In 2005 the topics covered by RKR were ‘The situation for Kurdistan's women’, ‘The new constitution in Iraq’ and ‘Rape as a weapon in war’.


'Rape as Weapon in War’
In November 2005, a seminar on rape as a weapon in war was held by the Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurdish People (RKR) and the Norwegian Burma Committee in cooperation with the National Knowledge Centre on Violence and Traumatic Stress.

Wazira Jalal Sa’id, Leyla Guven and Sukran Aydin initiated the seminar with a talk on how rape is being used as a weapon towards Kurdish women in both Iraq and Turkey. Wazira Jalal works with improving the lives of the most vulnerable group of women in Iraqi Kurdistan, "the Anfal-women”. The organization seeks to support women who survived Saddam Hussein’s campaign against the Kurds in 1988 and 1989, where many women were sexually assaulted by Iraqi soldiers. Leyla Guven and Sukran Aydin are both active politicians in the Kurdish party DEHAP in Turkey. They both have first hand experience of the consequences rape as a weapon in war.


‘The new constitution in Iraq – a fundament for the future’?
In October 2005, RKR and the Norwegian Human Rights House hosted a seminar on the new constitution in Iraq and prospects for the future with the new Iraqi constitution.

Khaled Salih, professor at Syddanske University in Odense, opened the seminar with a talk on the negotationprocess towards the new constitution. Henrik Thune from NUPI proceeded by asking if the new constitution is the fundament for the future. Beate Slydal, former board-member of RKR, brought up the human rights aspect in the constitution in her talk, before Professor Øystein Noreng from BI questioned the oil-issues Iraq now face. Chairman at the event was Sigurd Falkberg Mikkelsen.


'The situation for Kurdistan’s women
In June 2005, the Women's Issues Group of the Norwegian Council for the Rights of the Kurdish Peopke (RKR) hosted a seminar on women's situation in Kurdistan.

Board member of RKR Shilan Abdulgani and information officer Liv Kjølseth had recently returned from both Iraqi and Turkish Kurdistan. The delegation they were part of met with women’s organisations, visited crisis centres and women’s initiatives, and raised the particular needs of women with several members of the local government for Iraqi Kurdistan. Abdulgani and Kjølseth presented pictures from their trip, answered questions and shared their impressions from their visit to Kurdistan.



Information about upcoming seminars will be posted in the calendar