With utmost sorrow and grief, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) received the news of the assassination of human rights defender Jalal Thyab Al-Jawhar, President of the Liberty Supporters Association.

On 27 April 2013, unknown assailants opened fire and killed him in the vicinity of the headquarters of the Association, which is located in Al-Zubair City center, about 18 km west of the city of Basra in southern Iraq.

In 2009, Al-Jawhar co-founded Liberty Supporters Association as a civil society organization which aims, according to its constitution, to defend the rights of Iraq’s black citizens, who form a population between one and a half and two million. The group aims to draw the world’s attention to the bad economic, political and social conditions under which black citizens of Iraq live; to end the marginalization and discrimination against them; and to seek recognition for them as an ethnic minority in Iraq.

Al-Jawhar said before his death, as he was leading the campaign in order to ensure the rights of Iraq’s black citizens, “there is still a long way ahead of us to assume senior positions for our youth, but we have broken the barrier of fear which had consumed blacks and we achieved a lot.”

The GCHR condemns in the strongest terms the killing of Jalal Thyab Al-Jawhar, and believes it to be solely motivated by his peaceful and legitimate human rights work, in particular his work to defend the civil and human rights of marginalized Iraqi black citizens.

The Gulf Centre for Human Rights urges the authorities in Iraq to:

1. Carry out an immediate, impartial and thorough investigation into the killing of Jalal Thyab Al-Jawhar with a view to publishing the results and bringing those responsible to justice in line with local laws and international standards;

2. Guarantee the physical and psychological integrity and security of all human rights defenders and activists in Iraq;

3. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in Iraq are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free from all restrictions including judicial harassment.

The GCHR respectfully reminds you that the United Nations Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted by consensus by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1998, recognises the legitimacy of the activities of human rights defenders, their right to freedom of association and to carry out their activities without fear of reprisals. We would particularly draw your attention to Article 6 (c) “Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others: (c) To study, discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance, both in law and in practice, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms and, through these and other appropriate means, to draw public attention to those matters” and to Article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration.”