Iraq

The Ministry of Environment appointed a new director to the Directorate for Mine Action (DMA) who implemented wide-ranging changes in its management and structure and investigations into the conduct of some senior staff. The new director halted DMA preparations in cooperation with Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) to upgrade the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) database from New Generation to Core. Federal Iraq lowered its estimate of mine contamination but continued to locate significant areas of previously unrecorded hazardous areas. Increased political sensitivities around gender issues stalled activities linked to promoting the position of women in mine action.

Iraq has wiped some 230km² off its estimated mine contamination through survey and clearance in the last five years despite continuing to identify extensive areas of previously unrecorded contamination. Internationally funded clearance made significant inroads clearing improvised mines from areas liberated from Islamic State but Iraq made little headway dealing with large conventional anti-personnel (AP) minefields. As international donor attention shifts increasingly to other areas, prospects for future progress were overshadowed by  frequent changes of  mine action management and policy, cumbersome bureaucracy, and lack of transparency.

• The Iraqi government should provide the DMA with the legal authority, funding, and equipment to discharge its responsibilities as the national mine action authority and stabilise management.
• The Iraqi government and mine action authorities should provide clarity on national funding available for mine action and how the funds are allocated.
• The DMA should seek urgently to strengthen information management in the national programme by enhancing human capacity, modernising data entry processes, updating the IMSMA database, and ensuring operators have access to up-to-date information required for planning.
• The DMA should strengthen coordination of mine action through establishing a national mine action platform for regular dialogue among all stakeholders, including donors.
• The DMA should release comprehensive annual data on the progress of survey and clearance disaggregated by operator, including State organisations, commercial companies, and NGOs.
• The DMA should streamline issuance of task orders to eliminate cumbersome procedures and lengthy delays obstructing efficient use of survey and clearance resources.
• The Ministry of Environment should engage with the Department of Non-Government Organisations to avoid restrictions on access that continue to result in lengthy operational delays.
• Iraq should explicitly recognise AP mines of an improvised nature as part of its Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC) treaty obligation.
• National mine action authorities in Federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) should amend reporting forms to include improvised mines as a separate category distinct from improvised explosive devices.

Click here to download the "Clearing the Mines 2024" report for Iraq.