Aid, Transitional Justice and Women’s Rights in Iraq: An Overview of Recent Research
For decades, the people of Iraq have faced some of the most flagrant violations of human rights by various parties ranging from repressive regimes to insurgent movements. Over time, the state of women’s rights in Iraq has fluctuated, as has the meanings and forms ‘justice’ for atrocities have taken on the ground. Through this conflict-ridden history, the international community has played a critical role in Iraq, including through the provision of foreign aid.
This brief traces how the involvement of international actors, particularly donors, has influenced the shape of justice and the status of women since the post-Saddam era. It finds that disproportionate attention has been paid to addressing the crimes committed by the Saddam Hussein regime, while crimes committed during the United States’ (US) occupation of Iraq, the ensuing Sunni-Shia conflict, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) insurgency have received scant attention from the international community and within policy frameworks. The international community, particularly the US, played a critical role in shaping aid-fueled reconstruction, transitional justice (TJ), and women’s rights in post-Saddam Iraq. However, its top-down approach to implementation, detached from local needs, had a debilitating impact.
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