Assessment of the child
protection system in
Iraq/Kurdistan
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Background
• Diakonia in Iraq/Kurdistan since 1994
• Operating 3 centers for social
protection/child protection
• Improve capacities and respect for child
protection
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Assessment in two phases
• 1) A child protection systems
assessment covering legislation,
procedures and needs for capacity
building
• 2) How to improve the quality of work
performed by the three centers
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Iraq/Kurdistan
• Federal entity since
2005
• Population almost 4
million
• 36% 0-14 years, 4%
above 63
• More than 50% are
under 20 years
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Child protection systems
assessment in Iraq/Kurdistan
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•
•
•
•
Legal framework
Coordination mechanisms
Available services
Human and financial resources
Children’s and parents’ access to
service
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Constraints and limitations
• Not possible to visit services providers
• Not enough interviews with civil society
• Not possible to meet with extremely
vulnerable children
• Sample group of children and parents
came from Dohuk
• Lack of reliable statistics
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International legal framework
• The CRC (1994)
• The ILO Conventions 138 and 182
(1985 and 2001)
• Not party to the two Optional Protocols
of the CRC
• Not party to the Conventions on the
Status of Refugees or Statelessness
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National legal framework
The Iraqi Constitution (2005) endorses
the CRC
• State and family the main duty bearers
• Economic exploitation prohibited
• All forms of violence and abuse in the
family, school and society prohibited
• All forms of psychological and physical
torture prohibited
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A Kurdistan Child Rights Law in
process
• With UNICEF support
• Currently children’s rights and
responsibilities are defined in the
Juvenile Law, the Social Law and the
Labour Law.
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Interviews
Ministries of
• Labour and Social Affairs (and general
directorate in Dohuk)
• Interiors
• Justice
• Education
• Health (and general directorate in
Dohuk)
Five NGOs (partners of Diakonia)
Parents and children (in Dohuk)
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UNICEF
• Study on VAC
• Develop internal policies for law
encorcement
• Support Child Helplines
• Mine risk education, psychosocial
support
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Questionnaire for ministries
• The definition of child protection
• The legal framework
• The services provided in terms of
prevention, detection, reporting and
response
• The coordination
• The human resources
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MoLSA
Example of matrix
What are the services provided? Who provides them?
Action
Details
Provided by
whom
Contact details
of provider
Prevention
Detection
Reporting
Early intervention
Family support
Response
Reintegration
Alternative care
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Coordination
MoE
MoH
MoI
MoJ
Prevention
Detection
Reporting
Response
Legal
framework,
policies,
protocols
Method of
coordination
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MoLSA
• Juvenile law: ”Prevent the phenomena
of juvenile offense by protecting the
juvenile from delinquency”
• The social law: nothing but 2 small
references to children with disabilities
• The child labour law
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Directorate of Social Care and Development:
• Special care (”orphanages”)
• Centers for children at risk of delinquency (street
children)
• No detection of children in need of social support
• No reporting mechanism
• Plan to establish Help-lines (with support from
UNICEF)
Directorate of Labour
• No programme to address child labour
Directorate of Reformatory:
• In charge of institutions for children in conflict with
the law in close collaboration with Ministry of
Interior
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Ministry of Interiors
• Protects the population from crime and
terrorism
• Juvenile Police stations detect children
in conflict with the law or children at risk
of delinquency
• Child protection is a family matter
• Need for capacity building on how to
talk to and interrogate minors
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Ministry of Justice
• Juvenile courts – minimum age 11
If sentenced
• Juvenile reformatory
If delinquent
• Rehabilitation centers
• Parents risk to loose custody
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Ministry of Education
• Law prohibiting physical and
phsycological punishment
• Law on free and compulsory education
• No mechanism for detection, response
or referral
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Ministry of Health
• No protocol for detection, reporting and
assistance – doctors are prohibited
• Children not allowed to go to the
hospital without parent
• Need for capacity building on how to
talk to children, help them overcome
traumas
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Focus group discussions
• Fathers (10)
• Mothers (36)
• Boys (19)
• Girls (8)
Children aged between 4 and17
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Discussions focused on:
• Definition of child protection
• national and international law
• access to and opinion about available
reporting mechanism
• access to and opinion about responsive
services
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Example of matrix
•Do you use these reporting mechanisms?
•Which specific cases of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation you think should be reported?
Reporting mechanisms
Y
ES
N
O
Comments
Police station
Social workers in the MoLSA
Doctors in the hospital
Teachers in schools
Counselors in schools
Local or international NGOs
Mukhtars
Imams
Other members of the community
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Fathers
• Concerned about protection in school
• Law against domestic violence is
humiliating and increase divorce rate
• Better to address root causes by
teaching children about non-violence
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Mothers
• Aware of law, but limited knowledge
• VAC is culturally accepted and mothers
are the main perpetrators
• If a child is punished in school he/she
deserves it
• Protection issues in the home cannot be
reported
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Children
• Not aware of a law on child protection
but some had heard of the CRC
• All aware of the juvenile law
• All had been subject to physical
punishment in school - report to parents
• Most violence takes place between
children
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Summary
• Violence against children is a family
affair
• The system in place is a child correction
system
• Children are perceived as perpetrators
not victims of rights violations
• Protection is ”education, health, food”
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Summary cont…
• Reporting and referral mechanism do
not exist – only for the detection and
response of children in conflict with the
law
• Lack of specialised staff on child
protection within MoLSA
• General lack of capacity to understand
child protection and knowledge about
the law
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Summary cont…
• Lack of disaggregated data
• Lack of awareness among parents and
children on children’s rights, the
negative impact of violence, alternative
discipline, how to prevent exposure to
risks
• Insufficient coordination
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Reflections
• Did we ask the right questions?
• What were the traditional protection
mechanisms?
• The current law reinforces the current
belief
• The ocean of preventive measures
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To be continued…..
Thank you for your attention!
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