Iraq: Enforced Disappearance of Construction Worker in Latifiya since July 2015

On 5 November 2015, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly sent a communication to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) regarding the case of Haitham Al Kaabi, a 44-year-old construction worker disappeared since his arrest in his house in Latifiyah in the Babil Governorate on 18 July 2015.

That day, a group of men wearing military uniforms stormed into Al Kaabi's house, threatening and beating his wife and children, while dragging him outside the house where four Hummer and Nissan pickup trucks were waiting. Al Kaabi's wife and the guards of the gated neighbourhood who witnessed his abduction, recognised the four men as members of the Intelligence Division of Regiment No. 17 of the Iraqi Army.

Since Al Kaabi's arrest, his relatives' attempts to look for him were in vain. They inquired, among others, at the Central Criminal Court of Iraq in Al Karkh, with no results.

Left with no recourse, they contacted Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly – an Iraqi human rights organisation documenting cases of enforced disappearances – as well as Alkarama, in the hope that they could help locate and release Al Kaabi. In view of the facts, the two human rights NGOs seized the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED), requesting it to ask the Iraqi authorities to release him or, at the very least, to put him under the protection of the law by disclosing his whereabouts and allowing his family to visit him without restriction.

In September 2015, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) also expressed its concerns with regards to "allegations of a situation of widespread disappearances in significant parts of the State party's territory." As one of the few States in the Arab world to be a party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICCPED), it is essential the Iraqi authorities to urgently implement the recommendations issued by the CED, and in particular that they:

• Incorporate enforced disappearance into domestic law as an autonomous offence, in line with the definition contained in Article 2 ICCPED;
• Ensure that all persons who were forcibly disappeared and whose fate is not yet known are searched for and located without delay.

For more information or an interview, please contact the media team at media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1008)