On August 21st, 2025, Metro Center’s team received a delegation of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, consisting of Zafeer Uddin, Senior Human Rights Officer, Zito Siany, Human Rights officer, Kamal Taha, Member of the Human Rights Office.

At the beginning of the meeting, Diyaree Mohammed, Director of Metro Center, thanked UNAMI for expressing their concern about the case of journalist Sherwan Sherwani and thanked them for their position. There was also an opportunity to discuss the challenges facing press freedom in the Kurdistan Region.

The Head of the Human Rights Office thanked Metro Center for the welcome and said, "Metro is one of the organizations you can rely on for their honesty and continuity in their work.” He also stated that the protection of press rights is one of UNAMI's five priorities.

UNAMI said in their statement on the retrial of Sherwan Sherwani: "The Kurdistan Regional Government should uphold the rule of law and human rights and encourage the KRI authorities to ensure that all criminal proceedings are transparent and fair in accordance with national and international standards.”

Then, Shae Aso, coordinator of Network 19, presented the protest data of the first seven months of 2025, "In the past seven months, we have recorded 260 protests in the Kurdistan Region, in which 107 people have been arrested, two kidnapped, an activist attacked, and a citizen killed,” she said. "There is no hope that the issues of protest will be resolved, so we do not believe that the number of protests will decrease. However, the presence of these protests shows the awareness of society towards their rights.”

At the end of the meeting, Zafeer Uddin, Senior Human Rights Officer, said that the number of protests is alarming and the main problem must be solved to achieve a peaceful situation in the Kurdistan Region.

He also expressed his satisfaction with the existence of a network that monitors the right to freedom of expression and records protests and violations, he hoped that there would be cooperation between them in the future.