Is Iraq/Kurdistan a state such that it can be said to operate state systems and thereby offer protection to its 'citizens'?

This paper considers whether Kurdish applicants for refugee status from Iraq can be returned to Iraq/Kurdistan. Access both to Iraq as a whole and to Iraq/Kurdistan in particular is restricted, and so there is little information available. The Iraqi Government in Baghdad does not permit visits by human rights monitors to Iraq/Kurdistan and only the UN and the ICRC (International Committee for the Red Cross) are officially legally present and working within Iraq/Kurdistan. In addition, the Government controls the movement of foreigners as well as citizens within the country and people who enter either sensitive border areas or any of the numerous designated security zones are subject to arrest. In light of this, reports from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the US Department of State have to be considered as less reliable than those of the UN and ICRC. There are, however, a number of respected NGOs (non‐governmental organisations) working unofficially within Iraq/Kurdistan who have been able to give reliable, up‐to‐date information on the situation. During the course of this research I contacted and spoke to high‐level officials (who had recently been, or were presently, working in Iraq/Kurdistan) from several of the aforementioned NGOs, as well as political and intelligence analysts. Due to Baghdad's continuing refusal to permit these groups access to either Iraq or Iraq/Kurdistan and the stringent penalties (death), they asked me not to mention either their names or the names of their organisations in this report. All of those contacted were members of well‐respected British organisations. Those footnotes which contain only a date are taken from the above such conversations, records of all of which have been kept