New report on the UK and the Kurdistan Region

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Kurdistan Region has launched a report of its second fact-finding delegation, called Achievements and Challenges in the Kurdistan Region and the need for increased British engagement.

The APPG seeks to promote friendship and understanding between the people of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq and Great Britain and to encourage the development of democratic institutions in the Kurdistan Region as part of the democratic and federal process in the wider Iraq.

The delegation, which was in the Region for a week and met many ministers and civil society leaders, found evidence of continuing and considerable economic and social progress combined with growing political problems.

Its report says that there is a clear determination to drive regeneration by creating a vibrant market system with social protections and by creating a transparent model of governance.

It also heard of notable deterioration in relations between the Region and Baghdad, as well as a major improvement in relations with its neighbour and increasingly important trading partner, Turkey.

Its central conclusion is that the UK, and wider the international community, should play a bigger role in assisting the Region, along with the rest of Iraq, to tap its potential in all these areas. The Kurdistan Region is vital to the success of Iraq and to British foreign policy objectives.

The group also met the leaders of the now unified Kurdistan TUC in both Erbil and Sulymaniya. They are social partners with the KRG but have their own concerns. Many women activists were present and vocal at one meeting which indicates the priority given by the trade unions in the Region and in the rest of Iraq to encourage women’s participation. This is a beacon of hope in the Middle East.

One of their major concerns is the need for Iraq as a whole to scrap Ba’athist laws, ignored in the Region, that ban public sector trade unions and to introduce a more liberal Labour code in line with International Labour Organisation standards.

The report details 38 recommendations across a wide range of policy areas.