Articles for Iraq

On 19 March 2015, the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted during its 28th session the outcome of Iraq's Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a process aimed at assessing the human rights record of each UN Member State every four years.

On 7 May 2015, Alkarama sent a communication to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers (SR IJL) regarding the case of four high-profile Iraqi lawyers, victims of harassment by the Iraqi authorities, including through arbitrary arrest and detention, and even one extrajudicial execution. Defending political opponents and persons allegedly close to them, the lawyers have all been accused of terrorism in heavily flawed and politically-motivated trials.

On 30 April 2015, Alkarama sent a communication to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) regarding the case of Saleh Musa Ahmed Al Baydani, a Yemeni citizen who has been missing for over 10 months from the prison where he had been detained since December 2012. Arrested in August 2009 by U.S. forces when he was only 17, Al Baydani was sentenced to death two years later. His family is extremely concerned by his disappearance, as he remains at high risk of being executed.

On 14 April 2015, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly sent an urgent action to the United Nations Committee of Enforced Disappearance (CED) regarding the disappearance of 29-year-old Yasser AbdelKarim Aswad Al Janabi, abducted by the military in June 2014, as well as a communication to the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearance (WGEID) regarding the disappearance of his father, Abde

On 15 April 2015, Riad Abdel Majeed Al Obeidi was freed after 10 months of detention in the secret facility of the old Muthanna airport in Western Baghdad. Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly had solicited the urgent intervention of the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) on Al Obeidi's behalf three months after his abduction, leading to his successful release.

On 15 April 2015, Alkarama sent a communication asking the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) to call upon the Iraqi authorities to immediately release 17 people arrested for their real or perceived link with former Vice President Tariq Al Hashimi. Secretly detained and tortured, they have all been accused of acts of "terrorism" and sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq on the basis of their forced confessions.

During its 8th session held in February 2015, the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) adopted the List of Issues in relation to the report submitted by Iraq.

On 12 January 2015, Alkarama sent a communication to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) to call upon the Iraqi authorities to put an end to the arbitrary detention of Ahmad Al Alwani, a member of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, by releasing him immediately.

On 19 December 2014 Alkarama – together with the Association of Human Rights Defenders in Iraq (AHRDI), the General Federation of Iraqi Women (GFIW), the Human Rights Division at the Association of Muslims Scholars in Iraq, the Iraqi Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), and the Organisation for Justice & Democracy in Iraq (OJDI) – sent a joint report to the Sub Committee on Accreditation (SCA) of the International Coordinating Co

On 17 December 2014, Alkarama provided the Human Rights Committee (HRC) with a list of 22 issues to be raised by the United Nations experts with the Iraqi authorities during their consideration of Iraq's fifth periodic report.