Mr. President, We here by ,offering you in this report, which includes some of the data and information on the situation of violence against women in Kurdistan and which were been published by the Directorate General of monitoring violence against women which is affiliated to the Ministry of Interior in the region in its semi-annual reports.The cases of violence against women and all its forms are increasing in the governorates of the region and have become a source of concern for us, we as advocators organizations for human rights, and as well as regarding to the international observers who are working in the field of human rights.Read more…
UN Task Force on Grave Child Rights Violations Established. In an effort to strengthen the UN’s implementation of the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM) on grave violations against children in Iraq, on June 7 the UN for-mally established the Monitoring and Reporting Mecha-nism Country Task Force which is co-chaired by UNAMI and UNICEF.
The latest report by the United Nations on the human rights situation in Iraq shows further improvements in security, but warns that the overall human rights situation in the country remains a matter of concern. The study, covering the second half of 2009, was prepared by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Read more
The latest session of the UN Human Rights Council, which ended on June 18, has highlighted the political malaise that has made it difficult for the world’s preeminent human rights body to carry out its primary purpose of addressing rights violations throughout the world. Read more
Under the auspices of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), The meeting which focused on addressing the security of the various communities and the protection of their legal, political and human rights, as entrenched in the Constitution.
UNICEF recently conducted a three-day technical mission to Kirkuk to discuss child protection issues in the governorate and explore prospects of creating a protective environment for children in Kirkuk. The mission included UNICEF Iraq’s Deputy Representative, Mr. Osama Makkawi, the Chief of North Zonal Office, Mrs. Joyce Gachiri, as well as UNICEF’s Protection Specialist and Communications Specialist.
The Iraqi Institute for Development, an NGO from Ninewa governorate, denounces the gross violations of human rights committed by security forces at the Al Muthanna air base in Baghdad against 431 citizens of Ninewa who were arrested and detained without judicial approval from August to November 2009. They were held in secret prisons and nobody was informed that they had been detained until the Ministry of Human Rights discovered a secret underground prison at the Muthanna airbase in Baghdad on the 20th April. The ministry exposed cases of inhuman torture and sexual abuse suffered by detainees there at the hands of members of the security forces. We therefore demand that the international community, the UN and the Iraqi government open an investigation into this matter, work to hold to account those guilty of negligence in upholding human rights and form an independent investigative committee to monitor detentions and remaining secret prisons. Through these prisons, the government is governing on the basis of martial law. Through these prisons the government commits gross human rights violations, which occur on a daily basis because of the military’s dominance of every aspect of life. We demand that these extra-judicial arrest campaigns that are carried out under the false pretext of ‘anti-terrorism operations’ be terminated.
Hundreds of civilians are still being killed or maimed every month in Iraq, even if the past two years have seen an overall reduction in the number of civilian deaths. As a result, safety and security remain key concerns for Iraqis – especially for those who, because of their religious, ethnic or other identity or because of their profession or work, are particularly vulnerable to be targeted for violent attack. Although civilians have been killed, injured or otherwise abused by Iraqi security forces and foreign troops based in Iraq, and by members of private military and security companies, most killings of civilians are being carried out by armed groups.
PDA’s human rights monitors have prepared hundreds of reports on the violation of children rights in all areas in the Sulaimani and Erbil provinces. Iraq ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Child (UNCRC) on June 15, 1994.
Civil society representatives and prison focal points under the Central Government and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) this week completed a series of joint trainings aimed at improving the treatment of prisoners and detainees in Iraq.
The beginning of 2010 was marred by acts of violence that claimed the lives of hundreds of civilians and led to a new wave of displacement mainly from Mosul. Iraqis are still striving to earn their living despite the difficult economic and security challenges they face on daily basis. In a variety of different ways, the ICRC has been helping Iraqi individuals and communities to be self-sufficient economically.
Violence against minority communities in Ninawa Province's dispute territories At issue is the status of the disputed territories immediately south of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) region. Previous Iraqi governments “arabized” this large area of northern Iraq, expelling hundreds of thousands of Kurds and other minorities from their homes and replacing them with ethnic Arabs. After more than three decades of forced expulsions, and in the aftermath of the overthrow of the government of Saddam Hussein, an emboldened KRG leadership insists it is entitled to claim this land as part of the territory that Kurds have historically lived in, which stretches from the western villages of Sinjar near the Syrian border all the way to Khanaqin near the Iranian border in the east.
UNAMI engages in the promotion and protection of human rights and the rule of law in close collaboration with the Government of Iraq and non-governmental sectors, in accordance with its mandate under UN Security Council resolution 1830 (2008)1 to “promote the protection of human rights and judicial and legal reform in order to strengthen the rule of law in Iraq.”2 To that end, UNAMI monitors the human rights situation in Iraq and assists, especially through its capacity-building activities, in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of state and civil society institutions. It collaborates closely with local human rights groups and seeks to maintain direct contact with victims and witnesses of human rights violations.
To liberal and Enlightenment-era scholars, justice is the dividing point between tyranny and dissolution of the social contract, and the protection of human rights and private property. This paper, prepared for a conference on civil society and transitional justice at the London School of Economics in June 2009, will address the debate on transitional justice in Iraq, focusing in particular on the IraqiHigh Tribunal (successor to the Iraqi Special Tribunal), and the question of whether it divided Iraqi society, helped reconcile peoples whose always-tenuous unity had been shattered, or both. It will discuss the sometimes competing priorities and policies of Iraqi politicians and judges; the roles of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and Department of Justice (DOJ) of the United States; and the reports and positions of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. A dynamic developed in which the Iraqi Prime Minister, his zeal tempered somewhat by Iraq’s President and the U.N., pursued swift justice for Iraqi officials responsible for mass killings of Shi’a, Kurdish, and other victims of torture or murder. Ultimately justice, though occasionally flawed, was handed down on the Prime Minister’s timetable. This served to reunite some sectors of Iraqi society with the state and its institutions, while alienating others still further.
Despite a relative reduction in the level of violence in Iraq, as of December 2008 Iraqis continue to face serious and persistent threats to their safety and welfare due to a mix of ongoing conflict, lack of access to basic services, spotty performance of Iraqi line ministries, serious inefficiencies in the humanitarian apparatus itself, and inadequate operational capacity of aid actors on the ground.
5,500 years ago a minor official in a town in Mesopotamia sat down and, in the first known form of human writing, pressed into his clay tablet symbols that expressed the expected crops from the area around the city that year and the expected grain consumption. This is one of the earliest know records of human writing, and it records a food security assessment: we have been in the humanitarian aid business for a long time. Read more
UNAMI engages in the promotion and protection of human rights and the rule of law in close collaboration with the Government of Iraq and non-governmental sectors, in accordance with its mandate under UN Security Council resolution 1830 (2008)1 to “promote the protection of human rights and judicial and legal reform in order to strengthen the rule of law in Iraq.”2 To that end, UNAMI monitors the human rights situation in Iraq and assists, especially through its capacity-building activities, in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of state and civil society institutions. It collaborates closely with local human rights groups and seeks to maintain direct contact with victims and witnesses of human rights violations.
Despite a relative reduction in the level of violence in Iraq, as of December 2008 Iraqis continue to face serious and persistent threats to their safety and welfare due to a mix of ongoing conflict, lack of access to basic services, spotty performance of Iraqi line ministries, serious inefficiencies in the humanitarian apparatus itself, and inadequate operational capacity of aid actors on the ground.
Joint Iraq Policy Brief: "Fallen Off the Agenda? More and Better Aid Needed for Iraq Recovery" - Mercy Corps and NCCI - July 2010
In order to effectively contribute to Iraq's recovery, the EU and its member states, including the UK, should acknowledge the need for more significant and longer-term commitment. Furthermore, they should improve aid effectiveness by ensuring more direct participation of the Iraqi people in the recovery processes.
