Articles for Iraq

In September 2015, after the first review of Iraq, the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) issued three priority recommendations that the country should implement within one year to ensure compliance with the UN Convention on Enforced Disappearances (

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has issued a decision calling the detention of Ahmad Al Alwani, opposition member of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, arbitrary since he “was targeted and discriminated against for his Sunni background and political opinions and activities”.  Al Alwani had been arrested in December 2013 and secretly detained for a month during which he was tortured in order to force him to sign a self-incriminating statement.

Between late 2011 and March 2012, Iraqi security forces arrested numerous individuals believed to be close to former Vice President Tariq Al Hashimi, a leading figure of the opposition. Following severely flawed trials during which confessions extracted under torture were admitted into evidence, they were sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court under the Anti-Terrorism Law.

Salih Al Dulaimi, a 47-year-old professor at the College of Engineering, University of Anbar, was arrested on 26 March 2015 and sentenced to death by the Iraqi Central Criminal Court on the basis of Iraq Antiterrorism Law after a deeply flawed trial.

On 13 May 2017, following popular protests, the Iraqi Parliament decided to indefinitely postpone the vote on the Draft law on freedom of expression and peaceful demonstrations, a text that restricts the fundamental rights and freedoms of Iraqi citizens.

In April 2017, Abdessalam Al Bakkali was sentenced to death after a flawed trial by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) for alleged “terrorist acts”, for which he had already been sentenced by the US occupation forces and served his penalty.

On 2 July 2014, a group of soldiers of the Iraqi Army raided Ali Al Janabi’s house in Latifiya and arrested him. This is the last time his family saw him, as he subsequently disappeared.

On the night of 22 September 2015, Jalal Al Shahmani, owner of a restaurant and activist, was arrested by militiamen and subsequently disappeared. Concerned over his fate, Alkarama and Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly sent his case to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED), hoping that the UN experts’ intervention will help shed light on his fate and whereabouts.

On 8 November 2016 Ahmad and Abdullah Al Janabi, two brothers from Al Mahawil, Babil governorate, were arrested at a military checkpoint situated in Al Iskandariya, Babil governorate. Their relatives have no information on their fate and whereabouts since, and they remain disappeared up until today.

On 22 February 2017, Saleh Al Mashhadani, a 22-year-old farmer suffering from hepatitis, disappeared after his arrest by a security forces patrol while working at Salam Al Hashimi’s farms. Al Hashimi is the founder and director of Al Wissam Humanitarian Assembly, a NGO that documents cases of enforced disappearances in Iraq. We fear that Al Mashhadani was arrested because he was working on Al Hashimi’s farm, as a form of reprisals against the latter.