• Human Rights in Iraq
    Human rights conditions in Iraq remain poor, particularly for detainees, journalists, activists, and women and girls. Security forces continued to arbitrarily detain and torture detainees, holding some in secret jails. Iraq security forces respond to peaceful protest with intimidation, threats, violence, and arrests. Journalists and media organizations critical of the government face harassment. A new law criminalizing human trafficking has yet to be effectively implemented, and the Kurdistan Regional Government has not taken steps to implement a 2011 law banning female genital mutilation. Hundreds of civilians and police were killed in bomb attacks by armed groups and other violence amid a political crisis that has dragged on since December 2011.
  • Iraq/Jordan/Turkey: Syrians Blocked from Fleeing War
    Iraqi, Jordanian, and Turkish border guards are pushing back tens of thousands of people trying to flee Syria. Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey have either closed numerous border crossings entirely or allowed only limited numbers of Syrians to cross, leaving tens of thousands stranded in dangerous conditions in Syria’s conflict-ridden border regions. Only Lebanon has an open border policy for Syrians fleeing the conflict.
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Iraq

  • Iraq/Jordan/Turkey: Syrians Blocked from Fleeing War
    Jul 1, 2013
    Iraqi, Jordanian, and Turkish border guards are pushing back tens of thousands of people trying to flee Syria. Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey have either closed numerous border crossings entirely or allowed only limited numbers of Syrians to cross, leaving tens of thousands stranded in dangerous conditions in Syria’s conflict-ridden border regions. Only Lebanon has an open border policy for Syrians fleeing the conflict.
  • Iraq: Abusive Commander Linked to Mosul Killings
    Jun 11, 2013
    Iraqi authorities should immediately investigate evidence that federal police executed four men and a 15-year-old boy on May 3, 2013, south of Mosul. Witnesses last saw the victims in the custody of the federal police 3rd Division, commanded by Gen. Mehdi Gharawi, who had been removed from his post as a federal police commander following claims he was implicated in torture and other abuses but was later reinstated.
  • Joint letter to Secretary Kerry on alleged torture at Abu Ghraib
    May 31, 2013
    We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to urge the United States government to allow Taha Yaseen Arraq Rashid, Asa’ad Hamza Hanfoosh Al-Zuba’e and Suhail Najim Abdullah Al Shimari to travel from Iraq to the United States to participate in a lawsuit they brought against a private military contractor, CACI Premier Technology, Inc., alleging torture and other abuse at Abu Ghraib.
  • Learning a Lesson from Libya & Iraq: Reconciliation, Not Revenge!
    May 29, 2013
    Even as Syria’s nightmare continues, policy makers should consider the country’s future once hostilities end. Those planning for Syria’s “day after” should learn a lesson from the past and avoid an approach just adopted in Libya, and before that in Iraq, that will widen divisions rather than heal the wounds.
  • How Baghdad Fuels Iraq's Sectarian Fire
    May 15, 2013
    The Iraqi government has hurled the country to the brink of a new civil war. In under a month, Baghdad launched a vicious assault on a Sunni protest camp, resulting in 44 deaths; executed 21 alleged Sunni terrorists in one day, and suspended the licenses of 10 satellite channels, 9 of them deemed pro-Sunni.
  • Iraq: Parliament Report Alleges Officials Ordered Raid
    May 4, 2013
    A preliminary parliamentary committee report based in part on witness interviews and given to Human Rights Watch claims top Iraqi officials ordered a raid on a demonstrators’ camp on April 23, 2013, in Haweeja.
  • Iraq: Cancel Revocations of TV Station Licenses
    Apr 30, 2013
    Iraq’s media commission should immediately reverse the license suspensions for ten satellite television stations and allow them to continue broadcasting. A senior official has admitted the suspension was not according to any law, nor could the commission produce any evidence of direct incitement to violence by any of the stations, leading to the conclusion that the suspension was arbitrary.
  • Iraq: Executions Surge but No Action on Reform
    Apr 25, 2013
    A striking increase in executions in Iraq points out the failure of Iraq’s justice system to meet international fair trial standards.
  • Iraq: Investigate Deadly Raid on Protest
    Apr 24, 2013
    Iraqi authorities should ensure that a promised investigation into a deadly raid on April 23, 2013, in Haweeja, near Kirkuk, examines allegations that security forces used excessive and lethal force.
  • U.S. Has Self to Blame for Iraq Failures
    Mar 19, 2013
    After 10 years, Washington should have learned that it cannot improve a government's human rights conduct when it joins that government in demonstrating indifference to basic rights.
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