Demands to End Impunity in Iraq as Human Rights Violations Recur With No Accountability [Hashtag]

For over a month by now, Iraqi and international activists and journalists have been active on the hashtag #EndImpunity, in reference to the corrupt judiciary system led by the government officials who claimed patriotism and to stand by the Iraqis’ rights from the first day of their election campaigns, and yet they fail to put criminals accountable for the continuous and endless crimes committed.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in its Global Impunity Index of 2020 has put Iraq third in its “worst countries in the world at prosecuting murderers of journalists.” This comes to no surprise as the October Protests back in 2019 have raised the voice of the Iraqi people protesting corruption and loss of sovereignty over other regional players in the Iraqi theatre.

The existing of an opposing trend in a country that has been ruled by a network of partisans, sectarians, and corrupts for over 17 years by now, seems to have been of a bothersome for the higher-ups who chose to deal with this current by assassination and intimidation.

 

End Impunity as dedicated campaign platform for this specific cause was established mid-June, and was later announced to have been registered officially as an organization that “takes it upon itself to go through the legal paths and adopt efforts to prosecute the perpetrators of the crimes of theft, corruption, violations and assassinations, which have remained unpunished,” according to its own statement on July 22, 2021.

End Impunity in Iraq campaign seeks to “protect the human rights of Iraqi people and realize justice for all regardless of partisan, ethnic, or sectarian affiliations.” The campaign had set a number of demands that it seeks to find accomplished by this campaign:

• Reform the judicial system.

• Expose the murderers and hold them accountable.

• Reveal the fate of those kidnapped and forcibly disappeared and arrest the perpetrators.

• Release Iraqis detained under malicious charges.

• Uncover secret prisons and detention centers and prosecute their sponsors.

On July 11, 2021, the campaign published an announcement of demonstrations to be held on the 18th of the same month, in Iraq and other various countries where Iraqi volunteers have joined the campaign. The USA, UK, France, and Sweden were among the countries that witnessed organized protests by mainly Iraqis following the same campaign.

It is noteworthy to mention that these protests were preceded by other separated demonstrations that were held back in May.

 

The campaign addressed a number of crimes and crises that Iraq has been going through in recent years. On top of which comes the assassination of activcts and other prominent persons in the wake of the October Protests in 2019.

A number of names of which have been assassinated were included in the campaign’s demands to lift the impunity on their murderers. Amongst them is the prominent researcher Hisham Al-Hashimi who was gunned in front of his house, and whose killers have been caught later, although questions of who gave the killing orders and their purpose are yet remain unanswered.

The campaign also addressed other drastic issues that have not been accordingly dealt with by the persons in charge, and have been burdening the shoulders of the victims or their relatives. Among these issues is the Speicher Massacre, the fall of Mosul and the 1.2 million displaced all over Iraq, the Death Squad responsible for the killing of thousands of civilians, the secret prisons and the forcibly disappeared, among other major Iraqi crises.

The campaign has also called on several persons to end impunity on, of the likes of Qais Al-Khazali and Hadi Al-Amiri for several accusations of killings and kidnappings among others.

 

Amnesty International USA wrote on July 26, to President Joe Biden urging him to “raise unlawful repression and worrying human rights abuses in Iraq towards peaceful protesters, press, religious minorities, and internally displaced persons,” in which Amnesty called Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi’s early claims of human rights reform and accountability “hollow.” This call to President Biden came before his meeting with PM Al-Kadhimi that took place on July 27.

On her stand, Abir Al-Sahlani, a Swedish politician and a member of the European Parliament, called the Iraqi government through the Center Party to “stop corruption and to stop killing the young protesters demanding for a better country.”

Commenting on the kidnapping and assassination of Ali Karim, 26, Impunity Watch shared their condolences to Ali’s mother, Fatima Al-Bahadli, who is human rights defender and founder of Al-Firdous Society organization for supporting women and girls. Ali was not Fatima’s first son to be assassinated, as she had lost her other son, Ahmad, in the Spring of 2019. Impunity Watch called for “ending impunity for violations against Iraqi human rights defenders and ensuring accountability.”

 

Activists on social media platforms have taken part in the campaign on their parts, demanding for holding criminals accountable for the accumulative violations against humanity that Iraq witnessed and is still witnessing until today.