Iraq: Rights experts call for new laws to end “waves of disappearances”
The appeal is contained in a new report by the UN Commission on Enforced Conflicts, which visited the country in November.
The report examines five “waves of disappearance” in Iraq, including forced disappearance. It covers the period starting with the Ba’ath era from 1968-2003 – characterized by the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein – through the coup d’état from 2018 to 2020.
More work ahead
The UN Council is made up of ten international human rights experts who oversee the international implementation of the Convention against Disappearances.
While acknowledging the serious challenges faced by the authorities in addressing the situation in Iraq, experts are deeply concerned that the loss of life has been widespread over different periods, and that indifference and indifference prevail.
“The visit is a new step in the Council’s interaction with Iraq, one of the first countries to ratify the Convention,” they said, adding, “but much remains to be done.”
Iraqis walk past a market in Sinjar which has been damaged in the war with the terrorist network Da’esh, otherwise known as ISIL.
Disposal procedures are ongoing
The commission met with senior officials, victims, and civil society representatives in Iraq.
Members heard several testimonies from victims, including a mother whose child disappeared after being stopped at a checkpoint while visiting a relative. His story is indicative of the ongoing process in Iraq, according to the Commission.
Children ‘give’ away
Another common example concerns the alleged rape of children, especially from the minority Yazidi community, who were born after their mothers were abused in camps run by the extremist group ISIL or Da’esh.
The Committee learned that, in some cases, mothers were forced to leave their children in orphanages after returning to Iraq, intending to take them home as soon as possible.
However, when they went to get them back, they told the mothers that their children had been “given” to another family, which they accused of being direct government officials.
A ‘big’ problem
Hundreds of families are still searching for suspected relatives in camps in Türkiye, Syria, or Iran, “where contact with the outside world is impossible”, the Commission said.
The report notes that the following decades of conflict and political violence, casualties – including enforced casualties – have been identified as a “problem of enormous proportions in Iraq.”
Official statistics show that since 1968, between 250,000 and 1,000,000 people has been lost, although it is impossible to provide more accurate figures.
Five ‘waves’
During the Ba’ath era in Federal Iraq and the Kurdistan region, approximately 290,000 people, including some 100,000 Kurds, were forcibly exterminated as part of Saddam Hussein’s genocidal campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan, the report said.
The second “wave” of disappearances covers the 2003 invasion and the next hand, to the ISIL period. During this time, American forces and allies killed at least 200,000 Iraqis. Of this number, 96,000 are held somewhere in prisons run by the US or the United Kingdom.
“It is alleged that those detained were arrested without a warrant for their role in treasonous activities, while others were ‘criminals in the wrong place at the wrong time'”, the commission said.
A Yazidi Kurd from Sinjar kidnapped by the ISIL terrorist group, photographed at the Mamilyan Camp for displaced people in Akre, Iraq.
ISIL cruel
The report documents how ISIL’s declaration of an Islamic caliphate, including a large area of Iraq, saw new rounds of retreats and mass killings of Iraqi soldiers or security forces from 2014 to 2017.
The situation worsened further when the Military Mobilization Forces (PMF) carried out military operations to retake major cities from the militants, during which the pro-government forces lost thousands of Sunni Arabs, especially men and boys.
More violent deaths occurred during a wave of demonstrations in Iraq from 2018 to 2020, when thousands took to the streets to protest against corruption.
Law and research
The UN Council urged the Iraqi Government to immediately including rape and rape as a separate crime in the country’s law as at present cannot be prosecuted.
Members also called for a comprehensive settlement search and research strategy for all cases of disappearance, and they encourage the authorities to strengthen and increase the scope of future national investigations.
“Iraq must also immediately establish an independent task force to systematically check the registers of all places of deprivation of liberty including the names of all detainees,” the commission said. “The force must ensure that all mountains are labeled and they Relatives are generally tight-lipped about their whereabouts.”
Address the alleged secret detention
Iraq should also address persistent allegations of secret detention, which the State has denied. In this case, the authorities should set up an independent committee that will carry out a mission to verify whether there are private detention facilities.
We also urge the Iraqi authorities to take legal and judicial measures address the needs and rights of victims.
About the UN Council
The Committee on Enforcement Meeting of the Committee on Human Rights appointed by the UN in Geneva. Independent experts are not UN staff, and do not receive a salary for their work.
While in Iraq, the ambassador also observed the developments around the two exclusions and visited the DNA identification supply center in the northern city of Sinjar, home to the Yazidi community, among other activities.
