Advancing the Rule of Law by Strengthening the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Iraq
“We believe integration and inclusion are basic human rights that ensure a stable society and establish strong social cohesion.”
This story features a Tetra Tech project team’s opinions and reflections of their work with people with disabilities in Iraq.
Tetra Tech, with more than 40 years of experience providing sustainable international development services, works closely with partners to integrate social inclusion strategies into their projects to support improved economic opportunities and access to services for marginalized communities. For example, Tetra Tech implements programs focused on improving access to justice for vulnerable populations, including providing legal services to internally displaced families and people with disabilities, conducting advocacy to advance their basic human rights, and streamlining and ensuring access to services and benefits.
Tetra Tech ensures sustainability of their work through localized leadership and empowers these leaders to continue addressing challenges people with disabilities face in Iraq. By empowering civil society organizations and educating local people and staff members on the importance of inclusion of people with disabilities and marginalized groups, the project is increasing the self-reliance of local actors to influence and direct Iraq towards a more inclusive future.
“During our 5 years [of] experience with [Tetra Tech], Iraqi staff found [Tetra Tech] a unique company in that their staff is not only running projects in a professional manner around the world but also developing the national staff skills and transitioning leadership to that national staff,” says Lubna Suhail, Chief of Party.
According to the project team, one of the greatest challenges they face is fostering a culture of diversity and inclusion in Iraq, especially regarding the rights of people with disabilities. The challenges span access to facilities, awareness of the importance of inclusion, how to work with people with disabilities in public areas, and how to support them. In addition, security has greatly impacted the implementation of the project as well as the Government of Iraq’s ability to institute procedures to improve access to justice.
“We have learned the necessity for planning, the importance of communicating with the relative authorities and the need to draft a backup plan and to think outside of the box.”
The team champions diversity and inclusion by working to reform the legal system and raising awareness among the public, government, and beneficiaries of the challenges people with disabilities face. On a daily basis, the team provides technical assistance to stakeholders to support decision making, identify gaps and needs, and propose solutions. For example, Tetra Tech helped develop a referral system to connect people with disabilities with legal assistance to access government benefits and services. Increasing awareness around diversity and inclusion means a more stable community.
“We work hard every day because we believe integration and inclusion are basic human rights that ensure a stable society and establish strong social cohesion.”
