Women's Empowerment and Leadership Development for Democratisation

  • العربية
  • English
  • Français
  • Bahasa Indonesia
  • اردو

Iraq: Diary of a human rights observer in Baghdad

Jo Wilding is a British woman in Baghdad, staying there as a human rights observer - going out, taking witness statements for possible legal cases and reporting on the situation.
She writes, "I want to be able to report on what’s going on for people now ... I met a man called Gazwan last time with a fourteen year old son, Ali, and Gazwan said "One day, your children will have to explain all this to ours." To me, that’s what a lot of this is about ... it’s my kids who will have to live with the consequences of what we do in the world. I firmly believe that human rights belong to all of us, both to enjoy for ourselves and to uphold for each other. They’re not the exclusive preserve of governments, NGOs and big international bodies, they’re the responsibility of us all."