Iraqi Kurdistan
Partners: Kurdish Women's Rights Watch (www.kwrw.org), Women's Alliance for a Democratic Iraq (www.wafdi.org) and the Iraqi Women's Network (85 Iraqi Women's Groups)
The KRG is an important secular body in the Middle East and is poised to set positive standards for women in the region. As the KRG constitution is being shaped and increased attention is directed at Kurdistan as a source of democracy and stability in Iraq and the region, the GJC seeks to help Kurdish women use this critical opportunity to advance and enforce their equality rights. The success of Kurdish women could serve as a model for positive reform throughout the Middle East and everywhere.
In the past year the GJC has developed a strong relationship with its Kurdish partners. In November 2006, the GJC organized a conference at the Dead Sea, Jordan, to train judges from the Iraq High Tribunal and civil society leaders from Iraq on international law. The training was attended by a number of Kurdish women, including Mahabad Qaradghi, the first and only Advisor to the Kurdish Prime Minister on Women's Affairs, who spoke about honor killings, a growing concern in the Kurdish region. At the end of the training the Kurdish women expressed great interest in a follow up training in Kurdistan on how international law can help Kurdish women. The KWRW has agreed to organize all of the logistics on-the-ground, provide conference space and absorb some of the other training costs, including translating all of GJC's materials into Kurdish.