Project name: Provision of Legal Assistance Service in Erbil , Northern Iraq.
Project duration: 1st from June 2012 until 31st May 2013.
Implementation partner: Women Empowerment Organization (WEO)
Key Achievements (6 month)
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Help Desk
The free legal helpdesk office was open every working day from 09:00 am to 01:30 pm ( Sunday to Wednesday ) and for Thursday it was open from 09:00 am to 12:30 am . it locates inside the Erbil investigation judges court. Having 2 Lawyers to give legal counseling and representation , a social worker is provided to give social counseling in needed cases and also having her role on family mediation with the support from the Lawyers.
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Services provided in the legal helpdesk office
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Legal counseling and representation.
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Social counseling.
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Family mediation.
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Referral to other service providers ( Bar association , LNGO’s )
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Referral to WEO ( SBDC ).
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First training / September
Practical information on how to implement the Domestic Violence law
For the new graduated Lawyers
On the 13th of September 2012, in cooperation with the Bar Association, the first planned training was conducted for the new lawyers. Mrs. Suzan Aref welcomed the attendees and gave them some brief information about WEO’s Legal Assistance Scheme Project in Erbil’s investigation judge’s court and about the free services provided for clients. Then, following this, the trainer, Ms. Narmen Hama Ahmed, discussed the aim of the training and the material that would be covered during the three-hour session. The focus of the training was on a recent law passed by the Kurdistan Parliament, the Domestic Violence Law (DV Law), which was the eighth law passed in 2011. Using a PowerPoint presentation Ms. Ahmed explained each point of the law for the newly graduated lawyers so they would have a better understanding of the articles and the ability to use them in their daily work with legal procedures in court.
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First Workshop conducted
The first workshop conducted in the 5th of October 2012 at the Ministry of Religious affairs hall for 20 religious leaders , the minster himself attended the workshop and presented a speech on women’s role in society and how man should respect women in all aspects of life and work they choose , he also put the light at the religious side and explained more about violence for the attendees , at the end he thanked WEO for having these kind of workshops and hoped for more cooperation’s in future projects. Then the trainer started explaining about the Domestic Violence law by a data show and give explanation on each article to avoid any kind of misunderstanding’s as previous the religious leaders for a while they were against this law till at the end they understood the articles and agreed to publish the law , a copy of the law distributed to all participants . the aim of the workshop was informing the religious leaders about the domestic violence law and its articles and to convincing the religious leaders to talk about it in their Friday speeches were male attends it and by this way there will awareness about women’s rights , avoiding violence and at the same time the male will respects women more by knowing that there is a a law that protects women.
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Focus meting and evaluation form
One of the activities in the legal helpdesk office is the focus group meeting. We had the focus meeting at the 8th of October for the beneficiaries that we receive during the months of ( June , July , August and September ) , we offered them our services at the Legal helpdesk office for free of charge , we wanted to know their opinions about the services in the legal helpdesk that they get , for that purpose WEO developed an evaluation form with the UNPD , its distributed among the participants to be filled to know their opinions about the services and in case in case of having any needs we will try to improve to be better in order to service our clients more. For some participant
as they were illiterate we tried to help them by having full confidentiality while filling the forms with them.
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Shared meeting :
The shared meeting was at 8th November 2012 , inviting all the related NGOs that provides legal services generally ,the DVAW directorate , bar association , women shelter and women prison and Kurdistan women union to discuss about the project and its services to make more clear points regarding to the referral and activating the referral system more .
Suggestions came from the shared meeting elaborated below:
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Updating all the service providers with quarterly reports.
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Activating the referral system with the service providers.
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Inviting more service providers.
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Monthly meetings with the DVAW.
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Visits to shelter and women prison
On daily basis, we visit the shelter and monthly basis visiting the women prison, to see if there is any case to get our support legally. We offer the clients free legal counseling and free legal representation for the neediest cases.
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Training for college of Law students:
We opened a training for 4 students ( 2 female and 2 male )from college of law at the legal helpdesk office , the aim of the training is to provide the students with information about the work of the legal helpdesk offices and its services for free , in a another side to be familiar with the work in courts by companying the lawyers while giving legal counseling to the clients and representing cases in courts in front of the judge’s. The duration of the training was 1 week and the students were very glad by their participation in the training.
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Radio programs:
6 radio programs aired in the Women Empowerment Radio ( WER) , by inviting lawyers to talk about the chosen legal topic and discussing it for the listeners.
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Newspaper article:
A newspaper article was published for announcing the services in the legal helpdesk for free of charge, 2000 copies distributed, a copy is provided to UNDP.
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Brochure:
A special brochure developed which includes general information about the legal helpdesk office (location, services, and hotline number) plus general information on WEO.
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Legal Assistance project / Business card :
The business card developed at late September to serve the project more, the aim of distributing the business card is to advertise for the hotline number of the project in order clients can call and get counseling directly by phone , when they call , the team calls them back to save the clients credit. We are distributing the business cards to all the other service providers that we have contacts with them.
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Service provided and gender of beneficiaries:
Items |
no |
Female |
male |
Consultation |
232 |
177 |
55 |
Representation |
131 |
128 |
03 |
Representation ( investigation court or following up ) |
122 |
106 |
16 |
Family mediation |
06 |
05 |
01 |
Total cases |
482 |
383 |
75 |
Type of legal cases |
Criminal |
Personal status law |
Civil |
263 |
104 |
140 |
28 |
