Ambra Malandrin, head of the project "Building futures: promoting peace through education" financed by 8x1000 funds from the Soka Gakkai Italian Buddhist Institute, tells "Il Nuovo Rinascimento" about the results of the first months of activity in the Safe Spaces we set up in Raqqa, which for years have continued to guarantee protection services to women and children.
WHAT DOES THE PROJECT 'BUILDING FUTURES: PROMOTING PEACE THROUGH EDUCATION' CONSIST OF? WHAT ARE ITS OBJECTIVES?
The humanitarian crisis situation in Syria is very delicate, there are serious shortages of essential services, including education. An estimated 2.4 million children are out of the education system and there is a very high illiteracy rate. Children aged 12-14 are sent to work and girls are forced to marry.
The city of Raqqa is still scarred by the occupation of Daesh (ISIS). This occupation has broken down the social fabric and led to an increase in child labour as families live in economically degrading conditions.
One of the aims of the project is to provide non-formal education to eliminate the gap between those who go to school and those who do not: due to high costs and lack of facilities many families are unable to support their sons' and daughters' education. Through the project we provide them with literacy and basic numerical skills for illiterate women; remedial schooling for children out of the education system, to facilitate their reintegration into formal schooling; extracurricular support courses for children who, despite attending school, find it difficult to study due to social hardship or lack of educational support.
Non-formal education also includes peace-building and conflict resolution training. Another objective is psycho-social protection and support, which aims to support the development of personal resilience to overcome problems arising from crisis situations and trauma and to counter abuse, child labour and gender-based violence.
THE PROJECT WAS SUPPORTED WITH 8X1000 FUNDS FROM THE SOKA GAKKAI FOR THE THIRD YEAR. CAN YOU SHARE THE RESULTS ACHIEVED SO FAR?
Your contribution has been crucial, starting in 2022 we reached 4,400 individuals in just six months with protection projects, through individual support, recreational activities and psycho-social support. In 2023, we reached 18,000 people through radio campaigns and one-to-one sessions, with awareness-raising initiatives focusing on topics such as gender-based violence prevention, child protection, women's rights and the rights of persons with disabilities. We have seen a positive impact on the population, particularly in Raqqa where safe spaces have been created for girls who are survivors of gender-based violence. This year, with the inclusion of other educational and peacebuilding activities, we reached in just three months about 130 children and women with educational activities, 160 with protection interventions and more than 10,000 people with an International Day of Peace radio programme. We also train local staff on gender-based violence issues to make the project sustainable for the future.
HOW DO YOU DEVELOP NON-FORMAL EDUCATION AND WHAT RESULTS DO YOU EXPECT?
Non-formal' education is flexible and responds to different needs of people. It has three basic components: integrating children who have been excluded into the national education system, filling the educational gap that does not allow them to attend classes with their peers. The second component is school preparation, i.e. after-school courses, to support children who have difficulties in studying due to social hardship or poor educational and economic support and therefore drop out of school. This aspect of non-formal education includes tutoring in certain subjects, such as mathematics, science and English. In our centres there is a room where children can stay between classes to do their homework with a teacher to help them.
The last component is basic numeracy and literacy for tutors. This improves the women's practical skills but also strengthens their educational role within the family, promoting greater autonomy and increasing their employment possibilities. Peace education is always integrated into recreational activities, e.g. conflict resolution and climate change, and mixed sessions with approximately 500 participants are planned to create community dialogue and reduce intergenerational tensions, but also to develop greater civic awareness.
WHAT ARE SAFE SPACES AND WHAT KIND OF ACTIVITIES DO THEY INVOLVE?
UPP-DOZ Safe Spaces are protected environments where women and children can access psychosocial support, educational activities and protective services in an inclusive and respectful context. One of these Safe Spaces is dedicated to girls and another to children and adolescents. Their aim is to provide protection, e.g. there is an integrated approach with sessions such as emotional and peace education.
They also discuss gender-based violence, early marriage and child labour. Cases of gender-based violence are still very high, one of them being forced marriage, in which about 80 per cent of 15-year-old girls are forced into marriage.
For this reason, in our centres women find staff trained by UPPs(case workers) who can effectively support them in cases of violence and can access them more easily because they are in the same places where women go for other activities; therefore, they do not have to openly declare to their family members (often the abusers themselves) that they are going to the anti-violence centre to ask for support.
There are also recreational and play activities and parenting training sessions, which aim to implement child protection capacity within families. There are many courses that involve strengthening mutual support between women because female isolation is very strong in Raqqa. There is also a place set up to take care of smaller children so that female guardians can participate in other activities while children are in contact with experts in child care.
WHAT KIND OF FUTURE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE REALISED THANKS TO THE PROJECT?
The impact we would like to see is radical and lasting with an emphasis on non-formal education because for us this is the key to progress and empowerment and must be pursued holistically.
We aim to realise opportunities for growth by increasing the autonomy of the people we work with and this is necessary to prevent contextual problems such as child labour and violence. Of course, peaceful education also serves this purpose, to strengthen the social fabric.
We would like to create and maintain safe environments and support people in overcoming momentary difficulties, such as the current ones, in which the Syrian population is once again experiencing a severe crisis, but we would also like these tools to have a long-term impact, as resilience tools, to build a fabric of peace that starts from the local communities themselves.
Following the recent forced displacement due to political changes and the risk of military occupation, since early December 2024, Raqqa has been facing an emergency situation in which all public schools have been converted into collective centres to accommodate over 50,000 displaced people in a matter of weeks. This has left thousands of chidren without access to education, exacerbating the already existing education gap. Displaced children are also not attending school, further increasing the need for non-formal education interventions in emergency settings. In the coming months, we will closely monitor the changes and growing demand, as evidenced by the long waiting lists for our non-formal education courses, which far exceed the resources currently available.
Ambra Malandrin
Protection & Education Coordinator
For over 30 years, we have worked in Iraq to protect the rights of the population, especially women and minors, respecting the complexities and richness of the Iraqi mosaic. Over the past six months, and particularly in recent days, Iraqi public opinion and civil society have been engaged in a significant debate regarding the rights of women and girls.
“In today’s world, where the rights of women and children are finally central to public discourse, even in Iraq, allowing marriage under the age of 18 is dangerous and could have catastrophic consequences for Iraqi society.” This is explained with great clarity by our Iraqi Head of Mission, who has worked with us for decades.
Indeed, three laws were recently passed in parliament, including one on personal status, which has sparked intense internal debate in the country over the years, largely ignored by international media. These laws, shaped by political compromises and sectarian divisions, are considered by many in Iraqi civil society to be among the most dangerous ever presented in parliament due to their impact on women, society, and Iraq’s already fragile social cohesion. There are also concerns about the constitutionality of the parliamentary session held on Tuesday, January 21, during which, in just 10 minutes, three highly divisive laws were approved (as highlighted by the Coalition 188 in a public statement). Among these, the amendments to the Personal Status Code are particularly troubling. This code governs personal and legal capacity, family law, marriage, the rights and duties of spouses, property arrangements, separation, divorce, filiation and custody, maintenance, guardianship, inheritance, and more.
THE PERSONAL STATUS CODE OF 1959
The Code, enacted in 1959 following the establishment of the Iraqi republic, was the result of mobilization by various segments of society, including the early women’s organizations that played a central role. The Code aimed to establish a unified legal system governing the personal status of all individuals. Based on Islamic principles, the Code also introduced a series of “civil” rights and protections, especially concerning marriage, divorce, inheritance, and the rights of women and minors. These were guaranteed to all citizens, regardless of their religious or sectarian affiliation. Since 2003, the Code has faced periodic attacks and attempts to amend it, which were countered by the mobilization of women, civil society, and political actors. At least until last Tuesday, when parliament approved new amendments that dismantle the Code’s “civil” character and increase the influence of Ja'fari (Shiite) and Hanafi (Sunni) jurisprudence as sources of law. This shift contradicts the Iraqi Constitution, which—while acknowledging the importance of religious traditions—emphasizes the establishment of a civil and democratic state rather than a religious or theocratic system. The original intent of the 1959 Personal Status Code was to safeguard civil rights, particularly for mothers and minors, without conflicting with Islam or other major religions in Iraq. The current advancement of sectarian laws significantly worsens the state of human rights in the country.
THE AMENDMENTS OF JANUARY 2025
The main change introduced by the amendments is the reduction of the 1959 Code to just one of several possible legal frameworks for personal status matters. Alongside it, both Shiite and Sunni jurisprudence are now included. In this context, the most alarming aspect of the new amendments is the legalization of child marriages. According to Ja'fari jurisprudence in Shiite Islam, the legal age for marriage is set at 9 years old for girls. The primary change is that the law can now vary depending on individuals’ religious affiliations, effectively institutionalizing sectarianism in the legal system and further dividing Iraqi society, with severe consequences for the country’s stability and security. Another modification repeals Section 5 of Article 10, which has been in force for over 15 years to prevent extrajudicial (i.e., exclusively religious) marriages. Until now, courts were required to approve all marriages, ensuring they met legal criteria on a case-by-case basis. The repeal strips state judges of their authority in this area, explains Coalition 188, a group of civil society actors at the forefront of resisting the changes to the 1959 law.
HOW IT AFFECTS IRAQI WOMEN
In addition to the already mentioned legalization of child marriage, the amendments and institutionalization of the principle of “sect” have particularly harmful consequences for Iraqi women and girls. Some of these include:
WOMEN IN IRAQ
It’s easy to see how these changes represent a significant deterioration in the lives of Iraqi women, whose courageous struggles for self-determination we have often supported and highlighted. Without going too far back in history, we can look at the events of October 2019, when women took to the streets in Iraq’s major cities to claim their space and voice in typically male-dominated environments. In February 2020, they marched through Baghdad in response to calls for them to return home and leave the public squares. Or we can turn to the words of long-time Iraqi feminist activist Hana Edwar, captured in Silvia Abbà’s book, Il mio posto è ovunque. Voci di donne per un altro Iraq (Astarte Edizioni and Un Ponte per):
“On February 13, 2020, there was a march in many Iraqi cities—Baghdad, the center, and the south of the country. It was incredible; women from all walks of life were there, young women leading the march with such confidence… Thousands of women walking the streets chanting slogans against gender violence. It was beautiful. I’m so proud of them. In that moment, I felt the entire space speaking about women as the revolution, as the voice of the revolution, the voice of trust in change, for a new future in Iraq.”
Even in less extraordinary circumstances, Iraqi women fight daily for their rights in their families, workplaces, and universities. As our Head of Mission concludes: “It is unimaginable for a young girl to become pregnant while still attending primary school. This is not the society we want to build. We Iraqis want a democratic, civil society that respects diversity. That’s why we need laws that apply equally to all social, religious, ethnic, and sectarian groups.” We can only share these concerns, these hopes, and continue to walk every day alongside our Iraqi sisters.
In February 2024, in light of Israel's terrible genocidal offensive against the population of the Gaza Strip, Un Ponte Per launched its 'Water for Gaza' campaign. Thanks to the relationship we built with our local partner - the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) -; to the extraordinary generosity of the people who donated; and to the many solidarity organisations that organised initiatives throughout Italy - we managed to achieve important results.
The aim was to provide a modicum of relief to the hard-hit population, which is experiencing a severe shortage of food and drinking water.
Together with UAWC and the incredible work of its local teams in Gaza, we reached more than 30,000 people in nine months with distributions of clean water, food baskets and hygiene kits.
What are we actually doing?
Supply of drinking water
This initiative focused on the urgent need for clean water and sanitation to several refugee camps in the central and southern regions of the Gaza Strip. Our intervention reached 5,500 families with 142 cubic metres of clean water to people who previously depended on expensive or contaminated water sources.
Provision of food parcels and hygiene kits
We distributed 72 food parcels to as many fishing families, totalling 396 people displaced or made homeless by the conflict in various areas of the Gaza Strip. This targeted aid played a key role in addressing some of the urgent needs of the affected communities, offering crucial support in a time of extreme need. The food parcels included a balanced variety of nutritious food products, including cereals, pulses, canned food. In addition, we were able to distribute hygiene kits to 500 displaced families.
Installation of eight water tanks
We have been able to install 3 water tanks with a capacity of 5,000 litres, and 4 tanks with a capacity of 2,000 litres to provide lasting support to communities forced to be displaced by Israeli military order. As soon as conditions allow us to do so, the humanitarian and logistical effort will be to support the reconstruction of water purification facilities militarily destroyed by the occupying force.
Installation of 'Dignity Box'
We have installed 4 toilet units, each consisting of 4 toilets in 4 different informal camps (one in Al-Zuwayda, one in Deir al-Balah and two in Nuseirat) to serve 358 families and approximately 1700 individuals. Unfortunately, the continuous forced displacement of Gaza families has now caused their savings to be depleted. Thus, families have been stranded in areas totally lacking in facilities. Thousands of people are crammed into makeshift tents, without sanitary facilities, deprived of their dignity. Israeli blockades continue to prevent access for sewage treatment materials and this is causing progressive faecal contamination of the groundwater. With winter looming, the possibility of flooding is great, as already happened in the area of Khan Younis and Al Mawasi in late September. Such floods pose a huge health risk and have a serious impact on the dignity and resilience of the population. According to UNICEF, under these conditions children are almost 20 times more likely to die of diarrhoeal diseases than from bombs . This is why our 'hygiene boxes' pursue the dual objective of safeguarding the dignity of displaced families and not feeding the very serious water contamination that causes infectious diseases.
SECURING TENTS
As winter approaches, the needs of the people of Gaza increase, as do the catastrophic risks of disease and famine. In al-Mawasi, in the central area of the Gaza Strip, we were able to secure the worn-out tents of about 200 families with water-repellent tarps that withstand the elements.
All this was made possible by the generosity of those who donated, and by the work of UAWC's highly specialised team in Gaza, who made distributions according to need and to those who needed it most.
The siege of Gaza continues and hunger and thirst are used as weapons of war, despite the fact that international conventions and humanitarian law prohibit this. With the arrival of summer, the lack of access to drinking water is multiplying gastrointestinal diseases and typhoid and cholera epidemics are feared. Dozens of boys and girls have now died from hunger and dehydration. In addition, the Israeli army's possible offensive in Rafah, where 1.5 million displaced Palestinians live crammed in, risks multiplying the current humanitarian catastrophe tenfold.
We sincerely thank those who donated individually and collectively, supporting the 'Water for Gaza' campaign, testifying to the attention and solidarity of Italian civil society far removed from the government's positions.
How we manage to bring water and food to the Gaza Strip
Activities are carried out through a combination of direct distribution to families and collaboration with local organisations to reach the most vulnerable populations. Our local partner, UAWC, uses mobile distribution units for areas with limited access and establishes distribution points in areas that are less at risk of Israeli attack.
The fresh part of the food parcels is obtained from the few farmers who, despite the difficulties, continue to cultivate in Der-al-Balah and Khan Yunis, where the attempt to economically resist the brutal military siege continues. These farmers are in contact with the local UAWC committees, which buy their produce. The funds arrive from Ramallah to the Committees' bank accounts, which then package and distribute the food parcels.
Non-fresh food is procured through the few trucks that manage to enter, focusing only on essentials such as oil and canned goods. Products that have been subject to spiralling prices. Water is taken from two still functioning wells in the south and then distributed via cisterns, in a system consolidated during the years of siege.
UAWC is trying to rehabilitate two wells in the north for the people left behind, with the intention of using solar panels if possible. This effort is also an act of resistance, a demonstration that the land belongs to the community.
Meanwhile, the situation of the wells in the south is being mapped in the hope of rehabilitating them as far as possible. The rehabilitation of the wells is one of the first emergency activities being undertaken, all in cooperation with the local UAWC committees.
Our work continues
We continue to strongly denounce the genocide carried out by Israel against the people of Gaza. We call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, and we join the call of our Palestinian partner UAWC, which:
We invite those who support us to:
"The efforts you are making to support us represent a vital contribution, and remind us that there is still good in the world. Every drop of water in this ocean of need counts, and will make a difference to so many".
This is the message from our partners in the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) to all the people who are supporting us.
In December 2024, the Syrian National Army (SNA) backed by Turkey, has been reported to commit severe violations in northeast Syria, specifically targeting the city of Manbij. These acts have included attacks on health facilities, which are vital lifelines for the local population and displaced individuals. Un Ponte Per (UPP) denounces that such actions constitute a blatant violation of international humanitarian laws that explicitly protect medical facilities and personnel during armed conflicts.
The Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC), our partner organization and principal healthcare provider in the region, has been severely affected by these hostilities. The primary healthcare centers in Manbij and Abu Qalqal supported by our joint projects, which offer critical services such as internal medicine, pediatrics, gynecology, psychological support, laboratory diagnostics, pharmacy access, and emergency services, were vandalised and looted on Dec 08, with medical equipment and supplies worth thousands of dollars stolen from the facilities in addition to 1 ambulance from Abu Qalqal. Similarly, Al Furat hospital, which is the only secondary/tertiary public hospital in Menbij was stormed by armed SNA fighters. KRC's ambulance centre, which is within the premises of Al Furat hospital, was also vandalised and looted with 3 ambulances being stolen. This healthcare infrastructure is essential not only for the city but also for surrounding areas that rely on it for survival.
The reported vandalism, looting, and destruction of healthcare facilities during this time are acts of grave aggression. These targeted attacks on medical centers exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis, depriving vulnerable populations of essential medical care and violating their fundamental rights.
The international community must urgently take a stand against these violations. Immediate and robust measures are needed to ensure the preservation and protection of health facilities, the safety of medical staff, and the continuation of lifesaving services. Supporting organizations like the Kurdish Red Crescent, which tirelessly serve affected populations, is critical to mitigate the consequences of this conflict.
The targeting of health facilities and the acts of vandalism perpetrated against them are unacceptable under any circumstances. All parties to the conflict must be held accountable to ensure compliance with international laws safeguarding humanitarian spaces. An unequivocal call is made to stop these aggressions and to prioritize the safety and well-being of civilians above all else.
Appeal by Un Ponte Per, developed thanks to the testimonies of our staff and field partners.
After 13 years of uninterrupted conflict and war, Syria - forgotten by the international community and out of the media headlines - is back in the news for yet another crisis affecting its population. What has been happening since the end of November is a direct consequence of turning our eyes away from that context, forgetting a conflict that continues uninterrupted with a devastating impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
From Aleppo to Idlib to Hama, the situation is serious and is affecting the population and the possibility of action by humanitarian actors.
We at Un Ponte Per have been present in the North East of Syria since 2015, working side by side with a number of long-standing local partners - including the Kurdish Red Crescent (Heyva Sor a Kurd - KRC) and Doz International, with interventions aimed at ensuring free access to healthcare, rebuilding the local health system, creating Safe Spaces to support women and children survivors of war and gender-based violence with psychological support and education.
Today, we can only observe what is happening with deep concern and anguish for our colleagues, friends and the entire population. With our ambulances and Mobile Medical Units we are preparing to receive new flows of people fleeing, restless, seeking shelter, moving to where they are most needed to provide first aid and guidance. In the coming hours, we expect at least 120,000 people to arrive.
In the city of Raqqa, still in rubble and far from overcoming the page of war that has engulfed it, we have set up a first aid point in the city stadium together with KRC to receive people fleeing. These are mainly Kurdish people, previously displaced from Afrin, who are now leaving Aleppo moving eastwards.
In the meantime, we are reconverting our work in Raqqa into first aid interventions: the Safe Spaces that usually support women and children survivors of gender-based violence, operational thanks to our local partner Doz International, are providing first reception, orientation and psychological support to the people arriving, who have joined those fleeing Lebanon in recent weeks. And it was precisely with our colleague Dilbrin, from Doz, that we had spoken a few days before this new crisis erupted, while another one was already unfolding on the ground: that of the Syrian people who had fled the war in Lebanon in recent years, forced to retrace their path in reverse, to escape this time the Israeli offensive on Beirut.
"The situation is very complicated, because Raqqa remains a city deeply wounded by the war, still partially in rubble, lacking schools, health facilities, normal living spaces for people," Dilbirin told us, explaining how the Safe Spaces for women and children opened together had become an important reference point for the population over the years. Both for those in Raqqa, who had finally found a place where they could be supported psychologically, and who had recently also started to provide remedial classes for children forced to drop out of school; and for the Syrian population arriving from Lebanon. "They already knew us because we had helped them in the past. When people came back, they knew they could count on us like you count on long-time friends. In Safe Spaces, we were able to direct them to services provided by other organisations, to give them a hand in putting conflict-torn lives back together again," Dilbrin said. Now, they will be joined by new flows of internal migration generated by this umpteenth emergency.
Since 27 November, in fact, the fighting front has been volatile, changing from day to day and making it extremely difficult to predict future scenarios. At the moment, the cities of Aleppo, Idlib and Hama are suffering the worst conditions, where heavy bombardment is reported, hitting key facilities such as water plants, schools, hospitals and clinics, making it very difficult to provide treatment and first aid.
Therefore, thanks to the valuable work of our colleagues and local partners, we will continue to do our utmost to support the population as we have always done, and as long as necessary.
Since last September, the region-wide Israeli offensive has caused disastrous consequences for the civilian population in Lebanon. An estimated 475,000 people have already crossed the border between Lebanon and Syria in search of shelter. Of these, at least 71 per cent are Syrians who have already fled the same way in the past, but in reverse: from the war in Syria they had entered Lebanon, seeking refuge. Today they are going back, on a path without peace.
This is a story we know well. For years, whenever a conflict has affected the populations of the countries where we operate, we have been at the borders to provide reception, guidance and first aid to people fleeing wars. Today we return to do so in north-eastern Syria, where we have been operating since 2015, and where we immediately took action to provide aid and first aid in coordination with our local partners, the Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC), to Syrian and Lebanese people arriving
First, we set up two medical units at the main crossing points between the Syrian regime-controlled areas and the north-eastern area where we are present.
These medical units have been strategically placed at the first point of entry of incoming persons to provide essential medical services. The main objective of these mobile diagnostic units is to ensure that all persons in need of assistance receive the necessary support, in particular those wishing to cross into north-eastern Syria only to reach north-western Syria. This service is also crucial for people without identity papers, providing care and necessary help while waiting to receive them.
The UPP and KRC medical team ensured that these units are fully equipped with the necessary resources to provide high quality primary care, guaranteeing the presence of stable staff.
In addition, we have provided a 24-hour ambulance service to transport people in need to the nearest medical facilities. These are vehicles that KRC has provided and that shuttle between the clinics we have built together in Manbij and Raqqa.
Tents have been set up near the medical units, one for men and one for women, to provide privacy and rest for the arriving people: it often takes three to four days to reach the first crossing point into Syria from Lebanon. Some people are expressing a desire to continue on to north-western Syria, so they remain in tents while they complete the necessary paperwork, wait for documents and finalise their journeys. These processes take time, and the tents we have set up provide a place to wait.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for 'crimes against humanity and war crimes' committed in Gaza since 8 October 2023, calling the ongoing one a 'widespread and systematic attack against the population'.
The main accusations concern the use of hunger and thirst as a tool of war and indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population and health facilities. According to the Court, conditions were created that could be described as persecution of the Palestinian population in Gaza.
This is a historic decision, which will allow international jurists and experts to bring many other Israeli officials and political representatives, as well as those responsible for complicity with the genocide, before the Court.
The impunity granted to Israel by the international community must end. We hope that this is only the first step. As Gaza strips the world bare, we continue to support the Palestinian people and their struggle for survival, freedom, justice and self-determination.
We call on the Italian government to protect the independence of the ICC from the Israeli government's attempt to delegitimise it and to immediately give the Court unconditional cooperation in the implementation of the arrest warrants
Civil society is considered a key actor in the democratisation and development process of countries. Covering a range of fields, civil society acts as a bridge between local communities and the authorities, facilitating citizens' participation in public life and providing basic services. Iraqi civil society is no exception. In Iraq, the origins of civil society date back to the 1920s. Despite its early emergence, long years of authoritarian rule and several conflicts affected the effectiveness and involvement of civil society in the life of the country. It was only after the military ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003 that civil society was finally able to flourish again. More than two decades after the US military invasion, Iraqi civil society is an important actor on the public stage, where it plays significant roles, including providing humanitarian aid to victims of war and violence, offering legal support to vulnerable and marginalised groups, promoting and consolidating the principles of peace, peaceful coexistence, human rights and justice, supporting women's rights, fighting corruption, monitoring parliamentary and provincial elections, and many more.
The role of civil society in Iraq is recognised by law, thanks to international treaties signed by Iraq and a series of national and regional laws adopted over the past two decades. In addition to these, a number of operational measures regulate civil society in the country.
After a first part on the origins of civil society and its role, the study presents an overview of the legal and operational framework governing civil society in central and southern Iraq, as well as in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. The study suggests a number of recommendations to local authorities to promote cooperation between civil society actors and institutions.
The research was carried out in the framework of the EU-funded project Mubadara - Fostering an Enabling Environment for Civil Society in Iraq, in partnership with Peace and Freedom Organisation and Ufuq Organisation for Human Development.
To download the full study:
Today, for us at Un Ponte Per, is an important day. In fact, Flai CGIL has chosen to give concrete support to our fundraising campaign 'Water for Gaza', with which we are distributing drinking water, food and hygiene kits to Palestinian families affected by the Israeli offensive, thanks to the valuable work of our local partner, the Union of Agricultural Work Comittees (UAWC).
The Union of Palestinian Agricultural Work Committees is an NGO that has been active for over 30 years in Palestine, supporting Palestinian farmers, workers and fishermen, protecting land and distributing seeds.
On 5 November 2024, Flai and Un Ponte Per signed an agreement that will allow the funds collected by the union from the payments made by Flai national workers in the general strikes of the last two years to be allocated to Gaza.
'We are proud to be able to stand by the martyred Palestinian people , ' explained Flai CGIL Secretary General Giovanni Mininni at the signing of the agreement . 'More than forty thousand deaths in one year is an intolerable reality. We want to actively promote in all areas of the organisation the spirit of militancy and solidarity necessary to build a permanent mobilisation against the war, for the implementation of a just transition that puts work, economic, environmental and social sustainability, democracy, freedom and Peace back at the centre'.
"At a time of unprecedented regional humanitarian crisis, any help can make a difference, as can forging solidarity links between European and Palestinian workers for the protection of land," said our President, Giulia Torrini, and our Director, Martina Pignatti . "All the more so because Flai's support will not only be limited to the humanitarian response to the emergency, but aims to promote initiatives of economic and technical support to small farmers and fishermen, often organised in cooperatives, to enable them to resume their activities as soon as possible once the humanitarian crisis is over. While denouncing the war crimes and grave violations of international law committed by the Israeli army, we are jointly committed to giving a horizon of hope to those in Palestine who refuse to abandon their land and surrender to despair'.
All of us at Un Ponte Per thank Flai for being able to build together another piece of the solidarity needed by the Palestinian population, particularly in the Gaza Strip, so that they can have decent access to water and food, and protect what remains of their farmland.
'Civil Peace Corps' is the name given to young volunteers who carry out non-governmental peacekeeping actions in 'conflict areas'. The institution, born in Italy in 2013 within the Department for Youth Policy as a non-violent and unarmed civil defence corps, has in recent years taken many young Italians to different areas of the world for a year of activities aimed at conflict prevention and interposition. The last year has just ended and the young people who left with Un Ponte Per have recently returned to Italy from Lebanon, Jordan and Romania. The following document reports their precise considerations on the current situation of international escalation and very serious human rights violations. In what capacity do they express themselves? Article 2 of the decree for the organisation of the Civil Peace Corps, point 2., letter c), expressly mentions 'monitoring respect for human rights and humanitarian law' among the programme's areas of intervention in conflict areas.
This is why the following communiqué is particularly significant.
"2 October 2024 - As volunteers CCP (Civil Peace Corps), we denounce and condemn the human rights violations that have been taking place in Palestine and Lebanon for almost a year. Since 7 October, the state of Israel has been carrying out a genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people that has exterminated, to date, over 42,000 civilians, including over 16,000 children. Israel has knowingly razed to the ground civilian homes, hospitals, schools, newspaper offices. With the deception of so-called 'safe places', it has forced people to move from one place to another in the Gaza Strip, bombing both those very makeshift spaces referred to as shelters, and the areas crossed by the fleeing population. Since 8 October, the state of Israel has been carrying out a bombing campaign in southern Lebanon, hitting military and civilian targets. In the last week, Israeli bombs have reached the capital Beirut, causing over 1,000 deaths, razing entire civilian neighbourhoods to the ground and causing theforced exodus of thousands of people. On Lebanese territory, in addition to the white phosphorus bombs already reported, destructive bunker busters were used on Friday 27 September, which, penetrating even underground locations before exploding, literally pulverised the bodies of civilians killed in the attack, making it almost impossible to give an exact estimate of the real number of victims. On the brink of aground invasion into Lebanese territory, which cannot be justified in any way by the 'right to defence', we are concerned and disheartened by theinadequacy of our policies in countering these operations. The war crimes and crimes against humanity that the state of Israel has been committing for almost a year now have been denounced by all international bodies, from the UN to the Hague Court; however, the criminal conduct of the Jewish state goes unpunished. Just as the crimes committed by Israel since its foundation remain unpunished. The UN Resolutions aimed at countering Israel's continuing campaign of occupation of Palestine and the Middle East - an intent well spelled out by Israeli Prime Minister B. Netanyahu at the UN headquarters - and the plan for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, the apartheid regime, as well as those Resolutions enshrining the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their land in Palestine, remain just words. We are well aware, therefore, that even these words of ours will remain just that and that they will be added to the many others that have been uttered before, without making any noise. Nevertheless, we know that this is the only right thing to do. To denounce by every means at our disposal, in every space we cross, the horror and inhumanity that is taking place before our eyes, to express solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese people, to carry out small daily practices aimed at opposing the normalisation of a criminal state. First of all, follow and join the BDS campaign , Boycott Divestment and Sanctions.
We invite readers to not only follow the campaign's indications of daily funding and purchases, but to develop a greater awareness of the impact of each seemingly small action, to further empower themselves. We also invite you to support, according to your possibilities, fundraising campaigns to address the urgent needs of the civilian population in Gaza and Lebanon, in cooperation with the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) and the Lebanese Amel Association International, respectively.
To donate:
Lebanon Emergency Fund | A Bridge To
Aware, moreover, of the great synergy between the army, industry and academia in Israel, and in line with the desire to oppose the normalisation of a state that violates UN Resolutions, we denounce all agreements on cooperation in the military and defence sector between the Italian and Israeli governments, first and foremost the sending of Italian arms and the presence of 1,000 Italian reservists with Israeli passports in the ranks of the Israeli army.
In this regard, we recall how Law 185/1990 explicitly prohibits the sale of arms to countries whose governments are responsible for proven violations of international human rights conventions.
We also denounce the normalisation practices between the Italian and Israeli governments that are expressed through collaboration agreements between Italian and Israeli universities, economic-commercial agreements, and cooperation agreements in the field of research and industrial, scientific and technological development. In this regard, we recall how on 29 October 2023, in the midst of the bombardment of Gaza, an agreement was signed whereby ENI and other companies obtained a licence to exploit a gas field in the sea off Gaza. What has been written so far is part of our rights and duties as human beings and political subjectivities, as members of the so-called 'civilised nations' whose general principles of international law on which our Constitution is based should be in force. Well, our Constitution, our partisan history, and our mandate to "monitor respect for human rights and humanitarian law" as Civilian Peace Corps oblige us not only not to remain indifferent to the genocide in Palestine and the massacres in Lebanon, but to express our dissent and put in place practices and tools to raise awareness aimed at not normalising inhumanity. We invite anyone reading this communiqué to do the same.
Civil Peace Corps members just returned from a year-long mission in Lebanon, Jordan and Romania with the association Un Ponte Per
