Women, Peace and Security in Iraq

The launch of the Iraqi National Action Plan (INAP) to implement the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (1325) on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) in 2014 is
 a significant step towards enabling women’s participation and protection in the processes of conflict resolution and peace-building in Iraq. Iraq’s National Action Plan identifies actions for increasing women’s participation at
 executive levels, enhancing gender equality in legal documents, removing legislation that violates women’s rights and for preventing violence against women. It mainly focuses on political participation and improving rights in non-war contexts. However, it does not
 specifically address some of the key areas of 1325: women’s participation in conflict resolution and reconciliation; prevention of violence against women; protection of women’s rights; and women’s specific relief needs in conflict and post-conflict. The Plan also suffers from other limitations. It is not the outcome of a participatory drafting process that included a wide-range of civil society organisations, state institutions
 and security and military forces. It does not have well-defined timelines, comprehensive implementation and monitoring mechanisms or clearly allocated budgets. Most importantly, the Plan is not sufficiently focused on the issues covered by 1325 and hence its effectiveness is undermined. Iraq is the first country in the Middle East to launch a national plan to implement 1325. This plan is an important and timely policy indicating the government’s commitment to the ‘Women, Peace and Security’ agenda.1 The current plan runs until 2018 and a revision should follow. This report offers recommendations for the next steps. INAP is a tremendously important development for Iraqi women and it is crucial to build on the positive momentum it has generated.