Edited  by Information Center for Research and Development Team

More than 3 months have passed since the formation of Mr. Mohammed Shiyaa’ Al-Sudani government, which came after a political crisis that made a significant impact on the country, the situation could have led to  violent and dangerous prospects. The new government in its new program has tackled many human rights issues, which was no  different  from the promises made by previous governments. As the Iraqi Dinar value has decreased for the U.S. Dollar, and the deterioration of the economic situation as a result, the Human Rights Watch Organisation produced  its annual report which reflects the human rights situation in the world for 2022. And it has a specific section for Iraq, that tackled the human rights situation in country, where the report have touched on what happened after October Election 2021, with political blockage, argument cutout, violent conflict between the political forces that has control over the authority and what some forces moved the Iraqi people  causing a violent clash that killed  30 people and dozens of wounded, The blockade lasted for more than a year until the consensus between them on the appointment of Mr. Mohammed Shiyaa’ Al-Sudani as the prime minister. 

The report has pointed out that these events have accompanied by inability of Mr. Mustafa Al-Kadhumi and his government to fulfill their promises that the government disclose corruption cases, and those involved in killing the protestors in October 2019-2020 and those who had a hand  in the violations of  human rights.. After the protestors ran the streets in 2019, Mr. Aadil Abd Al-Mahdi’s government faced them with excessive violence resulting in the death of 487 protesters, and thousands of injuries. Abductions, assassinations and disappearances also increased  in Baghdad and provinces, where Mr. Al-Kadhumi’s government promised to hold those involved in these violations accountable and many investigation committees were formed to uncover the facts. The government  promised to compensate those whose family members  were killed or injured during the demonstration but had received such compensations once after two  and a half years of demanding financial compensation, other than the simple grants offered by the government as salaries to martyrs. The report also pointed out the call for a legal complaint against Dr. Ali Al-Bayati, a member of the High Commision of Human Rights, for seeking to investigate the cases of the torture of detained individuals. 

The report also touched on the human rights situation in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, where it pointed out that the K.R.G. is still using means that threaten basic human rights, as in K.R.I. The authorities used many unclarified laws to limit the freedoms of activists, where dozens of journalists were arrested and e of them were sentenced for 6 years in prison.

As for women and their rights, the international organization report points out, the targeting women that participated in the demonstration movement of 2019-2020, and after that through many accusations, the most highlighted was accusing them with prostitution, insults and threats and even kidnapping and killing in some cases, not to mention the imposed limitation on women by their families, and attacking them with wide criticism by the society according to masculine norms that are rooted in the Iraqi law system, and the women are still committed to legislate laws against domestic violence despite the inconvenient circumstances due to the latency of forming the government for more than a year and the political crisis that comes with it.

On the other hand, the Human Rights Watch report pointed out the issue of impunity, where the report touched on the repeated formation of investigation committees  without any clear results or effective handlings. And that is what the reality actually reflects where impunity is still only a slogan that the consecutive governments and the dominant political forces raise. Despite the formation of many serious committees that have no power to hold the involved accountable, they could not announce their results and deliver the criminals to justice.

The report referred tot the situation of the displaced people with Human Rights Watch focusing on the  fact  that nearly 1 Million Iraqis remained displaced the   armed groups seizure  on Iraqi territories and they’re unable to get documents that proves their ownership to these lands, that came after five years of liberating these territories after the victory on the Islamic State organization (Daesh, aka: I.S.I.S.). And highlighting what happened due to the liberation combats, that some detained Iraqi citizens which form the majority in detained people in North East Syria as suspects of ISIS members until further notice.

Environment and health wise, the report noted that Iraq, according to the reports, the fifth most affected country with global warming and climate change, as political conditions and poor management of the water issue had contributed to the increase of temperature, drought and the increase of dust storms occurrence..

The report pointed out many important cases for human rights, and they’re the violations which have been long reported by activists and human rights defenders. Where there is no exit from these consecutive crises, without moving  away from the factious, sectarianist, political and narrow quotas that has been proven unsuccessful through the past 20 years, where temporary solutions are not working out anymore, and what happened in October 2019, was not out of nothing and the same conditions that the Iraqi people protested for back then, still exists if not aggravated, and it is self-evident  that the Iraqi people will protest, demanding their rights in any moment. To read the article on the Information Center for Research and Development website in Arabic, click here.