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Refugee Women and Domestic Violence

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Refugee Women and Domestic Violence REFUGEE WOMEN AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: COUNTRY STUDIES IRAQI KURDISTAN A report by Refugee Women’s Resource Project Asylum Aid Edition 3 September 2002 2 CONTENTS Acknowledgements ......................................................................................4 Explanatory note ..........................................................................................5 IRAQI KURDISTAN .........................................................................................7 1. Introduction...............................................................................................7 1.1 Political background............................................................................7 1.1.1 Events leading to Kurdish control ....................................................7 1.1.2 Formation of the ‘safe haven’...........................................................8 1.1.3 Current developments: Re-unification measures ...........................10 1.1.4 Threat of military intervention in Iraq..............................................10 1.2 Human rights practice.......................................................................11 1.3 Iraqi Kurdistan and international legal instruments ...........................12 1.4 Women’s human rights .....................................................................13 1.4.1 Women’s position in Kurdish society .............................................13 1.4.2 Violations acknowledged by KRG ministers...................................15 2. Domestic violence ..................................................................................16 2.1 Abuse of women widespread but under-reported .............................16 2.1.1 Women turn to suicide to escape abuse........................................19 2.2 Honour crimes ..................................................................................21 2.2.1 Prevalence of honour killings and recent political campaigning .....22 Conference: Honour Killings in Iraqi Kurdistan, June 2000, London.......22 2.2.2 Attitude of the PUK ........................................................................23 2.2.3 Attitude of the KDP ........................................................................24 2.2.4 Honour killings occurring outside Iraqi Kurdistan ...........................25 3. Domestic violence and the law...............................................................26 3.1 The legal system...............................................................................26 3.2 The law relating to honour crimes.....................................................26 3.3 The law relating to other offences of domestic violence ...................27 4. The reality of seeking protection.............................................................28 4.1 The police and general security issues.............................................28 4.2 The judicial and legal system............................................................30 4.2.1 Changes to the law on honour killings not put into practice ...........30 4.3 Other support services......................................................................31 Aram Shelter...........................................................................................34 5. The situation of separated or divorced women.......................................36 5.1 Marriage and the consequences of divorce ......................................36 5.2 Economic security.............................................................................38 5.2.1 Effects of UN sanctions..................................................................38 5.2.2 Vulnerability of women without male relatives ...............................41 5.3 Access to health services .................................................................42 6. Case law.................................................................................................44 6.1 United Kingdom ................................................................................44 Rashid v. SSHD, Appeal No. HX/03907/2002 ........................................44 Issue of possibility of returns to Iraqi Kurdistan.......................................44 Azad Gardi v. SSHD [2002] EWCA Civ 750 ...........................................45 Bibliography ...............................................................................................46 Appendix A.................................................................................................49 Home Office Country Assessment: Iraq, April 2002 ...................................49 3 Acknowledgements This edition of the report was written by Clare Palmer, Researcher at Asylum Aid’s Refugee Women’s Resource Project (RWRP), with the assistance of Bethany Collier, other Asylum Aid staff and members of the RWRP Advisory Committee. It is an addition to the previous reports of September 2001 and March 2002. We would particularly like to thank Elizabeth Dubicka, Alasdair Mackenzie and Steve Symonds for their support and assistance. We also gratefully acknowledge the help of RWRP volunteer Kau Belleh. We are very grateful to the following for providing information and commentary on the report: Sheri Laizer, Professor Shahrzad Mojab, Nazaneen Rashid, Sawsan Salim, Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers and Moni Shrestha. The RWRP and Asylum Aid are funded by the Community Fund, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Womankind Worldwide, Association of London Government, the Nuffield Foundation, Clifford Chance, Doughty Street Chambers, Two Garden Court Chambers, 11 King’s Bench Walk Chambers and many charitable trusts. We apologise for not mentioning all funders and supporters individually and gratefully acknowledge the support of them all. © Asylum Aid 2002. Excerpts from this report may be copied for use in presenting and assessing asylum claims, and also in related activities, when its authorship should be acknowledged. The report is available online at www.asylumaid.org.uk Refugee Women’s Resource Project Asylum Aid 28 Commercial Street London E1 6LS Tel: 020 7377 5123 Fax: 020 7247 7789 Email: [email protected] 4 Explanatory note This publication is the third edition of the report Refugee Women and Domestic Violence: Country Studies, published by RWRP in September 2001 and March 2002. Those reports examined the situation in 7 countries – Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, China, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran and Pakistan – and also included an introduction, which outlined the aims and objectives of the report and an overview of the issue of domestic violence in the context of refugee and asylum law. This is the report on Iraqi Kurdistan only. The full report contains country studies on Iraqi Kurdistan and Kosovo as well as updates on 4 of the 7 previous country reports. Information to update the remaining three could not be accessed in the time available. It is intended that the updates be inserted (as Appendix B or C) after the appropriate initial report. For ease of reference, sections of the reports which may be particularly useful have been highlighted in bold. Copies of the first two editions of the report, and the remainder of edition 3, can be obtained from RWRP at the address on the previous page at £10 each. Alternatively, the reports can be downloaded from our website. Refugee Women’s Resource Project March 2002 5 6 IRAQI KURDISTAN 1. Introduction 1.1 Political background The 5.2 million Kurds in Iraq make up approximately 30 per cent of the population. Of these, approximately 3.5 million live in the Kurdish-controlled area. The Kurdish population as a whole numbers over 31 million people, of whom about 22 million live in the region of Kurdistan that covers parts of Turkey, Iran, Syria, Iraq and the republics of the former Soviet Union, and the Kurdish people are the largest nation in the world without a state.1 The area presently known as Iraqi Kurdistan2 consists of most of the territory of the three northern governorates of Iraq: Duhok, Erbil and Sulaymaniah3. It is currently governed by two separate Kurdish-controlled administrations headed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) (Sulaymaniah) and the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) (Erbil and Duhok). Islamist groups such as IMIK (Islamic Movement of Iraqi Kurdistan) and others retain control in the Halabja area. See section 4.1 for more information on territorial control by various factions. 1.1.1 Events leading to Kurdish control Kurdish groups’ long struggle for independence had resulted in an agreement on autonomy for the region in 1970, extended by another in 1974, which were never fully implemented, although the area was at times designated an ‘autonomous region’. During the 1980s, a considerable amount of Northern Iraq became the front line in the war between Iraq and Iran. There was a complete emptying of the population from most of the areas close to the border with Iran. A continuous Kurdish defiance of the Iraqi central government and support to Iran culminated with the genocide known as the “Anfal” operations which took place between 1987 and 1989.4 The Anfal was a special operation of genocide bureaucratically engineered from 1987 to 1989 by the Ba’ath Party5 against the Kurds of Northern Iraq. Key areas of the Kurdish Autonomous Region were designated as targets of the Anfal. These vast areas comprising Kurdish towns and villages with populations of as many as 70,000 people per town were systematically destroyed by the military 1 See Nezan, Kendal, ‘The Kurds: Current Position and Historical
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