New Report Highlights Legal Challenges and Gender Disparities in Iraq’s Climate Crisis Response

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — A landmark advisory opinion delivered by the International Court of Justice regarding climate change obligations is casting new light on Iraq’s legal responsibilities amid accelerating environmental degradation, according to a report published by the London School of Economics (LSE) on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. The findings, initially presented at a roundtable in Baghdad on Oct. 25, 2025, underscore how rural women in the country are bearing a disproportionate burden of climate-induced displacement and resource scarcity, complicating the nation's efforts to adhere to international legal standards.

The report, authored by Alannah Travers, details the outcomes of the "Women, Law and Climate Resilience Roundtable," which showcased research from the LSE Middle East Centre and the Moja Organisation for Human Rights project titled "Closing the gap in Iraq’s legal framework."

The discussion in Baghdad centered on the implications of the July 2025 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). In that long-awaited advisory opinion, the court clarified the legal duties of states to avoid excessive greenhouse gas emissions and recognized that such obligations may carry reparative consequences for failures to comply.

The LSE report characterizes the ICJ ruling as a landmark moment that affirmed climate change is not merely an environmental crisis but a legal one with human rights implications at its core.

For Iraq, a nation grappling with a legal system under strain and profound gender inequality, the opinion holds significant weight. Research conducted for the LSE Middle East Centre’s Elevate Initiative project indicates that women in conflict-affected and rural areas of Iraq are suffering most acutely.

The study links reduced access to land and water directly to increased vulnerability to violence and displacement, shifting the policy conversation from questioning whether these harms are occurring to determining accountability for preventing and remedying them.

While international law offers a theoretical framework for accountability, the report notes that pathways to justice remain fraught with complexity. Iraq is a party to several major climate agreements, yet enforcement mechanisms are challenging to implement.

Furthermore, the country has not accepted the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ, limiting the direct applicability of the court’s recent advisory opinion in domestic contexts.

Iraq’s ratification of the Paris Agreement in 2021 represented a significant political and moral commitment, involving the submission of a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) that outlined priorities for adaptation and emission reductions. However, the nature of the agreement presents legal hurdles.

Dr. Sally Thin, an international lawyer with expertise in global environmental protection who was interviewed for the project in late July 2025, explained the limitations of such treaties. She noted that the Paris Agreement is balanced in favor of maximizing global participation, which results in obligations that are often relatively vague and difficult to enforce, despite being a nearly universal agreement. Consequently, while Iraq is committed to a national environmental strategy, the agreement is not easily litigated in national or international courts.

In the absence of strictly enforceable environmental treaties, human rights law provides alternative accountability tools.

Iraq has ratified key instruments, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Aspects of these treaties can be interpreted to encompass state duties to protect populations against climate-related harms.

Dr. Thin emphasized that human rights law is key for seeking protection against gender-specific climate harms in international law. She pointed to the expectation of regard for the differential impact on marginalized groups found not only in CEDAW but in other human rights instruments as well.

The report argues that framing environmental degradation as a matter of individual rights and justice challenges the tendency to view the issue as purely technical or inter-state.

However, significant procedural barriers remain. Although Iraq is bound by the core obligations of these human rights treaties, it has not ratified the Optional Protocols to CEDAW or the ICESCR.

This omission means that individuals and groups within Iraq cannot bring complaints directly to the relevant United Nations committees to enforce their rights, effectively closing off a direct avenue for international redress.

The report also highlights the potential risks associated with utilizing international legal frameworks in the Iraqi context. Dr. Thin warned that the language of international law can sometimes be perceived as an imposition of Western culture and ideals.

In Iraq, this dynamic can provide authorities with a pretext to delegitimize rights claims by portraying them as foreign impositions rather than demands grounded in local realities. This friction limits discussions to legal rules while potentially crowding out non-legal approaches, making it critical for advocacy efforts to be led by local voices and rooted in Iraqi experiences.

Despite these challenges, new legal avenues are emerging.

The report points to corporate accountability litigation as a promising trend, particularly cases brought against fossil fuel companies in the countries where they are headquartered. While these cases face formidable evidentiary and jurisdictional hurdles, they offer a complex opportunity to challenge the role of extractive industries in environmental degradation.

Domestically, the Iraqi government has taken steps to formalize its environmental policy. In September 2024, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Baghdad launched its National Strategy for the Protection and Improvement of the Environment (2024-2030).

This roadmap aims to guide Iraq’s efforts over the next six years in addressing critical issues such as biodiversity loss, desertification, and water management.

The LSE report concludes that the 2025 ICJ Advisory Opinion adds urgency to these national efforts. By clarifying that climate obligations may amount to "obligations of result," where states could be liable for reparations when they fail to meet them, the ruling strengthens the legal basis for claims linking environmental harm to breaches of human rights law.

For Iraqi women facing crop failures and worsening droughts, this development opens a small but significant legal door. However, the report stresses that legal arguments must be accompanied by engagement with affected communities to capture the specific lived experiences of those suffering from environmental harm.

Meeting international obligations will require a combination of legal pressure, political leadership, and a reimagining of climate justice that centers on the country’s most affected populations.