Iraq: meeting with the main Shia armed non-State actor and visits to government officials in Baghdad
20 January 2016
Geneva Call started its activities in Baghdad with a round of meetings with political, civil society and religious leaders. Mehmet Balci, Programme Director for the Middle East, met with the Prime Minister’s cabinet Director, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs and the parliamentary Human Rights Committee, all of whom expressed their support for Geneva Call’s work in Iraq.
He also met with the leaders of the Shia Popular Mobilization Units—currently fighting alongside the Iraqi security forces against ISIS—and started to plan future training sessions with them on humanitarian norms. Geneva Call also met with 20 Shia tribal leaders and then with Sunni political leaders with the goal of raising awareness of the necessity to disseminate humanitarian norms.
Finally, an agreement was reached between Geneva Call and the Psychological Research Center of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. It agreed to support Geneva Call’s action and to facilitate and provide training on humanitarian norms to civil society and armed actors.
This programme has been developed with the support of the European Union in partnership with the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action.
