Identification of Protection Concerns for the IDPs and Returnees in Iraq

In keeping with humanitarian principles, Sphere standards, the centrality of protection, and the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Guidelines and the Minimum Standards for Child Protection, IOM is committed to ensuring that the particular needs of all migrant women, girls, men and boys, are identified and addressed by mainstreaming GBV prevention and risk mitigation measures.

As stated in these instruments, protection of all persons affected and at risk must inform humanitarian decision-making and response, which entails identifying risks, and how and why these risks affect displaced populations, at the very outset of a crisis and thereafter, taking into account the specific vulnerabilities that underlie these risks, including those experienced by men, women, girls and boys.

As part of a global initiative supported by several donors, IOM has enhanced the type of data collected by the DTM to include protection indicators in order to provide a more holistic picture of displacement and its consequences on the affected population. DTM Iraq, with support from SIDA and PRM, has engaged with protection actors to redesign data collection tools to include specific indicators informing GBV and protection risks, in particular, in relation to site layout and infrastructure, security, priority legal needs, protection issues, child protection concerns, women’s knowledge about the availability of GBV services in camps and camp-like settings and their active participation in the provision of such services.

By incorporating these indicators, the DTM tools allow for the identification of protection issues, thereby ensuring that humanitarian actors are well informed of the vulnerabilities and most pressing protection needs of the displaced populations in Iraq.

Data from the Integrated Location Assessment that is not sensitive can be found on the general page. This portal page is specifically for actors within the Protection Cluster, and the GBV and Child Protection Sub-Clusters with whom data sharing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been established. Due to the sensitivity of the information (e.g. child protection needs, early marriage indication, and counter-trafficking indicators for IDPs or Returnees), its circulation is specific for a set of actors. It should be noted, however, that despite the information being sensitive, the DTM Iraq does not identify individual information. As this data is collected at the location level, it only serves as a flagging mechanism for protection actors to follow up with more detailed assessments to further validate and better specify the scope and dynamics of the protection concerns identified.

To request access to these datasets, please contact:iraqdtm@iom.int