Baroness Northover – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Northover on 2016-07-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with the Kurdistan Regional Government in the light of reports of the recent closure of the Kurdish Women’s Relations Office in Erbil, and what was the outcome of those discussions.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We are aware of the recent closure of the Kurdish Women’s Relations Office, also known as REPAK. Our Consulate-General in Erbil raised this issue with the Kurdistan Regional government (KRG) through the Head of Asayish (part of the Kurdish Internal Security Services), General Esmat Argooshi, and the KRG Prime Minister’s Private Secretary.

We have also discussed the matter with the Human Rights Office at the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI). UNAMI have engaged with the Kurdistan Regional government’s Department of Foreign Relations, who said that they would monitor the situation. We are encouraging the Kurdistan Regional Government to respect the legal rights of all legally registered Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and we support UNAMI’s efforts to promote the legal rights of NGOs operating in Iraq.