Kawe Haji, 42, moves around the makeshift tent she calls home in the Khanke camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in Dohuk in Northern Iraq. A decade ago, she and her family fled Sinjar in Iraq’s Nineveh Governorate, where the Yazidi population suffered atrocities at the hand of Da’esh militants.
“It was chaos,” recalls Kawe. “We lost our home and all our belongings on the way to seek safety, including our identity documents. It wasn’t until we reached the camp that we realized how profoundly this loss would affect our lives.”
Like Kawe, many Iraqis have lost, expired or damaged civil documents due to fleeing violence and persecution. Others may have never had access to such documentation due to administrative and socio-economic barriers. Without documentation, Iraqis face challenges in enrolling their children in schools, accessing medical care or applying for social security support.
“Without documents, you can’t access your rights,” says Kawe, who experienced these challenges first-hand.
Due to displacement, she struggled to get birth certificates or other identity documents for her two youngest children. As a result, they were denied enrolment in school and her older children were forced to drop out. “I was at a loss about how to handle my children’s civil document applications,” she admits, reflecting on her struggle to navigate the country’s complex administrative and legal systems as well as afford the associated costs.
To overcome these challenges, Kawe approached UNHCR who together with our partner Harikar, provided her with legal counselling and helped her gather the required documentation to prove her and her children’s identities – a process that required months of follow-up with various legal entities in Sinjar and Dohuk to obtain supporting document.
Today, Kawe proudly holds up her new Nationality Certificate issued by Iraq’s Ministry of Interior, which will allow her to approach the hospital where her children were born to obtain birth certificates. These documents are prerequisites for Iraqis to apply for the Nationality Unified ID (UID).
Since 2019, UNHCR has worked closely with the Government of Iraq to support IDPs, IDP returnees and other vulnerable non-displaced Iraqis obtain core civil documents. In the past five years, 244,000 individuals received legal assistance and over 233,000 civil documents were issued as a direct result of legal aid services provided by UNHCR and its partners.
These achievements were made possible thanks to funding from the European Union’s Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), the Netherlands through the PROSPECTS partnership and France to UNHCR in Iraq. As Iraq moves further towards stabilisation and closer to achieving Sustainable Development Goals, international community support has been vital in strengthening the capacity of the Government of Iraq to protect and assist displaced populations, particularly addressing civil documentation needs.
“Soon, we will have everything we need to enjoy our rights,” says Kawe, filled with renewed hope for a brighter future for her children.
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