Iraq: GCHR’s 20th Periodic Report on Human Rights Violations in Iraq

This is the 20th periodic report issued by the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) since January 2020, documenting the human rights situation in Iraq. The report includes cases of academics and public officials targeted with violence, threats to children's rights, in addition to clashes during protests in Iraq. While welcoming the prosecution of the killers of journalists and civil society activists, GCHR calls for full accountability for the authors of these attacks as part of a pattern of systematic violence. Also, GCHR condemns the terrorist operations carried out by the terrorist organisation Da’esh against defenseless civilians.

Achieving justice and holding the perpetrators accountable

Civil society activists and the families of victims who were killed and kidnapped during the protest period that began on 01 October 2019 are still waiting for more serious government measures than the procrastination that is currently taking place to achieve justice and hold the perpetrators to account, especially with the repeated promises by the government of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi to pursue them.

On 06 November 2021, family and friends of prominent human rights defender Amjad Al-Dahamat, marked the second anniversary of his assassination and called on the government to hold his killers accountable.

On the occasion of his brother's remembrance by civil society activists, human rights defender Ali Al-Dahamat wrote on his Facebook account: "What I have read of posts and words of love and sympathy from you has put me in a state of confusion. Do I console you or do I console myself? You have participated in our mourning as if you were his family."

Notably, GCHR documented in November 2019 the assassination of Amjad Al-Dahamat late at night by an unidentified armed group driving a black car without numbers using pistols with silencers. The murder took place just 500 metres from the Headquarters of the Police Command in Al-Amarah after Al-Dahamat attended a meeting with the Police Commander together with several activists.