Building the Forensic Capacity in Iraq to Document Sexual Violence and Torture

The project aims to strengthen the capacities of Iraqi medical legal and law enforcement professionals and institutions to document incidents of sexual and gender-based violence for evidentiary purposes and to improve processes in accordance with international standards and best practices. The project activities include: (1) developing a standardized form for the forensic documentation of sexual violence and torture; (2) conducting advocacy meetings with the Ministry of Health Ministry of Interior Supreme Judicial Council and Ministry of Finance to get the form endorsed; (3) training clinicians and non-clinicians at the Medical-Legal Directorate (MLD) on forensic documentation of sexual and gender-based violence; and (4) training judges working in anti-terrorism courts and the juvenile justice system on obtaining informed consent interviewing skills the importance of forensic documentation of physical and psychological evidence report writing and vicarious trauma.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) enhanced gender-sensitive processes standardized documentation forms and mechanisms for survivor-centred and holistic care forensic documentation of sexual violence. This includes torture integrated into standard operating procedures and workflows by the Medical-Legal Directorate in Baghdad and governorate-level Medical-Legal Institutes in Iraq; (2)increased awareness among civil society organizations especially women and survivor-led organizations on the importance of multi-sectoral cooperation and coordination. This also includes the use of best practices in forensic documentation of sexual violence and torture to support prosecutions in Iraq; (3) enhanced knowledge among judicial legal and other allied sectors through a gender-balanced training approach on multi-sectoral collaboration to address sexual violence and torture and the fundamental forensic techniques; and (4) increased awareness of rights violations inherent in the use of the unscientific and re-traumatizing aspects of hymen and anal examination to prove sexual violence by the judicial and legal sector of in Iraq. It does so through gender-balanced and sensitive trainings to strengthen policies related to these practices.