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Baghdad Women Association

Baghdad Women Association was established in 2004 as a response to the suffering of the women of Iraq under the dictatorship of the Former Regime and later through the instability which developed across the country. Baghdad Women Association was formed to address the particular way in which women were affected by these events.
Baghdad Women Association works to reduce violence against women and girls by providing all necessary support services to survivors of such violence, advocating for the implementation of appropriate laws, policies and government programs as well as working to increase women’s political participation through leadership development, knowledge and capacity building.
Baghdad Women Association runs 4 listening centers across Baghdad which provides social, legal and medical support services to women and girls victims of violence. It builds the capacity of diverse stakeholders and local authorities to develop adequate responses to enhance protection of women and girls. It also strongly advocates for implementation of UNSCR1325 in Iraq as a lead member of the INAP-1325 coalition which has developed the first National Action Plan in the Middle East for implementation of the UN Resolution.

OUR VISION
Our vision as Baghdad Women Association is to combat all forms of violence against women and girls and ensuring legal protection, equality, respect and all human rights for women and girls.

OUR MISSION
BWA will work to reduce violence against women and girls by providing all necessary support services to survivors of such violence, advocating for the implementation of appropriate laws, policies and government programmers as well as working to increase women’s political participation through leadership development, knowledge and capacity building.

OUR OBJECTIVES
In order to develop appropriate strategies for achieving our vision and mission, we identified a set of clear objectives. There are three main objectives.

To help women to heal from abuse and to provide them with the necessary support.

To facilitate women’s access to decision-making positions and to develop their leadership capacity.

To change the thinking and behavior of decision makers in order to prevent the violation of women’s rights, and to protect and promote the rights of women.

PROGRAMS

1- Support services refer to the help provided to individual women who come to the association and report cases of abuse or a violation of their rights. The women will receive counseling, legal advice and be helped to file cases with the police or through the courts.
Specific objective: To help women to heal from abuse and to provide them with the necessary support.

2- Women’s Leadership Development is a knowledge, skills and capacity building program that builds on the work already done by BWA. This program will continue to focus on training women on the constitution, the laws of Iraq as well as providing knowledge about international human rights instruments such as CEDAW.
Specific objective: To facilitate women’s access to decision-making positions and to develop their leadership capacity.

3- Advocacy is the third program area that BWA will work on. This program is aimed at changing laws, policies and government programs which discriminate against women and girls. An important part of advocacy is the documenting of violations as well as reporting on such violations. BWA will document the experiences of women and use opportunities such as Shadow Reporting to bring national and world attention to the plight of Iraq women.
Specific objective: To change the thinking and behavior of decision makers in order to prevent the violation of women’s rights, and to protect and promote the rights of women.

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