The report notes that the Iraqi Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government have taken some positive steps to promote women and children’s rights and to address the needs of those who have suffered abuses at the hands of ISIL.
However, the criminal justice system largely fails to ensure the appropriate protection of victims. Significant legislative and institutional changes are needed, the report says, to facilitate access to justice and to ensure the care and protection of victims in such proceedings.
“Steps must also be taken to ensure the active participation and engagement of women and girls in ending conflict, in building peace for the future, and supporting and facilitating their full and equal participation in the public, political and economic life in a post-ISIL Iraq,” said the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq Ján Kubiš.
Despite government efforts to alleviate the suffering of victims and provide services, huge challenges remain. The report stresses the need for women and girls to have access to appropriate medical, psychosocial, financial, livelihood and other means of support.
The report also voices serious concern with regard to tribal agreements reached by representatives of tribes in a number of governorates, which include provisions allowing for forced evictions of families connected to ISIL and their property transferred to victims as reparation.
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