society, and the relation between civil society and parties, followed by a general discussion about the priorities and strategies in Arab-Iraqi relations.
During the third day, a workshop on strategic planning took place specifically aimed at the Iraqi civil society representatives. |
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