The Sinjar Legal Services Center, affiliated with the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization, continued implementing its programs aimed at enhancing access to justice and strengthening legal awareness in the Sinjar district during the period from March 1, 2025, to January 31, 2026, achieving tangible results in case management, individual counseling, and community awareness sessions.
Case management and legal power of attorney
The aforementioned period witnessed intense activity in the field of legal power of attorney and case management, where:
- The total number of cases handled by the center reached 448 cases.
- Cases completed for the benefit of the beneficiaries were 392 cases.
- Cases remain under legal follow-up until the end of January 2026 were 56 cases.
The cases were distributed among files of personal status, issuing official documents (national ID, Registration Copy, Birth Certificate, Marriage Certificate), in addition to property Ownership, compensation, legal rulings, and other urgent social and legal issues.
These efforts have contributed to enabling hundreds of beneficiaries to establish legal status, restore civil rights, and facilitate integration into official transactions and government services, especially the most vulnerable groups that suffer from loss of documents or complicated procedures.
Individual Legal Consultations
The cumulative number of individual legal consultations provided up to January 31, 2026, reach a total of 293. These consultations were offered either in person or by telephone, depending on the nature of the case and beneficiaries accessibility to the center.
Telephone consultations were an effective tool for overcoming transportation obstacles and the difficulty of access for residents of remote villages, enabling the center to expand the scope of benefit without placing additional financial burdens on the beneficiaries.
Legal Awareness Sessions and Their Societal Impact
During the same period, the center organized 16 legal awareness sessions, in which 152 beneficiaries (36 males and 116 females) participated. The sessions addressed vital topics relevant to the social and legal realities in Sinjar, including:
- Compensation and mechanisms for claiming it.
- Cases of missing persons.
- National card and unified card procedures.
- Women's rights in Iraqi law.
- Protection against and prevention of cyber extortion.
- Anti-gambling.
- Causes and combating of underage marriage.
- Protection from domestic violence
- The crime of posting photos on social media.
- Magic and sorcery in Iraqi law.
The high rate of women's participation in the sessions reflected a growing interest in the legal empowerment of women's groups, and these meetings contributed to raising awareness of rights and duties, and reducing falling victim to blackmail, exploitation, or practices that violate the law.
Impact on Beneficiaries
The center's interventions yielded direct results, including:
- Enabling hundreds of individuals to obtain their official documents and restore their legal status.
- Expediting the resolution of personal status cases, thus ensuring family and legal stability.
- Enhancing the local community's trust in legal institutions and litigation mechanisms.
- Raising participants' awareness of the legal risks associated with cyber extortion, domestic violence, and under age marriage.
- Alleviating the financial burden on beneficiaries by providing free legal services.
Institutional challenges and response
The center faced several challenges, most notably limited financial allocations to cover government fees and legal expenses, in addition to the difficulty of some beneficiaries from remote villages faced in accessing services due to inadequate transportation.
However, the center dealt with these obstacles through:
- Maximize the benefit of telephone consultations.
- Prioritize cases according to degree of fragility.
- Coordinating with local authorities to obtain support books for emergency cases to facilitate procedures.
This ongoing work over eleven months confirms the commitment of the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization, through its Legal Services Center in Sinjar, to its role in establishing the principles of justice and the rule of law, and enhancing legal protection for affected groups, thereby contributing to supporting community stability and rebuilding trust in legal institutions in Sinjar district.
It is to be mentioned that the Sinjar Legal Services Center would not have been possible without the support of Christian Solidarity International (CSI), enabling the center to launch its operations and continue its programs. This support has been a cornerstone in ensuring the provision of free legal services to the most vulnerable groups and enhancing access to justice in the Sinjar district. This collaboration reflects an effective model of partnership between international and local organizations in supporting affected communities and building their legal and institutional capacities in the long term.
Due to the continued need to provide legal services to the people of Sinjar and the importance of developing community awareness of how to access rights through available legal means, the organization, in coordination with its partners in Christian Solidarity International CSI, decided to extend the work period of the Sinjar Legal Services Center for another year, ending at the end of February of next year 2027.
