Civic Participation

Wissam Jaafar Radi

Head of the Tawasul Youth Empowerment Organization

Head of the Tawasul Youth Empowerment Organization

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In 2018, after evidence emerged of serious crimes committed by security forces against the protestors in southern Iraq, Wissam Jaffar Radi, formed a fact-finding team with a number of activists and investigative journalists. They visited the southern provinces in Iraq and issued a 40-page report that included exposing the violations committed by the security forces while putting down the protests in July and August of that year.

Radi, Head of the Tawasul Youth Empowerment Organization, and Regional Director, Point MENA Project, has been working relentlessly since the Arab Spring Protests in Iraq in 2011 to bring change to civil society. In the aftermath of the protests, the activist and political researcher founded a network of organizations with a number of activists he met during the up rise. Their aim was to strengthen citizens' capacities and mobilize them to influence public policies and enhance governance indicators. They launched a number of advocacy campaigns. Their most important and effective was "I am against quotas" campaign. It lasted for four years and succeeded in passing a complaint in the Federal Court against both the Prime Minister and the President of the House of Representatives of Iraq.