Human Rights Advocacy Initiative Coalition 1st Stakeholders Conference

To support our Human Rights Advocacy Initiative (HRAI), IF held a conference for Iraqi human rights stakeholders on the 11th and 12th of November, 2008, which gathered more than 60 participants including Members of Parliament, ministries and government representatives as well as religious and community leaders, NGOs and the media. Among other things, participants discussed the achievements and challenges facing the Iraqi Parliament's Human Rights Committee, the responsibilities of human rights NGOs in building bridges between citizens and the government, as well as Iraq's commitments to the ratified international conventions on human rights. 

Prior to the Stakholders Conference, IF held the HRAI project's second coalition building meeting on November 10, which was attended by Executive Director Rend Al-Rahim. This meeting gathered 16 coalition members. The participants shared information about the progress of the project, discussed future activities, the challenges ahead, and reviewed some parts of the training on the Martus software, designed to unify and systematize the documentation and retrieval of human rights violations data.