Records relating to keyword "Human rights"

• First Periodical Report (20 Aug 2005)
  
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  • Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq
  
  Keywords: Human rights

  Detailed allegations of human rights violations in Iraq. These cover war crimes, mass graves for those killed in fighting around Fallujah, killing of civilians, destruction of houses, the apparent murder of several dozen (named) Iraqis by Iraqi police and the US army, assassinations of professors, scientists and other professionals, violation of the rights of children, women and minorities, the use of collective punishment, and the torture and abuse of prisoners.

  Includes lists of the names and details of:

  • Assassinated university professors
  • 143 mosques raided by US forces
  • Over 650 mosque preachers and worshippers who have been arrested
• Mental Health Survey of US soldiers & Marines serving in Iraq (05 May 2007)
  
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  • Opinion Polls in Iraq
  
  Keywords: US Military Mental Health Torture Human rights

  A team of US army mental health specialists surveyed (anonymously) 1320 soldiers and 447 Marines serving in Iraq, and conducted focus groups with US military personnel. The study, completed in November 2006 but released in redacted form in May 2007, found high levels of mental stress and ill-health, and high tolerance of ill-treatment and torture of Iraqis; and also fears about safety risks posed by Rules of Engagement perceived to be restrictive.

  • "Approximately 10% of Soldiers and Marines report mistreating non-combatants (damaged/destroyed Iraqi property when not necessary or hit/kicked a non-combatant when not necessary)

  • "More than one-third of all Soldiers and Marines continue to report being in threatening situations where they were unable to respond due to the Rules of Engagement"

  • "over 650 Soldiers/Marines (over 37% of the sample) described an event which occurred during the current deployment which caused them "intense fear, helplessness or horror"

  • 20% of soldiers and 15% of Marines were diagnosed as suffering from a mental health problem (depression, anxiety, acute stress or other)

  • 39% of Marines and 36% of soldiers believed "Torture should be allowed in order to gather important information about insurgents"

  • 17% of soldiers/Marines believed "All non-combatants should be treated as insurgents"

  • only 38% of Marines and 47% of soldiers believed "All non-combatants should be treated with dignity and respect"

  • "just less than 10% of Soldiers and Marines reported that their unit modifies the ROE [Rules of Engagement] to accomplish their mission"

  • "12% of Soliders and 5% of Marines reported taking medication for a mental health, combat stress or sleep problem during the deployment

• UNAMI Human Rights Report January-March 2007 (Apr 2007)
  
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  • UNAMI Human Rights reports
  
  Keywords: UN UNAMI Human rights Humanitarian situation

  In this document, UNAMI report that:

  • 736,000 Iraqis have been forced to flee their homes since February 2006, in addition to the 1.2 million already displaced.
  • 4 million Iraqis are "acutely vulnerable due to food insecurity"
  • 54% of the Iraqi population are living on less than $1 per day, 8% on less than $0.50 per day
  • The Baghdad Security Plan has inadequate human rights safeguards
  • The Iraqi government has been withholding data on casualty figures from the UN.

  The report also discusses attacks on journalists and academics, mass killings in Baghdad, sectarian violence, suicide bombings, attacks on Yezidi and Turkomen minorities, poor conditions for Palestinian refugees, honor killings and other discrimination against women

  Media coverage: Guardian, IRIN, Reuters, Washington Post

• Nowhere to flee: the perilous situation of Palestinians in Iraq (10 Sept 2006)
  
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  • Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons
  
  Keywords: Refugees Security Human Rights Watch Human rights

  The 34,000 Palestinian refugees in Iraq have become victims of murder, assault and attacks on their buildings. Not only are they (as primarily Sunni) obvious targets for sectarian attacks by Shia militias, but they are also the subject of resentment because of the relatively good treatment they received under Saddam Hussein.

• Soldiers' accounts of detainee abuse in Iraq (July 2006)
  
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  • Prisoner abuse and torture in Iraq
  
  Keywords: Human Rights Watch Human rights Prisons

  Based on first-hand accounts, this report finds evidence "that detainee abuse was an established and apparently authorized part of the detention and interrogation processes in Iraq for much of 2003-2005".

  The report focusses on abuse of detainees in three places: Mosul Airport, 'Forward Operating Base Tiger' on the Syrian border, and under a task force based first at Camp Nema near Baghdad, then near to Balad.

• Report of the Secretary-General (02 June 2006)
  
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  Keywords: Human rights UN Humanitarian situation Secretary General US Mandate Reconstruction Elections

  Summarises developments in Iraq from March to May 2006.

• Amnesty International Report 2006: Iraq Overview (23 May 2006)
  
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  • Amnesty International
  
  Keywords: Amnesty Human rights NGOs

  The Amnetsy Internaltional 2006 Report covers events from January to December 2005.

  Both the US-led Multinational Force (MNF) and Iraqi security forces committed grave human rights violations, including torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary detention without charge or trial, and excessive use of force resulting in civilian deaths. Armed groups fighting against the MNF and the Iraqi government were responsible for grave human rights abuses, including the deliberate killing of thousands of civilians in bomb and other attacks, hostage-taking and torture. Dozens of people were sentenced to death by criminal courts and at least three were executed. Former President Saddam Hussain and seven others were brought to trial. Women and girls continued to be harassed and lived in fear as a result of the continuing lack of security.

• UNAMI Human Rights Report for the period 1 January - 28th February 2006 (22 March 2006)
  
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  • UNAMI Human Rights reports
  
  Keywords: Minorities Torture Detention Death squads UN UNAMI Human rights

  Concentrates on four main issues: the events following the 22nd February and the rise in "killings, torture, illegal detention and displacement"; the behaviour of security and police forces and the questin of death squads/ role of the Ministry of the Interior; detention, and again the role of the Ministry of the Interior in systematic human rights violations, and finally, the discrimination and victimisation of minority groups, "including Palestinians [and specific relgious groups] [...] because of their alleged association with foreign Arabs supporting the insurgency". See also the UNAMI Press Release on the report.

• US State Department "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" (Iraq) (08 March 2006)
  
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  • General reports on human rights
  
  Keywords: Human rights US Government Prisons Torture

  Report by the US State Department and part of a set of reports on human rights in countries receiving US aid.

  While the report contains details of pre-trial detention, prisoner abuse, and torture, there is no mention of abuse by US (or other foreign) troops in the report.

  "A climate of extreme violence in which people were killed for political and other reasons continued. Reports increased of killings by the government or its agents that may have been politically motivated. Additionally, common criminals, insurgents, and terrorists undermined public confidence in the security apparatus by sometimes masking their identity in police and army uniforms"

  "Members of sectarian militias dominated police units to varying degrees and in different parts of the country ... During the year there were a number of deaths either at police hands or at the hands of militia members and criminals wearing police uniforms."

  "Insurgents and terrorists killed thousands of citizens ... Using intimidation and violence, they kidnapped and killed government officials and workers, common citizens, party activists participating in the electoral process, civil society activists, members of security forces, and members of the armed forces, as well as foreigners. "

  "Criminal and politically motivated disappearances and kidnappings, including those related to the ongoing insurgency, remained a severe problem ... During the year hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals disappeared without a trace, sometimes at the hands of the police. "

  "On November 13, an overcrowded MOI detention center in Baghdad was discovered. This facility, the Jadiriyah Bunker, held 169 detainees, mostly Sunnis, many of whom showed signs of torture and abuse."

  "Police abuses included threats, intimidation, beatings, and suspension by the arms or legs, as well as the reported use of electric drills and cords, and the application of electric shocks. Reportedly, police threatened or, in fact, sexually abused detainees. "

  Iraqi officials were critical of the report.

• AI: Beyond Abu Ghraib: detention and torture in Iraq (06 March 2006)
  
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  • Prisoner abuse and torture in Iraq
  
  Keywords: Prisons Human rights Amnesty Torture

  Recent extensive report on detention and torture in Iraq, which focusses specifically on Amnesty's "concerns about human rights abuses for which the US-led MNF is directly responsible and those which are increasingly being committed by Iraqi security forces". See also Amnesty Press Release. Includes the call to governments supplying forces to the MNF, expecially the UK and the US, to "end indefinite internment of persons in Iraq", and the call to governments supplying forces to the MNF and to the Iraqi Authorities to "provide unhindered access to all places of detention, their installations and facilities, and detainees by relevant international organizations and bodies, including the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, and by Iraqi human rights organizations".

  See also BBC News report

• Report of the UN Secretary General, 3 March 2006 (03 March 2006)
  
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  Keywords: Elections Reconstruction US Mandate Secretary General Humanitarian situation UN Human rights

  Quarterly report of the Un Secretary General to the Security Council on the Situation in Iraq, pursuant to SCR 1546. Covers events since 7th of December 2005. In this report, Kofi Annan draws attention to the "de facto arbitrary detention" by the US and Iraq of thousands of prisoners, and states that the "extent of such practices is not consistent with the provisions of international law governing internment for imperative reasons of security". He also draws attention to allegations of human rights abuses doing military operations by the MNF and indicates that UNAMI is investigation these.

  The report also contains extensive comment on the follow up to the December 2005 elections, as well as on continued reconstruction efforts by UNAMI.

• BBC News: 'New 'torture jail' found in Iraq' (12 Dec 2005)
  
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  Keywords: Torture Prisons Human rights

  625 malnourished and tortured prisoners found in a Ministry of Interior prison in Baghdad.

• Second periodical report (20 Nov 2005)
  
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  • Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq
  
  Keywords: Human rights

  Another detailed account of human rights violations in Iraq

• UNAMI Human Rights Report for September and October 2005 (14 Nov 2005)
  
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  • UNAMI Human Rights reports
  
  Keywords: Human rights UNAMI

  UNAMI has released its second report on the Human Rights situation in Iraq. The report recognizes efforts made by the Iraqi authorities in improving the law and order situation in the country, but also highlights areas that continue to be of concern, noting that hundreds of Iraqi civilians have been killed or wounded during the reporting period due to random and targeted killings, terrorist actions, criminal and militia activities and by continuous military operations in several parts of the country. The report emphasizes, “The rights of victims to timely justice and redress should be central to any strategy to combat violations.”

  The report suggests that “massive security operations by the Iraqi police and Special Forces continue to disregard instructions announced in August 2005 by the Ministry of the Interior to safeguard individual guarantees during search and detention operations,” and also says that the "price paid by civilians, including women and children, during military activity currently underway calls for further reflection on the nature and conduct of the conflict and on the proportionality of the use of force”.

  See also UNAMI press release and UN news item.

• UNAMI Human Rights Report for July and August 2005 (09 Sept 2005)
  
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  • UNAMI Human Rights reports
  
  Keywords: UNAMI Human rights

  "The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Iraq, Mr. Ashraf Qazi, released a Report on the Human Rights Situation in Iraq, for the period July – August 2005. In releasing the report, the SRSG stated “There is a continuing concern over the lack of protection of basic human rights in Iraq” and emphasized that “each Iraqi citizen should enjoy the rights and protections stipulated in international treaties and agreements that Iraq has ratified.”

  The Human Rights Office of UNAMI will publish the results of its activities on a bi-monthly basis, with the next report on the September – October period expected in early November, 2005." Text from UNAMI website.

• Amnesty International Report 'In cold blood: abuses by armed groups' (25 July 2005)
  
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  Keywords: Amnesty Human rights Insurgency

  'Armed groups opposed to the US-led multinational force and Iraq's government are showing utter disdain for the lives of Iraqi civilians and others, continuing a pattern of war crimes and crimes against humanity'

  See also the Press Release.

• Amnesty Report on Iraqi Special Tribunals (13 May 2005)
  
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  Keywords: Human rights Amnesty

  Report title: "Iraqi Special Tribunal-Fair trials not guaranteed" (thorough and fairly exhaustive critique of the Iraqi Special Tribunals)

• Human Rights NGO capacity-building in Iraq (Feb 2005)
  
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  • Iraqi NGOs
  
  Keywords: Human rights Civil society

  Report of a discussion of the capacity-building needs of Iraqi NGOs, held in Amman in December 2004, and conducted by the International Human Rights Network at the request of the UK Government

• American Civil Liberties Union: 'Soldiers Not Held Accountable for Abuse' (24 Jan 2005)
  
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  • Prisoner abuse and torture in Iraq
  
  Keywords: Human rights Prisons ACLU

  "Government investigations into allegations of torture and abuse have been woefully inadequate," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "Some of the investigations have basically whitewashed the torture and abuse. The documents that the ACLU has obtained tell a damning story of widespread torture reaching well beyond the walls of Abu Ghraib."

• Iraq: State of the Evidence (Nov 2004)
  
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  • Mass graves
  
  Keywords: Mass graves Human rights Human Rights Watch

  Report by Human Rights Watch claiming that the U.S.-led coalition forces failed to secure the relevant sites at the time of the overthrow of the former government, and that important evidence about the human rights abuses of the former Iraqi regime therefore has gone missing. See the full report.

• The present situation of human rights in Iraq (09 June 2004)
  
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  Keywords: Human rights UN

  75-page report from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to the UN Economic and Social Council.

• Taguba report (04 Apr 2004)
  
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  • Prisoner abuse and torture in Iraq
  
  Keywords: Human rights Prisons US

  Report of a US army investigation into abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, compiled by Antonio Taguba. Taguba found strong evidence for "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" of inmates. Widely covered by the media, notably by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker. Also available in pdf format

• Iraq - Country report on human rights practices (25 Feb 2004)
  
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  Keywords: Human rights US

  US government report on the human rights situation in Iraq. Mostly concerned with pre-war human rights abuses

• Iraq's legacy of terror - mass graves (Jan 2004)
  
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  • Mass graves
  
  Keywords: USAID Human rights Mass graves

  Report by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Summarises the history of mass execution in Iraq, very briefly outlines past and planned US attempts to locate and exhume bodies, and includes several testimonials from survivors of mass executions in the city of Mahawil. Also available in Arabic

• Amnesty International: Use of cluster bombs - Civilians pay the price (02 Apr 2003)
  
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  • Cluster Bombs
  
  Keywords: Human rights Cluster bombs Amnesty

  'Amnesty International is deeply concerned about the high toll of civilian casualties and the use of cluster bombs in US military attacks in heavily populated areas.'

• Genocide in Iraq: The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds (July 1993)
  
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  • Mass graves
  
  Keywords: Mass graves Human rights Human Rights Watch

  Report by Human Rights Watch about human rights abuses during the "Anfal" campaign by the Iraqi government in 1988.

• Amnesty International 'Stop Torture' campaign
  
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  • Prisoner abuse and torture in Iraq
  
  Keywords: Prisons Human rights Torture Amnesty

• Amnesty International Iraq pages
  
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  • Amnesty International
  
  Keywords: NGOs Human rights

• Amnesty International Report 2004
  
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  Keywords: NGOs Human rights

• StC UK Iraq page
  
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  • Save the Children UK
  
  Keywords: NGOs Human rights