Iraq Access to Justice Program Weekly Report #38

The program, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), aims to address the needs of women, widows, orphans, detainees, minorities, the impoverished, and internally displaced persons and returnees. The program's first component focuses on improving knowledge of legal remedies, with a particular emphasis on international humanitarian law. In July 2011, the program organized the first round of trainings on this topic, in partnership with the National Institute for Human Rights and the Iraqi Bar Association. The training sessions, attended by 19 lawyers, including two female lawyers, covered the roles of international criminal courts in protecting human rights and the rights of vulnerable groups in Iraq. The program's second component aims to improve legal education and services, with a focus on strengthening the capacity of legal assistance organizations and other civil society partners to assist vulnerable and disadvantaged populations. The program has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Iraqi Alliance for Disabled (IADO) to outline the details of cooperation between the two organizations. The program's third component focuses on advocacy and improved government services, with a particular emphasis on creating mechanisms for dialogue between government and NGOs/CSOs on improving policies, laws, and regulations for facilitating access to justice for vulnerable populations. The program has submitted recommendations to the Iraqi Bar Association on the draft law of lawyers and is working on finalizing the Arabic and English versions of the report on the roundtable conference on Jinsiya. In terms of grants, the program has arranged for training in grant application proposal writing for 40 NGO/CSO partners in the Basra and Erbil regions. The training covered all aspects of writing a simple and effective proposal for grants, with the aim of strengthening the capacity of participating NGOs and CSOs in writing proposals for funds and grants. The program has also completed risk assessments on site for approved grantees and submitted grant applications to USAID for approval. The program's media specialist is working in close coordination with the Public Awareness Component on doing a need assessment for the NGOs Coordinator office website. The media specialist is also working with counterparts in IREX to develop a proposal for coordination on awareness raising and advanced communication skills training for partners in Baghdad, Erbil, Basra, and Babylon regions. The program's Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) specialist and short-term consultant visited the Erbil Regional Office to provide staff with initial support in understanding and implementing M&E tools in accordance with the indicators given in the Performance Management Plan (PMP). The USAID has provided comments on the draft of the PMP submitted to them earlier, and the PMP is now being finalized in light of these comments. The program's training specialist is assisting the Iraqi Bar Association and component two team in training lawyers in international humanitarian rights law. The program is also working to respond to questions put forward by the Company Registry on its application, which was sent via the Ministry of Human Rights. Upcoming activities for the next week include the second round of new lawyers training, meetings with the NGO Coordinator's office to finalize details of the website, and follow-up meetings with the Iraqi Bar Association, the Iraqi Justice Union, the National Institute for Human Rights, and Baghdad Law School to discuss next steps of partnership and coordination. The grant team will also conduct on-site risk assessments of Salam Al Rafidain, Al-Mortaqa, and Women for Progress in Baghdad, and Women for Justice in Karbala province.