General Debate under Item 4:

General debate Item 4: Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention

13 March 2019

Oral Statement by: International-Lawyers.Org and Geneva International Centre for Justice (GICJ)

Thank you Mr. President,

Does anyone in this room know the reality of the situation in Iraq? Unfortunately, there has been constant misinformation since the illegal 2003 US invasion. Today, Iraqis live without basic human rights, thousands have been forcibly disappeared or arbitrarily detained, unfair trials and extrajudicial executions are rampant.

Iraq is at the forefront of countries using the death penalty, but it is at the bottom of the list in development indicators, especially education and health. It is back to the top again in the level of corruption, which allows abuse of Iraqis basic human rights. And elections are neither fair nor independent.

Despite the presence of hundreds of UN employees in Iraq, including for the OHCHR, we are not seeing reports on Iraq in this room.

Therefore, we urge the Council to encourage all special mandate holders to urgently visit Iraq, and we urge this Council to create the mandate for a special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iraq, who will monitor and report on the situation to this Council.

We urge the Council to listen to the Iraqi people, who demand an end to the human rights tragedy that has lasted for 16 years.