ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF), a Kurdish non-governmental organization based in Erbil, on Friday announced it will submit a report to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) regarding Baghdad’s decision to cut the salaries of Kurdistan Region civil servants.

The Iraqi finance ministry last week informed the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) that it will suspend funding the Region for the rest of 2025, claiming that Erbil had already exhausted its share of the annual budget.

Baghdad’s decision, deemed “a political decision” by Kurdish authorities, jeopardizes the livelihoods of the Region’s over one million salaried workers for the next eight months.

The BCF warned that “the Iraqi government’s measure against civil servants puts the humanitarian situation in the Kurdistan Region in great danger, due to using the salary issues as a political card.”

The NGO stated that the decision impacts all people in the Kurdistan Region, especially women, children, and pensioners.

The KRG has repeatedly urged the Iraqi federal government not to use political issues between the two governments as an excuse to punish the Kurdistan Region’s civil servant salaries by withholding salaries.

“For more than a decade, the livelihoods of ordinary people in the Kurdistan Region have been used as a weapon by the federal government to gain political points. This psychological warfare against civilians has left many children in poverty, creating a situation where families have lost the ability to meet basic daily needs,” adds the BCF report.

Years of conflict and unresolved issues between Erbil and Baghdad, and economic sanctions and pressure on Erbil by federal authorities, have pushed employees in the Region to live from paycheck to paycheck.

The charity called on the UN to put pressure on Baghdad “to refrain from using the budget and salaries as a weapon against civil servants and citizens.”

It also called on the Iraqi federal government to respect the rights of children in all parts of the country.

Kurdistan Region leaders on Thursday sent out celebratory messages on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, expressing regret that the holiday has been marred by Baghdad's decision to cut the Region's civil servant salaries; a measure they labeled a “collective punishment” of the Region’s citizens.