Agenda item 2: Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Joint statement submitted by International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD) and Geneva International Centre for Justice (GICJ)

Delivered by Ms Alessia Vedano

Thank you Mr President,

This is a joint statement by EAFORD and Geneva International Centre for Justice. We would like first of all to thank the High Commissioner for his report. We regret that in 2016 is indeed witnessing dramatic human rights violations across the globe.
In particular, we would like to express our deep distress in regards to the persistent human rights violations occurring in Iraq. For years the Iraqi authorities have been complicit in abusing the people of this afflicted and stricken country through their policies of absolute disregard.
The violations committed, especially those within the framework of the “fight against terrorism” are a cause of great concern for us, and so should be for the whole international community. Through what the Iraqi authorities define as “liberation campaigns” of territories which are claimed to be under control of ISIS, various militias as well as the security forces are able to carry out policies of ethnic cleansing against the population, and in particular, against the Sunni component of society.
This is the tragic case of the ongoing battle in Fallujah, where thousands of people have fallen victims of the destructive indiscriminate shelling by the so-called US-led International Coalition, the Iraqi military and the militia units as well as of the abductions of such units.
We have received countless testimonies of arbitrary detentions, disturbing practices of torture and slaughtering, including hundreds of summary executions taking place at the hands of these actors. In this regard, we want to highlight that it is impossible for the government not to be held responsible on the basis of its argument that abuses by certain individuals or groups have not been orchestrated by the State, but are instead isolated incidents, when evidence shows it has been part of a systematic pattern in place for years! We therefore demand urgent action to bring peace and justice back to Iraq.
Thank you.