"IDMC's 2012 Global Overview of people internally displaced due to conflict found that 28.8 million people were internally displaced people (IDPs) worldwide in 2012, a record-high figure that includes a five-fold increase in the number of IDPs in Syria. Over 6.5 million people were newly displaced inside their home countries in 2012, almost twice as many as the year before. Colombia, Syria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo top the list of countries with the largest populations of IDPs." Download the full report in English Download the global overview press release in English, French and Spanish Download the global overview map in English, French and Spanish Download the global overview infographic in English, French and Spanish

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Iraq issued on 29 April 2013 a new report on mnetal health in Iraq and announced it through a press release. "MSF’s new report Healing Iraqis: The Challenges of Providing Mental Health Care in Iraq , records examples of the impact constant day to day violence have had on many Iraqi men, women and children, and describes the development, together with the Ministry of Health, of a programme to provide counselling care. The international organisation says there is an urgent need to scale up mental health care services in the country. MSF calls on the Iraqi Ministry of Health, and those who support them, to improve the quality and access to mental health services by…

Between 23 - 25 April 2013, and in cooperation with the Babel Provincial Council, Akad Cultural Center implemented a workshop focusing on gender issues in the Al Rafidain Information Center in the Governorate of Babel. The workshop agenda contained the concepts about gender, the importance of the gender as new knowledge in practice, the gaps in gender issues across Iraq, and a discussion of the polices related to its application in directions and government Institutions.

With the aim of strengthening the position of women in society, the Iraqi Institute (through its project “Women for equitable legislation”) is conducting a legal reform process that is open and includes participation of parliamentarians, state ministries, NGOs and members of provincial councils. The purpose of this initiative is to promote and facilitate the enactment of stronger and more effective laws to protect and strengthen the rights of women as enshrined in the Constitution and which fall within the parameters of International human rights. Report is available in Arabic only.

Akad Press Release: On Friday and Saturday 12- 13 April, 2013, at the Hall of Business Men union in Basra Akad Cultural Institute with the cooperation of the Iraqi transparency Alliance for extractive industries implemented special workshop for introducing the IEITI and its importance for Iraqi people. The workshop explained the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative process in Iraq. The workshop number presence of 52 people with good media coverage and many interventions, the workshop  attended on the first day 32 people, while the number rose to 55 on the second day included segments of civil society,  media, trade unions, local councils, tribal elders and others. The workshop ended with a set of recommendations and action plan for the future. Attendees…

10 years after the war, Innocent New Lives are Still Dying and Suffering In Iraq. Human Rights NGO publish the Report of a Fact Finding Mission on Congenital Birth Defects in Fallujah, Iraq in 2013 This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War. After the war, particularly in the most recent few years, a deeply troubling rise in the numbers of birth defects has been reported by doctors in Iraq, leading to suspicions that environmental contamination from the war may be having a significant negative effect on the health of local people, and in particular infants and children. For instance in Fallujah, the city heavily attacked by the US twice in 2004, the data of Fallujah General Hospital…