”CEDAW IS OUR HOLY TEXT, OUR HOLY BOOK” Combating gender-based violence in a de facto state: The case of Iraqi Kurdistan

Abstract: The Kurdistan region in Iraq, also known as KRI, has gained semi-independence over the decades and is today recognized in the Iraqi constitution as an autonomous part of the federal country. While still belonging to Iraq, it has been declared that the KRI performs better than its parent state in terms of security, stability and promoting international norms such as gender equality. Nonetheless, the Region still faces struggles linked to its work of combatting gender- and honour-based violence (GBV and HBV), which delays the process of achieving gender equality. This thesis aims to examine which indicators of cooperation and conflict exist in the partnership between de facto states and domestic NGOs when combatting GBV and HBV. In doing this, the KRI has been chosen as an example of a de facto state and will be the subject of this case study. The dynamic between the two actors will be discussed based on a theoretical framework of different concepts regarding NGO-government partnership, comparative advantages and international norms, in order to gain more detailed knowledge on the NGO-government cooperation and interdependency in a de facto state when striving towards gender equality. The chosen method is a qualitative case study, using semi-structured informant interviews with professionals from regional NGOs working with women’s issues and cooperating with the Kurdish government. The results show that the partnership between the KRG and the domestic NGOs consists of several indicators of cooperation and fewer indicators of conflict. Both actors have comparative advantages towards one another, and international norms and organisations did not play a remarkably large role in the work of the informants when combatting GBV and HBV. However, it was confirmed that they frequently do use international conventions such as CEDAW in their work and found it important that the KRG implemented the convention and other gender-related agreements correctly. One important contribution to the literature is that Iraqi legislation, i.e. the legislation of the parent state, was perceived as a posing obstacle to the work against GBV and HBV in the KRI.