• 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.
  • A car burns after Iraqi security forces raided a public square in Haweeja killing 45 people on April 23, 2013.
    © 2013 Human Rights Watch
    Iraq: Parliament Report Alleges Officials Ordered Raid
    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.
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      Sep 16 2011 - 15:33

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Iraq

  • 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.
  • 10 years on, Iraq ignores promised reforms in human rights
    Mar 19, 2013
    On the 10th anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein, violence and political crisis plague Iraq. The government blames its problems on regional interference, the unceasing threat of terrorism and the specter of Saddam Hussein’s Baathism. Implicit in their thinking is the idea that rights violations are justified by the state’s responsibility to prevent terrorism.
  • Iraq 10 Years Later, Creeping Authoritarianism
    Mar 19, 2013
    The US legacy in Iraq reflects abuses committed with impunity by American and Iraqi forces throughout the US-led occupation. The abuses set in motion over 10 years ago by the Bush administration’s ‘torture memos,’ and the brutal detention policies that followed, facilitated Iraq’s creation of a system that is today either unwilling or incapable of delivering justice to its citizens.
  • Iraq: Investigate Fatal Police Shootings in Mosul
    Mar 15, 2013
    Iraqi authorities should order an immediate, transparent, and independent investigation into lethal police and army shootings of anti-government protesters on March 8, 2013, and others in recent weeks. The authorities should also ensure that those responsible for unlawful killings or excessive force are brought to justice.
  • Iraq: Investigate Deadly Army Shootings in Fallujah
    Feb 14, 2013
    Iraqi authorities should complete promised investigations into the army killings of nine protesters in Fallujah on January 25, 2013, and make the results public. The authorities need to ensure that there will be independent investigations into the deaths, in addition to the promised inquiries by a parliamentary committee and the Defense Ministry, and that if there is evidence of unlawful killing, those responsible are prosecuted.'
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