Human Rights Reports On Iraq

In March, the State Department and Amnesty International released their annual human rights reports. Both were full of the usual critiques of Iraq such as the lack of due process, arbitrary arrests, harsh conditions, torture and abuse in jails and prisons, lawsuits being filed against critics of the government to limit freedom of speech and the press, and more. Amongst all that there were three specific issues that need further discussion.

 

First, Amnesty reported that there was political violence surrounding the formation of Prime Minister Mohammed Sudani’s government at the end of 2022. After Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his parliamentarians to withdraw from the legislature there were clashes between his Sarya al-Salam and the Hashd leading to tens of dead and hundreds of wounded in Baghdad. The fighting quickly spread to Basra where at least four more were killed. This might have led to a war between the Shiite factions which no one wanted so it ended quickly. It is another reminder that Iraq’s elite have armed factions that have often turned on each other and the state. This undermines a core concept of a stable country where the government is supposed to have a monopoly on force. That does not exist in Iraq.

 

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has continued to crackdown on freedom of expression and assembly. In August 2020 two journalists and three activists were arrested and convicted on national security charges in February 2021. The reason for their trial was that they were participating in and reporting on protests. In August 2022 security forces used tear gas and rubber bullets to break up demonstrations in Irbil and Sulaymaniya over government workers not being paid and the lack of jobs. 20 reporters were arrested during the events. The New Generation party claimed that dozens of its members were detained as well. In September and October more journalists were detained for covering a drone strike on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and for violating a law about misusing electronic devices. For the last decade the KRG has faced protests almost every year over jobs and pay. The government has responded by cracking down on participants and the media. This follows a general trend in Iraq where the authorities are attempting to limit the public’s abilities to voice their opinions and the media’s right to report on them. It’s another sign of how fragile the country’s democracy is as the ruling parties do not believe in many of the freedoms that are involved in the political system.

 

Another issue is the continued impunity of groups affiliated with the government. In February 2022 a court in Dhi Qar launched an investigation into a senior military officer for attacking protesters but nothing happened afterward. In October Sadrists stormed and destroyed al-Rabia TV’s offices in Baghdad after it criticized the movement and said that it had destroyed some public buildings. The government launched an investigation but nothing was done. In December two civilians were killed and more were wounded when the security forces (ISF) fired into a crowd protesting the conviction of activist Haidar al-Zaidi for critiquing the authorities. Prime Minister Sudani ordered an investigation and several ISF perpetrators were identified but nothing was done to them. These are all examples of the lack of rule of law in Iraq. The ruling elite and the government are able to commit all kinds of crimes with no fear of ever being held accountable. Each administration is made up of a loose coalition of the major parties who divide up the government as spoils which they then abuse to steal from and exploit for their own gain. To take any of them to court would jeopardize this system as there could be constant payback as one list went after another for all their crimes. Instead, they are allowed to do as they will.

 

Some have called Iraq a developing democracy but that is a misnomer. What the country has is an oligarchic kleptocracy. The elite which is divided between several different factions control the elections and compete over which offices they will run. They are able to manipulate and ignore the law and attack, detain and kill members of the public that oppose it using the security forces and party militias. This is all fed by the oil economy which funds the state and the parties and allows them to be independent of the people. They can then ignore demands for change and basic rights because the public is only needed on election day.