Articles for Iraq

On 26 November 2014, Alkarama provided the Committeeon Enforced Disappearances (CED) with a list of 28 issues to be raised by the United Nations experts with the Iraqi authorities during their consideration of Iraq's initial report.

On 23 April 2014, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) issued an Opinion considering Shawki Ahmad Omar's the detention to be arbitrary and says the Iraqi government has a duty to release him. Wrongly accused, under the mistaken identity of a Palestinian national, of "illegal entry" to the country, Shawki Omar has now spent over ten years behind bars in Iraq.

On 3 November 2014, Iraq's second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. This process aims to assess, every four years, the human rights record of each United Nations' Member State by the Human Rights Council (HRC).

On 16 October 2014, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly sent a communication to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) to bring its attention to the case of Mohamad and Nouhad al Mashhadani, two brothers who disappeared since their arrest by members of the security forces in 2005.

On 24 September 2014, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly wrote to Emmanuel Decaux, Chairman of the Committee on Enforced Disappearance (CED) to call on the Iraqi authorities to release Jamal Hadi Abdel Raouf Al Abdali, disappeared since his arrest by a security patrol on 21 April 2014.

On 24 September 2014, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly wrote to the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances (WGEID) to alert them on the case of Jamal AbdulKareemKazar Al Zabidi, President of the Taekwondo Federation and member of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, disappeared since his arrest by members of the Iraqi military forces on 15 July 2006.

On 8 and 9 October 2014, Alkarama briefed country representatives on its priority recommendations in view of Iraq's Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which will be held in Geneva on 3 November 2014.

Alkarama, in collaboration with Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly, sent a communication to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) to highlight the disappearance of Mohammed Al Aseymi, together with his three sons and nephew, since his abduction by pro-government militia in 2006.

On 15 September 2014, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly sent a joint urgent appeal to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances concerning the abduction of Riad Abdel Majeed Al Obeidi, a former Air Force Brigade pilot, in Al A'amiriya on 1 June 2014. Having not been seen since, his family fears that he be tortured or ill-treated, particularly after he managed to contact them, from his detention place, in mid-June.

On 5 August 2014, Alkarama sent a communication to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to call upon the Iraqi authorities to end the arbitrary detention of four security officers by releasing them immediately. Ghassan Al Kubaisi, Omar Al Noaemy, Abdulrazak Al Duleimi and Uday Al Ithawi were all arrested between December 2011 and January 2012, severely tortured and forced to make false confessions, on the basis of which they were later sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI).