The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) has documented the human rights situation in Iraq during the past five years since the start of the popular movement, including by publishing 27 periodic reports detailing the grave violations taking place in the country. They can be viewed here.
The 28th periodic report deals with several types of grave violations, including the killing of human rights defenders and other community figures, and the curtailing of civil and human rights of various citizens.
Film director Louay Fadel dies in mysterious circumstances
On 18 June 2023, Abbas Fadel, the brother of the well-known film director Louay Fadel, posted a message on his Facebook page, saying: “My brother, film director Louay Fadel, has been missing for 6 days since 13 June, after he left the door of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Al-Waziriya area at 10:50 in the morning.”
Then, in the early morning hours of 19 June 2023, Abbas posted the following on his Facebook page as well: “My brother, father, and friend is dead. I found him in the Forensic Medicine Department.”
Local sources confirmed that the River Police had found his body after he died due to drowning and had handed it over to the Forensic Medicine Department in the capital, Baghdad.
Louay Fadel, 41, is a prominent Iraqi film director. He belongs to the new generation of Iraqi filmmakers, and has produced various films, all of them short. He has won several local and international awards.
His first film was titled “Look at Them”, and his second film “Bastille” won the second prize at the Gulf Film Festival 2010. His film “Lipstick” also won the Golden Prize at the Geneva Oriental Film Festival 2014, in its ninth session in the Short Narrative category. In the same year, the film “Cotton” won the “Grand Prize” from the Ibn Jarir Festival in Morocco for reality Cinema and universal values, which is specific to short films in the Arab world.
In a press interview, he talked about the reason for making his films (Lipstick and Cotton) without dialogue at all, and said, “Because I wanted to rely on the language of the image more, and to address all people, without stopping at the boundaries of language or dialect. I wanted to address the eye as a key to reason and understanding.”
In another press interview, he criticised the Iraqi Ministry of Culture for neglecting creative talents, stating: “The Ministry of Culture does not search for its creators, but rather it searches for others who may be flatterers or something like that, and the proof is the films of Baghdad Festival Capital of Arab Culture Festival, in which I was not assigned to direct any film, despite the fact that I won seven international awards. I wonder why they are not looking for their creators.”
While GCHR shares the grief and anguish of the family of film director Louay Fadel over his loss as a creative artist and a person who cultivated love and peace through his artwork, it calls on the Iraqi government to conduct a comprehensive and independent investigation to reveal the full facts regarding his mysterious death.
Theatre artist Werya Nazim Gli killed in act of premeditated murder
On the evening of 22 June 2023, theatre artist Khwanas Werya Nazim Gli, 25 years old, was killed while he was walking in the market of the city of Chamchamal, which is a district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate. He was killed by someone he knew who was riding a motorcycle and fired ten bullets at him, killing him instantly.
Gli was a young theatre artist who had come two days before his murder from the United Arab Emirates, where he was working, in order to see his father and his family who reside in Chamchamal.
Press reports stated that the District Administrator of Chamchamal announced on the evening of 23 June 2023 the arrest of his killer after he turned himself in to the security forces, while other press reports stated that the Kurdistan Region’s Asayish (Internal Security Forces) had announced that its forces had arrested the person jn Chamchamal. The Kurdistan Region’s Asayish attributed the motive behind the crime to “a difference in religious orientations.”
His family stated the following, “We consider this incident as unjustified terrorism and unjust killing, and at the same time we believe that words cannot be answered with bullets.”
GCHR denounces in the strongest terms the premeditated murder of the play artist Khwanas Werya Nazim Gli, and calls on the competent authorities in the Kurdistan region to bring all the persons who instigated his killing, in addition to the main suspect, to a fair trial. GCHR expresses its deep grief with his family and colleagues.
Woman human rights defender Sarah Jassim receives continuous threats
Since the start of the popular movement on 01 October 2019, woman human rights defender Sarah Jassim Mohammedhas received continuous and repeated threats to kill or disfigure her with burning liquids, in order to prevent her from continuing her peaceful and legitimate work in the field of human rights. In particular, she has been threatened for standing up for women who face electronic blackmail, domestic violence, and harassment, as part of the campaigns she organises to defend women’s rights.
These threats coincide with the successes she achieves in the cases she undertakes, such as guiding survivors to the legal ways to obtain their rights.
The threats come from well-known personal accounts on social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Telegram. Although she submitted several complaints to the relevant government agencies, the most recent of which was on 24 May 2023, she has not received any results yet, which forced her to reduce her activities and not leave her house unless necessary.
GCHR declares its full solidarity with woman human rights defender Sarah Jassim Mohammed, and calls on the Iraqi security authorities to make serious efforts to protect her and to bring all perpetrators who threaten her to justice.
Activist Akram Athab’s brother killed
On 10 May 2023, prominent civil society activist Akram Athab posted on his Facebook page the following: “Three government cars killed my brother in the city of Al-Amarah. Oh people, oh world, with whom do we talk to complain about this?”
He later explained, in a video he posted on the same page the next day, that a force consisting of three National Security Service cars carrying eight peo In future, we will request an extension for the project with more advance notice.ple raided their house in the city of Al-Amarah, the capital of Maysan Governorate, in an attempt to arrest his brother. After that, one of the members of this force tried to hit his brother Saad Khudair Athab with the handle of a pistol, but a bullet was fired from it and killed him.
Athab added that they fled, leaving the body behind, after they stole his mobile phones and the money he had in his possession. He made it clear, while appealing to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior to intervene, that the local authorities had refused to promote any complaint of the family against the attackers.
On 11 May 2023, the Media Center of the Supreme Judicial Council issued a statement stating that, “The investigating judge in Al-Amarah issued a decision to [allow] a search only… After the search warrant was executed by the National Security Detachment, the victim was hit by a bullet by mistake.” The statement added, “The competent investigating judge issued a decision to arrest the members of the detachment that executed the search warrant, including the associate who committed the crime and who confessed to committing it unintentionally.”
GCHR had previously documented, in its 10th Periodic Report, that on 25 November 2020, Akram Athab was subjected to an assassination attempt by gunmen in the Talbiyah area, east of Baghdad, hours after his participation in a protest in Baghdad against the Cybercrimes Law, which the Iraqi Parliament was planning to pass into law. This led to him having to leave the country nearly two years ago.
GCHR condemns the killing of Saad Khudair Athab, and shares his family’s deep sorrow and sorrow. It calls on the concerned authorities to carry out an independent and comprehensive investigation into the circumstances that led to his death, as well as the need to train the security forces to carry out their work in maintaining the security of citizens with complete professionalism, and for their first motto to be protecting the lives of citizens, which constitutes its primary responsibility.
New instructions regarding media work issued in Iraqi Kurdistan region
Prominent human rights defender and coordinator of the Metro Center for Journalists’ Rights and Advocacy, Rahman Gharib, denounced in press statements the publication by the Ministry of Culture and Youth in the Kurdistan Region of instructions on media work issued in the official Kurdistan Gazette, describing these instructions as designed “to restrict freedom of expression.”
On 22 May 2023, the Ministry of Culture and Youth published in the official Kurdistan Gazette, a set of instructions bearing No. (01) for the year 2023 regarding the organisation of media work in the Kurdistan Region, consisting of 17 articles.
In his remarks, Gharib explained, “The government must implement the Press and Information Law and its strategic plan to protect human rights.” He described the instructions as “contrary to the official policy of the Kurdistan Regional Government towards the freedom of journalistic work, which invalidates the content of the Press Law.”
Human rights defenders and writers remain forcibly missing
Human rights lawyer Ali Jaseb Hattab Al-Heliji is still in custody after being kidnapped on 07 October 2019, in Al-Amara city, by an armed group that is known to security forces in the governorate.
On 12 March 2021, GCHR documented the assassination of Jaseb Hattab Al-Heliji. He put all efforts and raised his voice in protests and various places in order to find his son Ali Al-Heliji.
Jaseb Al-Heliji had recorded a video of himself before his assassination, in which he stated that his life was in danger and he might be killed, and asked to meet the Prime Minister to speak privately with him. In this recording, he mentioned the name of the armed militia that kidnapped his son.
Although the kidnappers are known to local authorities, they never took any action. As to the murdered father, the authorities arrested the individual who killed him but the trial is very slow and the family is getting threats from militants not to attend.
Writer Mazen Latif was kidnapped on 31 January 2020 by a group of gunmen in civilian clothes riding in a shaded pick-up truck and taken to an unknown destination.
On 09 March 2020, an unknown armed group kidnapped journalist Tawfiq Al-Tamimi, who reports on the governorates for the official “Al-Sabah” newspaper, which is issued by the Iraqi media Commission. Masked gunmen intercepted the car in which he was traveling after he left his home in Baghdad’s Ur neighborhood and took him by force to an unknown destination.
On the night of 29 March 2020, civil society activist Abdulmasih Romeo Jean Sarkis was arbitrarily arrested without a warrant by the riot police near Al-Khilani Square, and there is no information yet about his whereabouts. Sarkis, 34, is a resident of the Al-Seha district of the Al-Dora area in Baghdad. His parents are old and he has a brother with special needs.
On 19 September 2020, at 8:30 pm, civil society activist Sajjad Al-Iraqi (Al-Mushrifawi) was kidnapped by seven armed people in two white Toyota pickups with unknown license plate numbers, in Al-Azirj area on the outskirts of Nasiriyah. He was accompanied by a number of his fellow civil society activists, including Muntadhar Abdulkarim andBasem Fleih, who recognised one of the kidnappers and called him by name, so they shot him in the leg with a silencer pistol. Fleih was injured as a result and transferred to the hospital for treatment. Al-Iraqi was one of the well-known participants of sit-ins in the Nasiriyah sit-in.
Case of Dr. Hisham Al-Hashemi
The case of the well-known journalist and security expert, Dr. Hisham Al-Hashemi is a blatant example of the targeting of human rights defenders and journalists. On 06 July 2020, during the daytime, a member of an armed group riding two motorcycles and in a civilian car assassinated Dr. Hashemi, in front of his house in the Zayouna area, in the centre of Baghdad.
On 16 July 2021, the Iraqi government announced the arrest of Dr. Al-Hashemi’s killer and put him on trial and regarded the killing as a criminal case without investigating further the militant groups that probably are behind the killing. As to the killer himself, there were reports in July 2022 that he was smuggled out of prison as he had never attended several hearings that had been held by the court. However, according to a reliable report, someone was taken to court in October 2022 who was accused of the crime.
On 07 May 2023, the Supreme Judicial Council announced in a statement that a death sentence had been issued against the murderer of Al-Hashemi by the Al-Rusafa Criminal Court, in accordance with Articles Two and Four of the Anti-Terrorism Law No. (13) of 2005. His trial hearings have been postponed ten times due to his absence.
Law to combat domestic violence yet to be approved
On 26 June 2023, a father in the city of Diwaniyah, the capital of Al-Qadisiyah Governorate, brutally abused his 9-year-old daughter, which led to her death, after she accidentally published a video clip in which she appeared on TikTok.
Many women and children were victims of violence in recent years while the authorities have not taken any serious action to protect them.
These repeated tragic incidents require the speedy passage of a law that works effectively to stop domestic violence, including gender-based violence, by prosecuting those responsible, and providing real legal protection for children and women.
On 04 August 2020, the Iraqi government approved the Law on Combating Domestic Violence in order to protect vulnerable segments of society, especially children and women. The bill has been sent to Parliament for debate and approval but no progress has been made so far.
Internet cut off throughout Iraq during exam times
On 14 June 2023, the official spokesperson for the Iraqi Ministry of Education Ali Al-Sayed posted on his Facebook page that: “Cutting off the internet is a measure within a series of other measures taken by the ministry this year, aimed at protecting the examination process and raising the level of safety.”
This confirms that the Ministry continues to adopt a misguided policy that it has pursued over the past years, which requires cutting off the Internet for all citizens during the period of ministerial examinations. The Ministry must respect the right to access the Internet for all citizens and residents in Iraq, and instead of arbitrarily cutting it off, it must address the areas of error in managing the examination process in order to eliminate corruption and spread everyone’s confidence in the educational process as a whole.
Demonstrations of state employees demand a change in the salary scale
Public employees who work in various state institutions organised several mass demonstrations in central Baghdad, demanding an amendment to the current salary scale, which is not based on fairness, but rather works to create a two-tier system in which a small number of first-class officials enjoy very big salaries and are granted allowances that exceed their original salaries, while a majority of second-class employees are deprived of everything and are given very meager salaries to face poor living conditions and miserable living conditions.
Two mass demonstrations took place in Al-Tahrir Square in the centre of Baghdad. They were organised by a number of committees and coordination groups, and thousands of employees participated in them. The first took place on 09 May 2023, and the second took place on 02 June 2023.
Cybercrimes Law and Law on Public Freedoms
On 23 November 2020, the Iraqi Parliament began discussing the draft Law on Combatting Cybercrimes (previously known as the Law on Information Technology Crimes), which caused a great deal of argument in Iraqi circles, as the draft law was considered an attempt to restrict freedom of opinion and expression, and a restriction of popular activity on the Internet.
The draft Law on Information Technology Crimes that was first introduced to Parliament in 2011, then withdrawn in 2013, and then re-introduced in January 2019, includes extreme provisions imposing life in prison, as an attempt to legislate the Internet and impose government control over it.
On 03 December 2022, the Iraqi parliament completed the first reading of the law on freedom of expression, assembly, and peaceful demonstration, which was submitted by the Human Rights Committee. After an analytical study conducted of all the articles of this law, GCHR stresses that it is a repressive law that seeks to restrict the public freedoms of citizens.
Both legislations will be introduced for voting in the Iraqi parliament, and until then, we have to continue our campaign to call on the Iraqi government to only present legislations that respect the human and civil rights of citizens.
Recommendations
GCHR calls on the Iraqi government to assume full responsibility in protecting all citizens, including human rights defenders, journalists, and members of civil society.
In addition, the relevant Iraqi authorities must clearly and unequivocally identify all perpetrators of the abduction, torture and killing of human rights defenders, peaceful protesters and other activists and bring them to justice immediately.
The authorities must fulfil their constitutional obligations not to violate public freedoms, including freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression, and freedom of the media.
As we witness the continuation of the killing of women and violence against children, the Iraqi Parliament must pass domestic violence legislation into law immediately.
There is no doubt that the introduction of democratic legislation that protects public freedom and free elections is another necessary task that lies at the heart of the obligations that must be implemented by the various authorities in Iraq.
GCHR further calls on the Kurdistan Regional Government to immediately and unconditionally release all civil society activists, journalists and other prisoners of conscience who are forcibly imprisoned in violation of their rights to freely assemble and express their opinions (A separate appeal will be issued for them). The authorities must fulfil their constitutional obligations not to violate public freedoms, including freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression, and freedom of the media.
