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X. Recommendations
To the Kurdistan Regional Government
Appoint as a matter of urgency an independent judicial committee to review the legal status of detainees held in the custody of the Asayish forces.
Immediately release or charge with cognizable criminal offenses all those currently held without charge.
Immediately release all convicted prisoners held in Asayish custody who have already served their sentences. Transfer any convicted prisoners still serving time to a prison under the authority of the Ministry of Interior’s police forces in accordance with legislation currently in force.
Ensure that persons taken into custody are brought before an investigative judge within 24 hours of arrest, in conformity with Iraq’s Code of Criminal Procedure.
Establish effective judicial mechanisms to enable all detainees to challenge the legal basis for their detention.
Establish effective judicial mechanisms to provide all detainees with a prompt and fair trial on the charges against them.
Ensure that family members and legal counsel have prompt access to detainees.
Limit the use of confessions as a basis for pretrial detention or conviction to confessions freely made in the presence of counsel and ratified within 24 hours before a judge and the defendant’s counsel.Suspend those provisions of the CCP that permit the use of confessions and other evidence obtained through torture or other coercive methods.
Ensure that theAsayish forces comply with domestic legislation that requires the issuance of arrest warrants from a judicial authority before arrests, except those in flagrante delicto.
Publicly condemn the practice of torture and other ill-treatment and declare unequivocally that such abuses will not be tolerated.
Investigate promptly all allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and ensure that guards, interrogators, and other prison officials who are found responsible for the abuse of prisoners are subject to disciplinary measures or criminal prosecution as appropriate. To that end, authorize the establishment of a transparent and independent body to investigate allegations of torture by Asayish personnel.
Conduct an immediate medical examination of any detainee alleging abuse.
Ensure that prisoners have access to medical care on a regular basis.
Compensate victims of torture, ill-treatment, and arbitrary detention adequately and speedily.
Ensure that all detainees are held in recognizable places of detention that are accessible to government inspection, independent monitors, relatives, and defense counsel, such access being regular and unimpeded. The Ministry of Human Rights should regularly visit all detention facilities, assess treatment of detainees and conditions of detention, and make public its findings.
Ensure regular access to detention facilities under the authority of the Asayish forces by independent domestic and international monitoring organizations.
Ensure that conditions in detention centers conform to international standards, including the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment. Detainees are entitled to sufficient food and water, prompt access to medical treatment, adequate washing facilities, and clean and adequate bedding. They must not be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
Work with the Iraqi government to ratify the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture). Work with the Iraqi government to become a party to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, which allows independent international experts to conduct regular visits to places of detention within the territory of states parties, to assess the conditions of detention, and to make recommendations for improvements.
Implement the general recommendations made by the Committee against Torture in May 2002 and by the UN special rapporteur on torture in 2003, to establish a fully independent complaints mechanism for persons who are held in state custody.
To the government of the United States and other Multinational Force governments
Assist the Kurdistan regional authorities in establishing a mechanism for the prompt investigation of allegations of torture or ill-treatment at the hands of law enforcement officials, including the Asayish forces.
Ensure that assistance to the Kurdistan Regional Government is not used to contribute to human rights violations.
In the context of assistance provided to the Kurdistan Regional Government, send a clear and consistent message that respect for human rights is integral and essential to the success of any security policy, including counterterrorism operations.
Follow up the cases of all detainees arrested in joint operations of Iraqi and US military forces and reportedly subsequently transferred to the custody of Kurdistan authorities, to ensure that Kurdistan authorities release such detainees or promptly try them in accordance with Iraqi law.
Closely monitor any police, security, and counterterrorism assistance to the Kurdistan Regional Government to ensure that human rights standards are strictly observed by police and intelligence forces.
Provide human rights training as an integral component of all capacity building and training programs involving the police and intelligence agencies. Such training should include a component designed to stop the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment as an interrogation technique or as punishment.
Ensure that aid given includes assistance for the development and support of local human rights groups with a monitoring capacity and the development of an independent human rights commission.
July 2007
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