By Maeva Giambrone / GICJ
On the 1st of March 2023, during the High-Level Segment of the 52nd Human Rights Council, Mr. Omer Ahmad Berzingi, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq, outlined steps the most recent government Iraq purports to have taken in the domain of human rights protection in the country. The representative presented reforms aiming at establishing good governance with a promise to enforce the law and restore the country's prestige.
Despite those warm words directed to the international audience, there is little to no evidence of progress on the ground inside the country. Rather than responding to the demands of the people including young people, Iraqi security forces regularly attack youth movements, forcefully attack peaceful protests, and fail to ensure equal provision of services for people in all areas of the country.
The Deputy Foreign Minister went on to claim that an advisor to the Prime Minister had been appointed to address human rights violations and develop national policies in line with international human rights instruments to which Iraq is party. This is not the first time that Iraq has claimed to take measure to comply with international obligations which fall short. There have been many promises to reform governance systems in recent years. Yet they are never effectively implemented.
Iraq has clear obligations under international treaties it has voluntarily signed to protect its citizens from enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions. Nevertheless, report after report from UN bodies identifies ways in which Iraq has failed to implement these provisions to protect human rights. Hundreds of thousands of innocent individuals have been forcibly disappeared by Iraqi forces or militia allowed to operate freely with impunity. Their families await fulfilment of previous promises to provide information, compensation, and accountability with perpetrators bought to justice.
Similarly, while the Deputy Minister mentioned a draft law on domestic violence, meanwhile for the moment in Iraq no law criminalises domestic violence. On the contrary, the penal code allows husbands to “discipline” their wives, which includes beatings et provides for reduction of sentences for husbands who kill their wives who commit adultery. Thus, the government must enact a law that expressly criminalises gender-based violence.
These hypocritical positions unfortunately prove the point that the words delivered during the High-Level Segment will remain empty words.
Geneva International Centre for Justice (GICJ) urges the international community to pressure Iraq to urgently and comprehensively implement measures to meet its international obligations to protect the human rights of it citizens from interference by security forces and militia. Iraq can prove to the international community that it fully respects human rights by providing accountability and redress for previous abuses and making legislative changes that protect women, vulnerable minorities and which delivers real justice in practice to those who continue to suffer abuses.
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