Environmental Law & Advocacy Project
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This is a new Nature Iraq project under the European Commission's Support for Civil Society Development in Iraq and conducted in collaboration with the Water Rights Foundation.
The first specific objective, is on increasing hands-on capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs) in the Kurdistan Region in running successful advocacy and lobbying campaigns with their local and regional government agencies and in generating public interest and participation. The second specific objective is to increase cooperative CSO-Government partnerships for problem solving and planning. In addition to raising CSO capacity in running successful advocacy campaigns and increasing cooperative CSO-Government partnerships. The third specific objective of the Project is to improve participation and feedback between CSOs, the public and government in the process of developing effective environmental laws and regulations. Although the final version is published in the Official Gazette, the laws of Iraq are developed without public input. Nor are there public meetings or comments allowed for the promulgation of regulations that help implement the laws. Overall, the public has no input and rarely even knows when a law is passed or what their rights are under the law. The fourth and last specific objective is to increase the capacity of government workers who are responsible for environmental enforcement, and bolster CSO involvement in the implementation of environmental and natural resource laws and regulations. This objective, therefore, has two interwoven components: enhancing the capabilities of governmental workers tasked with enforcement to understand and respond to illegal behavior; and working to create opportunities for cooperation in enforcement between CSOs and the government. Download copies of the project newsletter here:
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The Environmental Law and Advocacy Project is funded by the European Union.
Water Right Foundation is an Italian non-profit association that seeks to promote development cooperation projects, awareness-raising activities on access-to-water and sustainable management, and capacity building.
Project Team
Nabil Mussa, Iraq Upper Tigris Waterkeeper Shelan Aziz, Project Manager Hersh Saidgul, Communications Officer We are a diverse group of skilled employees including a lawyer, a Waterkeeper and a communication officer who work on the Environmental Law and Advocacy Project. Together with our Italian partner Water Right Foundation and Nature Iraq, the organizer of the project, we are excited about this effort and will do our utmost to achieve its success. |