The group designed a strategy to mobilise a response. They solicited funds from the UN, recruited and trained a network of CSO partners, and launched an awareness-raising campaign in all of Iraq’s provinces that included radio broadcasts, policy summits and street signs in order to have the article amended and limit the government’s power. After significant and sustained public pressure, the parliament adopted the group’s suggestion for alternative language in the article (which defined the specific conditions that must be met for the provision to take effect), and wrote it into law in 2008.
Hope is the pivotal factor in the constant struggle between despair and healing. While the country continues to lurch under the weight of geopolitics, corruption and violence, the painstaking work of Iraqi civil society organisations such as these offers one reason to feel optimistic.
Observers who wish to see real peace and human security take hold in Iraq will need to be patient. The best thing we can do is understand how Iraq’s many challenges look through the eyes of local people, support the efforts of Iraqi civil society along with responsible and accountable government, and give Iraqis the space and resources they need to build the better future they seek.
(Source: Common Ground News Service)
(Photo: USACE)
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