Trauma Network in Northern Iraq
More than two million Iraqis have escaped ongoing human rights violations in the past few years and fled from south and central Iraq; around 700,000 people sought refuge in the comparably safe northern provinces of the country.
With support from the German Foreign Office and the European Union, the bzfo and the Kirkuk Center for Torture Victims have been able to establish two additional treatment centers for traumatized victims of violence in the northern Iraqi cities of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah.
The Sulaymaniyah Center was founded in April 2009, the Erbil Center began its work in November 2009. Each facility currently employs 13 psychologists, medical doctors, social workers, physiotherapists and administrative staff. They aim to help around 600 victims of human rights violations each year. Both centers have also planned departments for traumatized children, and for women who are victims of domestic violence.
The cities of Sulaymaniyah and Erbil lie in the autonomous region of Kurdistan. This area, which has, since 1991, been governed by the Kurdish majority, covers the northern part of Iraq. Due to the stable security situation of the region there exists, to a large extent, a democratic way of life along with significant economic development. Sulaymaniyah is therefore considered the most modern and open city in Iraq. However, promoting women’s and children’s rights still remains a major task for the region.
Protection of Children’s Rights in Iraq
During the reign of the Baath regime, many underage children were imprisoned along with their parents, and abused, or forced to watch the torture of their relatives who were persecuted on political grounds. Even since the fall of the Saddam dictatorship children and young people have become victims of human rights violations: through selective abductions, arbitrary acts of war and terror attacks.
Even children who are not directly affected by torture and terror suffer from the consequences of this culture of violence. Collective traumata destroy family structures, through manifestations of domestic violence that become the breeding grounds for further conflicts.
Children have a right to be protected from violence and a right to a childhood free of violence – as well as the right to rehabilitation if they have been victims of abuse, torture or armed conflicts. In order to help implement these principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the bzfo has developed in 2009 a network of treatment departments for traumatized children and adolescents in northern Iraq. The services include:
- medical and psychological rehabilitation for traumatized children
- counselling for parents and family members
- professional visits to orphanages and youth detention centers
The project is supported by the German Foreign Office and the US State Department (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor).
Contact
Salah Ahmad
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Friederike Regel
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Michael Lehmann
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