Human Rights Advocacy Initiative
(HRAI)

Project Granted in May, 2008

The goal of the Iraq Human Rights Advocacy Initiative is to empower Iraqi human rights leaders in civil society as well as in government ministries, parliament and in the media to be better advocates for human rights. The Iraq Foundation proposes a basket of initiatives designed to consolidate Iraq’s budding human rights community into a strong, broad-based advocacy coalition pressing to hold the Iraqi government accountable for the state of Iraqis' civil and political liberties. The initiatives will be designed and synchronized to be mutually enhancing and reinforcing.

The project has four objectives:

1) Launch a media and grassroots advocacy campaign to press the Iraqi government on ratification and adherence to international human rights conventions;

2) Raise human rights awareness at the grassroots level across the country through a nationwide, decentralized public education campaign;

3) Strengthen the monitoring, reporting, networking and advocacy skills of the human rights coalition members;

4) Assist the coalition to develop its human rights documentation and monitoring into official shadow reports to present at the UN Human Rights Council.

Iraq Foundation's guiding strategic principles for the project are:

Iraq Foundation will provide expert training in human rights monitoring, report writing and advocacy message development, and will facilitate advocacy coalition building activities, small grants activity, radio and TV campaigns, regular reporting on the human rights situation and shadow reports for presentation at Human Rights Council meetings in Geneva by Iraqi advocates. IF will facilitate two trips by NGO leaders to attend the Human Rights Council meetings. Iraq Foundation's implementing partner, a lebanon-based NGO, will provide leading advocates with new skills in advocacy and coalition building around human rights violations. A California-based NGO will provide all coalition members and the trainers exposure to Martus software with the goal of unifying and systematizing the documentation and retrieval of human rights violations data. All project interventions will work in synergy, providing leading Iraqi human rights advocates with both new skills and new opportunities to press for adherence to universal principles of human rights.