About RCOEK-S

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A refugee is a person who has been forced to leave his country due to suffering or violence. A refugee has a deep fear of being harmed because of his ethnicity, religion, nationality, political opinions, or being a member of a particular group. He most likely cannot return to his country or is afraid of it. (Declaration of Human Rights)

Iranian refugees are like refugees from all over the world, therefore, Iranian citizens in general and Iranian Kurdistan in particular when their lives are in danger by the Iranian government, they are forced to leave their homeland and seek refuge in neighboring countries. Turkey and Iraq have the most significant number of refugees.

According to statistics, the percentage of Iranian refugees in Iraq in general and the Kurdistan Region in particular amounts to thousands of people, and these statistics change every year. Despite the fact that many Iranian refugees have been living for more than 40 years in Iraq, due to the lack of asylum laws in this country, they have been deprived of many of their rights. The United Nations and other human rights organizations in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region are silent on the government's negligence, work, and activities, not only at the level of demands and problems facing refugees but even on the implementation of the human rights provisions that it approved in the Declaration of Human Rights.

In 1988, Iranian refugees organized a number of councils under the name of the Council of Iranian Political Refugees to defend the rights of refugees. Several years later, and because of those councils that did not change their organization and were mostly in a consultative form, refugees' lives and rights have not improved. Due to these problems, on 25/12/2019, with the participation of some refugees, a new council of directors was elected to defend the rights of refugees, and it was decided from the first meeting of the board members that the so-called council, which seemed more like an advisory group, would not work, and to continue to work in an organizational manner. At the same meeting, this organization was named Refugees Community of East Kurdistan.

Since that year, the Refugee Community has become the official organization advocating for the rights of Iranian refugees in the Kurdistan Region

The Refugee Community is a non-governmental organization that works to protect the rights and help all Iranian asylum seekers and refugees who were forced to leave their homeland due to the existence of risks to their lives for political, religious, social, and gender reasons, and to head towards Iraq and the Kurdistan Region in order to provide a safe life for themselves and their children.

The Refugee Community's worldview and goals are consistent with the human rights provisions of the Declaration of Human Rights.

 The Refugee Community considers itself supportive of all Iranian refugees, and any refugee who is Iranian and registered in the United Nations organizations and holds a refugee claim or asylum card in Iraq can be a member of the Community, and the Community is obligated to assist him.

 Once every two years, the members of the management are elected by voting by refugees, the number of whom shall not be less than five. Any member of the Community may nominate himself as a member of the managing directors' board, provided that he is not an official in any partisan institution.

The members of the managing directors' board do not receive any financial assistance from the Board to carry out their duties. The Chairman of the Board is elected by the Board of Directors, and every year he must obtain the confidence of the members of the Board of Directors by a majority of votes again, or another person is elected through voting.

A refugee who is a member of the Community has the right to benefit from all the services provided by the Refugee Community for Refugees and on the other hand, he has the duty to participate in the meetings organized by the Community.

 The Refugee Community is a non-governmental organization and does not have a continuous source of income. It takes financial aid from those parties and other organizations inside and outside the country that work for human rights and refugees. The total income is spent on Iranian refugees.

 The decisions taken for refugee affairs and members of the Board of Directors are through voting, which is voted on in the presence of all members of the Board of Directors to enter the implementation stage, and the decision must receive half of the votes + 1 in order to enter the implementation stage.

 None of the directors has the right to use their position for personal work and work is done only for the sake of helping and defending refugees.

Providing any service (Material, educational, therapeutic, nutritional, etc.), as well as requesting any service (Material, educational, therapeutic, nutritional, etc.) to the refugees, and that is carried out with the knowledge of all members of the Board of Directors and in an official letter, and the letter is archived.

Preserving the personal information of refugees and the Board of Directors is a moral and professional duty for all members, and violating this law is a red line.

Individual behavior and self-imposition cause a lack of work and failure of goals will cause non-work and failure of the goals of the Community, whose efforts are to serve the refugees, therefore working as a group and coordination is the duty of all members.

Partisan ideas and personal ideologies are not allowed to be reflected in the Community.

It is the duty of the board members to provide all services within the board's authority to individual refugees regardless of the refugee's political, religious, ethnic, and national beliefs.

Refugee girls are an oppressed group, therefore the community must take this point into consideration and do its best to lead them.

The person in charge of the refugee community is the spokesperson for the Community to the media organizations, and in the event of his absence or any other case, a member of the Board of Directors will be appointed to assume this task.

If any of the members of the Board of Directors avoids performing the duties of the Board for more than three months and without any reason, then the Board can hold a meeting and decide whether to stay or withdraw responsibility from him.

If a member of the Board of Directors travels abroad, if he agrees, he can continue his duties as long as he can manage his duties well

The work of the person in charge of the Board of Directors is evaluated once a year, and if his abilities are not at the required level, another member of the Board of Directors may be elected for this task.

Every two years, a vote is held to elect the members of the Board of Directors. If the vote is not taken for any reason, then the members of the Board of Directors can, by a majority of votes, extend the period, provided that it does not exceed one year.

 Any refugee has the right to file a complaint against any member of the Board of Directors if the member violates any of the provisions of the bylaws.

Sanctions will be imposed by vote at a meeting attended by all members of the Board of Directors.