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The Republic of Iraq |
1. Presentation.
This paper attempts to highlight the most important violations of the Iraqi women’s human rights under the U.S. occupation since 2003, until the writing of this paper.
The paper references are the international instruments on human rights ratified by Iraq, particularly the International Covenants on Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and Convention on the Rights of the Child and Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
2. The right to live.
The Iraqi scene today reflects the accumulations of six years of occupation and what had resulted of its policies, procedures and secretions, affecting the overall system of the fundamental human rights, primarily the right to live, as the people of Iraq both women and men have been exposed to the process of genocide, indescribable violence, and an ordeal affecting its existence, identity and future.
The erosion to which the basic Iraqi human rights were exposed represents a tragedy which undermined all the goals, efforts and aspirations of the international community in safeguarding and promoting these rights: above all the right to live. When the British research magazine, Lancet, estimated the number of the Iraqis who were killed to be around (650,000), the U.S. occupation and the Iraqi government rejected this estimate, but that does not disclaim the fact that the death grind is still going on. Another source in the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights revealed that (1300) new large cemeteries have been created since March 2003; three-quarters of them are filled up now. According to the statistics of cases registered in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior till December 2008, there are (800,000) missing people in Iraq.
The Iraqis’ fundamental right to stay alive is in danger while the death pincers are closing their arms on them: the occupation forces, the government security forces, the private security companies, the militias and the death squads which support them; the spreading of diseases, the collapse of the health system and the water purification system, and the deliberate neglect on the side of the Iraqi governmental bodies. In a more recent research which was published at the beginning of 2008, it is estimated that the civilians killed in Iraq are 1.300.000. All these horrifying numbers did not make the Iraqi government fulfill its obligations according to the basic rules of human rights; indeed it did not show any concern about a tragedy of this size. All that it was worried about is trying to suspect and minimize these numbers, which definitely does not excuse it of its fundamental obligation towards the Iraqi people that it is supposed to represent.
The environment of war and occupation is a fertile ground for the violations of the obligatory rules of the human rights conventions, which were emphasized by the International Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (ratified by Iraq since 1986) whose preamble stipulates that (it is necessary to eradicate racial discrimination and all forms of racism, new imperialism, aggression and occupation; as that is the basis for men and women to fully enjoy their rights). The treaty confirms that homeland freedom is a must condition for the freedom of men and women.
The level of violence which the Iraqi people, men and women, have been exposed to is unprecedented. The annual reports of the Amnesty International Organization, the most recent of which was issued at the end of 2009, observed acts of killing and massive violations of human rights on a catastrophic level, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.
3. Civil and Political Rights.
The Iraqis’ civil and political rights, women and men, have been subjected to (creative chaos) propagated by the U.S. occupation in order to destroy the structure of the Iraqi state, laws, institutions and procedures; the destruction of infrastructure; the comprehensive deconstruction and reconstruction of the Iraqi people’s collective will, patronizing and falsifying it. A political process was designed and produced according to the occupiers’ notions and interests. Sectarian and ethnic based partnership was adapted, creating a vertical split in the Iraqi social fabric; and the Iraqi women’s achievements have been subjected to fallback. The UN Economic and Social Commission of West Asia organization, ESCWA, diagnosed this situation by saying (what happened in Iraq is an example of a fallback process which takes place in women rights with the outbreak of wars. After the woman had achieved progress in taking part in the important political and social posts and reached higher levels in education and work; thanks to her efforts and to the laws which incorporate high degree of equality). The civil status law has been replaced by the law no. 137, and another new constitution has been ratified for Iraq, discriminating between man and woman and giving each religious sect free authority to put its own laws of civil status. ESCWA warns that in such situation, it is impossible to survey the discriminatory laws; because the social rights of the Iraqi women would be specified by different referential groups that decide her rights within tribal and religious systems, dismantling the woman cause and returning her centuries back.
Due to the aggravation of the social problems, the recent statistics of the Iraqi Ministry of Justice said there are three cases of divorces for every four marriages. In addition to that, the right to work for men and women, which had been guaranteed by the constitution of 1970, was undone and was converted to the logic of market opportunities by the constitution adopted after the occupation.
The irony is that with this serious decline, women are represented in the parliament by 25% of its members. The reality proved the facts that their presence in the parliament is artificial as they failed to stop the serious deterioration in the human rights system or to stop the gross violations committed against the people’s rights, especially women. In addition to that, the separation between the civil and political rights on one hand, and the social and economic rights on the other, is in contradiction with all international acts on human rights. It is stated in the fifth paragraph of the Declaration of the World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna 1993, that (all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated and that the international community must treat human rights comprehensively, fairly and equally). In the process of dismantling the state, which was initiated by the occupation and the successive Iraqi governments after it , hundreds of thousands of the middle and lower cadres have been excluded, sometimes by new laws, as the situation is with dissolving the Iraqi army, the security forces and the Ministry of Information, which have been compulsorily demobilized; through the de-baathification process, emptying the country of its scientific, cultural and intellectual qualified people; through the threat of physical liquidation or by forcing them to leave the country. Thus the country’s institutions were emptied of the qualified cadres, skilled specializations were swept away and replaced by those who were nominated for sectarian reasons or recommended by the influential parties, without respect for the conditions and criteria required for any particular profession. It is not surprising then that chaos and corruption prevail. According to the statistics documented by the Iraqi Commission of Public Integrity there are (tens of thousands of forged certificates of officials, officers, general directors and parties’ cadres who are in the leadership positions in the state).
An outbreak of the financial and administrative corruption spread; the Failed States Index, published in the (June 18th, 2007) considered Iraq as the second worst failed state in the world, on a list of (60) failed states. It is inventible that the role of women receded in public offices and that the efforts to eliminate discrimination against women, and the necessary application of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, are lacking. Indeed, the Ministry of Women had no real programs to promote women’s status. When Secretary of State for Women’s Affairs resigned, it was because she considered that the ministry is no more than a consulting office in the Green Zone, with neither budget nor authority to meet the needs of thousands of widows and unemployed women and the regression in the level of social status of women. A survey study conducted by the World Health Organization in 2007 stated that (21.2%) of the Iraqi women have been exposed to domestic violence. The violations and arbitrary practices against the Iraqi women aggravated, “honor killing” became a frequent phenomenon particularly in northern Iraq. A German magazine recently published a study on the status of women in the Iraqi Kurdistan, and found that the (98%) of the young girls in (54) villages of Suleimaniya have been subjected to genital circumcision.
This situation is complicated by the deteriorating security conditions, where the government failed to provide security and protection for the citizens. Iraq was worse than Somalia and Afghanistan as far as the security is concerned, according to the International Institute for Peace; Iraq ranked 144 among world countries in the lack of security. Violence reaps the lives of tens or even hundreds of innocent people every day as a result of the congestion in the political process and conflict on power and influence between the parties involved. It is a sufficient proof the massacre that happened in Baghdad on what is called the Bloody Wednesday on August 19th, 2009.
4. The Iraqi woman as a hostage of detention, torture and rape
There are no exact statistics on the number of Iraqi detainees in the occupation, or the Iraqi authorities’ prisons. According to statistics of some human rights organizations, there are (340,000) prisoners. The U.S. forces have officially recognized that they have (120,000) prisoners. The International Committee of the Red Cross stated that the occupation forces and the Iraqi security forces are holding about (60,000), most of them are in custody indefinitely, without charges or trial, as security detainees, and that among the detainees, (840) juveniles.
90 women prisoners were kept at Abu Ghraib prison before the release of the scandalous reports and photos. The International Occupation Watch Center reported that there were 13 “security” women prisoners in the prison of Tesfirat Rusafa , they were not allowed to any legal counsel or visit. When the Ministry of Human Rights talks about the (10,000) women detainees, it refers to them as prisoners with charges of criminal and immoral cases. The secretary general of the Prisoners Union said that these detainees are held in places not suitable to be sheds for animals, like the Kadhimiya prison, the secret camp for children and women at the Muthanna airport and Sheikhan camp for women in Mosul, in addition to the other large numbers of prisons and jails. Amnesty International reported in (2009) that the Iraqi authorities and the U.S. forces are holding thousands of detainees, mostly remained in detention without charge or trail, some of them spent about 5 years in detention, the report noted the occurrence of acts of torture, including rape and killing by the hands of the government security forces, including prison guards. The report also noted that some prisoners are being held in solitary confinement and in secret detention centers. The Minister for Women has stated before her resignation that female Iraqi prisoners are routinely beaten and subjected to harassment and rape in the American and Iraqi prisons and that the bad situation is going on. Deputy Harith al-Obeidi said, after he visited some prisons, that there are about (4,000) women prisoners and (22) new-born babies; because many of these women were raped. He confirmed that the released women prisoners, who filed claims against those who raped them, were re-taken into custody instead of arresting the perpetrators (Al-Obeidi was assassinated after he made these remarks).
5. Execution of women.
Death penalty was used heavily; the declared total number of the executed men and women prisoners was about a thousand since 2004. In June 2009, three women were executed (Wasan Talib 31, Zainab Fadhil, 25 and Liqua’ Mohammed, 26 years) charged of “crimes against the public good”. The three denied the crimes they were later hanged for. They were sentenced under the paragraph (156) of the Iraqi Penalty Code, which states: (Any person who willfully and deliberately does an act violating the independence of the country, its unity or the security of its territory, this act by its very nature is a violation punishable by death). These women were not allowed to have a lawyer. Also, in July 2009, nine Iraqi women were sentenced to death.
Most of the death sentences passed after unfair trials before the Iraqi Supreme Criminal Court, and lack the basic potentials of normal procedures. Mr. Leandro Desoy (The Special Reporter of the UN) described at a meeting of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations at its eighth regular session the violations represented by the establishment of the Supreme Criminal Court and its violation to the international norms and standards of human rights; highlighting in particular the lack of respect for the right of every person to be tried by an independent and impartial court granting him the right to an effective defense, as provided for by the Universal Declaration of human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. He stated that “ the insistence on the application of the death penalty confirms the prior intention, that the court acts as an instrument of revenge, and that this is a flagrant violation of all human rights principles and humane standards that are internationally recognized ). He also described the so-called Supreme Court in Iraq as working in violation of the norms of international human rights principles. He mentioned that the defendants were deprived of any fair and independent trail and adequate defense in a Court that insists on the application of the death sentences, despite pleas for its cancellation. In the same context, the of the UN Aid Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) described in its report in July 2008 the proceedings in the criminal court that they do not meet the minimum standards required for the trails; the report called for a suspension of the death penalty until all proceedings in the stages of the investigation and trial are reviewed. The Iraqi government did not pay attention to the this report; in deed it voted against the General Assembly of the United Nations decision to stop the implementation of the death penalty all over the world, in December.
6. The economic and social rights.
The occupation and its political consequences crushed the conditions of the Iraqi human life in general. The Iraqi women too have seen their economic, social and cultural rights being razed and eroded. The misery of the women reality aggravated with the years, and after the establishment of governments and institutions that do not believe in the participation of women in public life whatsoever. The deterioration of this reality formed direct correlation with the reality of the financial abundance of the state budget as it hit (48) billion in 2008, and (67) billion in 2009. It allocated (10.5 billion dollars) and (4.14 billion dollars), respectively, as investment budget, while the unemployment reached as high as (70%) according to the report of the International Red Cross; women formed (90%) of the total unemployment rate. Many women turned to charities to seek help for themselves and their children; and the phenomenon of begging women and children spread, cities alleys were crowded with them. (90%) of children beggars started begging after the occupation, and that (70%) of them are school leavers. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation, 9 million people were living below the poverty line!!! The question is Where has this big-budget gone? Strangely enough, despite the fact that many billions of dollars were announced to be allocated to different projects in various fields, there were no new jobs announced to be needed. In fact many economic sectors suffered almost complete paralysis. (80%) of the industrial and agriculture facilities were closed as a result of the cancellation trade protectionism and opening the doors of uncontrolled import. The ministries of Finance, Planning, Labor and Social affairs, Agriculture, Industry and Oil did not give any statistics of new merchandise produced or the number of workers who were employed in the investments that have been indicated in their fiscal budgets. the failure to tackle the scourge of employment, compounded by the large gap that occurred in the structure of the Iraqi economy between the expansion of financial trade activities, on one hand, and the stagnation in productive activities and export, on the other, which was reflected on the level and distribution of income among individuals so that the poor became poorer. Iraq today is among the worst on the (quality of life index) which is based on three indicators (lake of nutrition, low birth weight, and bad nutrition). With high poverty rates the work of children (10%), aged (5-14) years, increased. To make the situation worse, the share of food items was reduced, and its irregular and poor quality (some of them were unfit for human consumption), made it even worse. The Minister of Commerce (Abdul Falah Al-Sudany) scandal was only one example; after his involvement in the corruption he resigned from the Ministry and ran away to hide in the United Kingdom. The issue of holding him responsible was delayed, like the hundreds of similar cases, where an investigative committee is announced to be formed just to absorb the resentment of the public and then no one hears anything about the results of the investigation and is forgotten forever.
7. Deterioration of health and security conditions.
The United Nations in its latest report, (73%) of Iraqis do not use safe water. The International Committee of the Red Cross expressed concern about (40%) of the families living in rural areas and suburbs that are not covered by water systems in their homes, they face shortages permanently due to lack of maintenance of the water system and suffer as a result from diseases transmitted through water, which also constitutes a burden to hospitals and clinics that already suffer from lack of resources. Studies and surveys conducted by the Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation 2004-2005 show that the problem of water pollution is a major cause of disease, including child diarrhea, typhoid, malaria and tuberculosis in addition to a long list of diseases, which spread widely , accompanied by the low level of medical services. The Ministry of Health inability to perform its role, and its utter failure to provide medical and health services to citizens, aggravated the situation. Indeed, its mission has changed since it has become a haven for the militias, which allocated the ministry’s headquarters as places of detention and liquidation on sectarian basis, and used of ambulances for these tasks, triggering a scandal which made the Minister of Health flee outside Iraq. The International Committee of the Red Cross referred in its statement no. (29/2008) in October 2008 to lack of health care in many parts of Iraq; the statement said that the cost of medical treatment remains difficult for a lot of people. Amnesty International in its report of 2009, found out that (30%) of Iraqis have no access to health care services. HIV infections spread in unprecedented numbers; according to the statistics of the Ministry of Health there are (76,000) case, while it was no more than (114) before the occupation.
The International Organization of the Environment issued several reports indicating that the Iraqi cities have been turned into dumps of hazardous waste resulting from the war, and because of the negligence and the circumstances of war this waste can not be removed and relocated. Even if that was done, the serious negative effects can not be removed. At the forefront of these hazardous wastes are: mercury, lead, cadmium, zinc and copper; all of these metals have a toxic effect and accumulate in living tissues and seep into rivers, lakes and seas and pollute them. The most dangerous contamination of the depleted uranium in Iraq will last for many years, increasing cancer cases and birth defects, which is doubling every year significantly.
Iraqis suffer today from the burden of a doubled occupation with the spread of the infectious diseases such as diarrhea, malaria, tuberculosis, cholera and swine flu; as well as the extreme poor living condition and an increase of blood diseases, diabetes, cancer and malnutrition, especially among women and children. The Amnesty International report notes an ironic coincident, it notes the high percentage of children who suffer from malnutrition (19%) during the economic blockade 1996-2003, which rose to (28%) in the year 2007 (i.e. after the lifting of the blockade!) According to the UNICEF report for (March 2007), the percentage of infant mortality in Iraq is the world’s highest; one of every eight children born in Iraq dies before reaching the fifth year of his age. The loss of health care during pregnancy and the increased number of births outside of hospitals resulted in a higher rate of mortality during childbirth.
In Iraq now, except the Northern provinces, (1213) health care centers, each serves (20-30) thousand people, which means that this number of centers is capable of serving less than four million people. In half the number of such centers there is a doctor, and the other half are run by health professionals, and the majority of centers suffer from a severe shortage of supplies and equipment, medicines and lack of staff with medical and nursing qualification.
8. The woman is family supporter, refugee and immigrant.
This bitter reality burdened the women with difficulties beyond their capacity; as UNICEF’s annual report indicates that the number of female-headed households in Iraq has reached (11%), which is on the rise because of the violence in Iraq. Every day dozens of women are widowed and the number of orphans among Iraqis since the U.S. occupation reached four million children dependent on (1.5) million widows. World Health Organization statistics indicate that there were two million widows and (900) disabled children in Iraq now. The Humanitarian Coordinator Office of the United Nations says that four hundred children become orphans every day in Baghdad alone, because of the violence. With the intensification of violence (15%) of the population of Iraq have became refugees according to UNHCR latest statement issued by (19/8/2009); there are three million Iraqi refugees outside Iraq, only (345.000) refugees of them have returned. The United Nations is not encouraging the return of the refugees because Iraq is now the most dangerous country in the world for humanitarian work, added to this number the two million displaced people inside Iraq, living in humiliating conditions. Women are the most affected by migration and displacement, as a result of the disintegration of families and the elimination of safety nets and communication. Women are stripped of their culture, living within changing patterns of reality and especially because they left home after a family member was killed or exposed to threats. The deterioration of family status and women’s economic situation as refugees forced some women to practice prostitution or engage in jobs that undermine their self esteem and human dignity. Those who returned to their homes found them occupied by other families, so they became immigrants inside their country. UNHCR indicated publicly that it does not think the time has come for the promotion of refugee returns, and does not organize or encourage them.
The breakdown in social relations and family by war and its tragedies produced situations that are strange and alien to the Iraqi society, like the spread of trafficking of women and children. In an article titled (Military prostitution and exploitation of women in the occupation of Iraq). The U.S. researcher (Debra McNutt), in a study published in 2007, talked about the incorporation of the phenomenon of prostitution in the Iraqi society. The study shows that since the early days of the occupation private companies brought to the Green Zone foreign prostitutes as workers in the restaurants and hairdressers, then attracted Iraqi women by local professionals. The writer reviews how the operations were conducted, organized and proliferated inside and outside Iraq, as part of targeting the value system and destroying the moral fabric of the society, spreading behavioral diseases among its members. The Ministry of Health statistics reported that (24.000) Iraqi used drugs in 2006. Reports say that the Iraqi rice growing areas in the Middle Euphrates were turned into opium cultivation fields. All international and regional organizations concerned with the issue of drugs know that Iraq was one of the countries clean of drug addiction, before the occupation.
9. The woman’s education retreated.
According to the UNICEF in its annual report for 2006 (Iraq has traditionally enjoyed an excellent education system for boys and girls alike, but the girls are struggling now to get to school in an atmosphere of violence and persecution). Increasing threats to girl students made many families prefer safety of their daughters to education. A national survey indicated that (600,000) children in Iraq do not go to schools, and that (74%) of this number are girls. The UNICEF report (14/ April 2007) confirmed that only (30%) of the Iraqi students go to schools, and that (40%) of women dropped out of secondary education or university because of the poverty or because of the security situation and lack of desire to continue. In addition to this, even those who do go to school do not make use of the educational process properly because of the deterioration in the system. The Amnesty International report in 2009 described the education system in Iraq as (on the brink of collapse, and that the schools and the universities lack the essential requirements such as books and teachers, apart from the fact that the students face intimidation because of the violence).
After this quick and summarized review of the reality of the Iraqi women, and the serious violations of the overall system of basic human rights, we wonder where is the Commission on Human Rights and its role in monitoring the situation of human rights after the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
The question is why Committee on human Rights did not extend the special rapporteur mandate to study the situation of human rights in Iraq after the occupation, despite what is stated in his latest report regarding violations of human rights after the occupation?!.
10. Recommendations.
In the light of the information contained in this paper and the reports of the international organizations including the United Nations to Aid Mission to Iraq, UNAMI, the Human Rights Council has a responsibility to follow up the situation of human rights, women and children in Iraq, and the need to include the situation of human rights in Iraq as a separate item on the agenda of Human Rights Council and to nominate a special rapporteur to study the situation and make proposals to the Council at each session.