Iraq: Government Called by UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances to Clarify Several Cases of Disappearances Submitted by Alkarama

The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances has called on the Iraqi government to clarify the fate of Hasan Mohamed Hasan AL ESSA, Yahya AL JABOURI and Dawood Salman Hasan Haboush Hassan AL ISSAWI, all of whom disappeared following their arbitrary arrests in 2014 and 2015.

Dawood Salman Hasan Haboush Hassan Al Issawi, arrested by Shia militia

At midnight on 8 June 2014, a patrol composed of police officers and the Imam Sadiq regiment of the Badr Organization (Shia militia in Iraq), armed and all but two wearing military uniforms, burst into the home of Dawood Salman Hasan Haboush Hassan Al Issawi. Two masked individuals accompanied the patrol, who were informants according to Al Issawi's family. While Al Issawi was arrested in full view of his family members, some of them were severely beaten by the kidnappers.

Hasan Mohamed Hasan Al Essa, Palestinian refugee arrested at his workplace

At 2:30 p.m. on 8 July 2015, several white cars and a white Chevrolet Silverado pickup, all with government plates, arrived at the factory where Palestinian refugee Hasan Hasan Al Essa worked. The security guards who were driving these vehicles, members of the Special Weapons and Tactics Unit (SWAT), who routinely use these cars to make arrests, entered the factory, picked up several employees and took their mobile phones before arresting Al Essa in full view of his brother and other employees. Worried about his fate, his family inquired the following days with local authorities, including the Al Rachad police station in Baghdad, without success.

Yahya Al Jabouri, arrested with his brother Moussa Al Jabouri

Yahya Al Jabouri was arrested with his brother, Moussa Al Jabouri, at his home on 8 July 2014 by a dozen heavily armed men dressed in military trousers and ordinary T-shirts. They were driven to an unknown location in vans without license plates.

Although their family has contacted several authorities, including the Ministry of the Interior, they have not heard from them again.

Seized by Alkarama, the CED calls on Iraq to reveal the fate of the victims

In response to the authorities' denial, Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly and Alkarama appealed to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances to call on the Iraqi authorities to release the victims or, at the very least, to place them under the protection of the law by revealing their whereabouts and allowing families to visit them without restriction.

Despite the many years that have passed since the abduction and disappearance of the victims, Iraq has still not acknowledged their detention.

At the request of Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly and Alkarama, the UN body therefore called on Iraq to take all necessary measures to locate them and to investigate without delay their disappearances in accordance with its treaty obligations.

The UN Committee, responsible for monitoring the implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, ratified by Iraq in 2010, regularly calls on the State party to cooperate within the framework of the established procedure.

During the last review of Iraq by the Human Rights Committee and the UN Committee against Torture, Alkarama had, in its alternative reports, highlighted Iraq's lack of collaboration with the Committee, before which several hundred urgent actions relating to missing persons are still pending to this day.

This refusal to cooperate, which has so far shown a lack of political will on the part of the country's authorities to resolve this issue, leads the CED to regularly call on the State party to cooperate in good faith with the procedure established by the Convention.