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Rima’s story

09/04/2024

Rima returned from Germany to Iraq in 2018. The 33-year-old shares her powerful story of resilience and transformation, and the support she received.
The married mother-of-three’s life took a tragic turn in 2013 when her son was killed in an explosion in a Baghdad market. After suffering from depression for two years because of this tragedy, Rima and her surviving family made the difficult decision to flee their home country in 2016 and seek safety, which they found in Germany. However, the journey to Germany was difficult, and initially, the family was placed in a refugee shelter. They were grappling with grief and depression because of their loss, and uncertain of their future.
Despite the hurdles, their situation gradually improved, and Rima gave birth to a baby girl. After residency was granted, the older children enrolled in school and regained stability.
However, the shadow of distress loomed as Rima’s mother-in-law fell ill, prompting the family to urge them to return to Iraq. Reluctant to go back, the stress took a toll on her husband, leading to his hospitalisation and a subsequent decline in his mental well-being. The challenges intensified with the tragic deaths of Rima’s father-in-law in 2021, thrusting the family into another period of instability as they returned to Baghdad.
After their return, Rima experienced a significant decline in her psychological well-being as she grappled with the challenges of readjusting to her old life amidst the ongoing instability and adversity faced by her family.
Amidst these hardships, Rima found hope through the Jiyan Foundation’s center in Baghdad. She sought out its services after seeing the positive transformation in her husband’s friend, who had received prior psychological support from the center.

"When she first came to us, Rima was hopeless about the future, and had trouble sleeping," says Hoor Adnan, a psychotherapist at the Jiyan Foundation in Baghdad. “However, she has made remarkable progress in just eight sessions and improved her sleep. We encouraged her to channel her energy towards her strengths and interests, such as her passion for sewing.”

Somatic problems—for example, different kinds of pain—are often symptoms of mental health challenges, and Rima is no exception. In cooperation with the therapist, our medical team offered her the necessary support and resources to manage her health effectively and maintain optimal well-being.

Rima's heartfelt message resonates with the importance of seeking psychological support when facing psychological crises. “Everyone has vulnerabilities,” she says. “These vulnerabilities should not be ignored; they need timely intervention to prevent mental health crises from worsening and leading to further repercussions.”

At Jiyan Foundation for Human Rights, the commitment to providing mental health, medical treatment, and supportive services is evident in Rima’s story. We support survivors of trauma, terror, domestic violence, and human rights violations, contributing to the rebuilding of lives in Iraq.

For privacy reasons, the client’s name was changed.

Learn more: Program for Trauma Care & Health

Supported with funding by

The Jiyan Foundation’s impact is made possible through the support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and Johanniter International Assistance.

Concerns about the non-renewal of UNITAD’s mandate in Iraq

13/09/2023

Concerns about the non-renewal of UNITAD’s mandate in Iraq

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Iraq, September 12, 2023

We, the undersigned organizations, have been made aware of highly concerning news that the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL’s (UNITAD) mandate may not be renewed in Iraq beyond September 2024.

UNITAD was mandated pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 2379 to collect, preserve, and store evidence of ISIL crimes in Iraq in line with the highest possible standards. UNITAD was established following the tireless advocacy of survivors and several of the undersigned organizations, and in response to the scale of ISIL crimes. This advocacy was aiming to ensure that evidence of ISIL crimes would not get lost until a holistic strategy from both Iraq and the international community would be in place to address ISIL crimes. This has yet to happen.

UNITAD began operating in Iraq in the fall of 2018 and has in the past five years made significant progress including collecting thousands of pieces of evidence, interviewing survivors from all Iraqi communities, supporting national prosecutions in third countries, and substantially supporting exhumations of mass graves all over the country. UNITAD has also strengthened the capacity of Iraqi authorities and Iraqi civil society, including some of the undersigned organizations.

Many survivors and the undersigned organizations see UNITAD as the only hope to achieve meaningful justice in Iraq. For its work to stop so abruptly, when not a single ISIL member has been tried in Iraq for core international crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes), would be a disaster for survivors, Iraq, and the international community. It would send the signal that justice is not a real priority, that trust with survivors was built for nothing and that their testimonies and continuous calls for justice were in vain.

This news is all the more alarming since Iraq currently has no legal framework in place to use UNITAD’s evidence and also has no experience prosecuting international crimes. Furthermore, Iraq has not communicated any plan or strategy on how it is planning to move this process forward without UNITAD’s expertise. Nor has Iraq recognized the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court or responded to detailed proposals submitted by survivor groups to establish a hybrid tribunal to prosecute ISIL members for international crimes.

“Terminating UNITAD´s mandate in Iraq will have far-reaching negative consequences, as it will prevent putting the collected evidence of ISIL crimes against Yazidis, Shia, Sunni, Christian, Kaka’i, Shabak and Turkmen Shia and others to proper use. Clearly, every mandate comes to an end, but without a sound legislative framework and a clear roadmap on how to ensure delivery of justice in a survivor-centred manner and in line with international fair trial standards, the entire engagement would have been in vain.”

Dr. Bojan Gavrilovic

Head of Program for Rights and Justice

For the reasons above, UNITAD must continue to operate because Iraq alone is currently not in a position to achieve meaningful justice for survivors. Survivors have also repeatedly highlighted that they would not trust a purely national process and called for appropriate international involvement.

We, the undersigned organizations, call upon Iraq, the UN Security Council, and the international community to:

- Renew UNITAD’s mandate beyond September 2024 and as long as it is needed.

- Prepare a strategy to prosecute ISIL crimes holistically both in Iraq and other jurisdictions.

- Support Iraq in adopting a legal framework to prosecute core international crimes and to establish a survivor-centered mechanism which would allow for such prosecutions.

- Ensure that UNITAD supports Iraq in the prosecution of ISIL crimes in Iraq until Iraq is able to follow fair trial rights and implement a survivor-centered mechanism.

Download the statement in English and Arabic here.

Undersigned organizations: