Iraq

20 years on, Iraqis still wait for justice

16th March 2023

March 2023

After 20 years of war since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi families who have suffered death, injury and forced displacement are still left without justice, said the Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights in a statement.

Over 5 million Iraqis were forced from their homes in cycles of conflict over two decades, many repeatedly, losing everything they owned. Hundreds of thousands were killed or injured. Tens of thousands of civilians were forcibly disappeared and remain missing.

‘Civilians whose rights have been violated have a right to justice wherever they are in the world,’ said Mark Lattimer, Ceasefire’s Director. ‘Iraqis whose lives were destroyed after the 2003 invasion of Iraq are entitled to justice just as much as those harmed in the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.’

Ceasefire empowers civilians to monitor violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and supports them to claim reparations. Ceasefire’s legal help centre in Mosul provided legal advice to over 400 potential claimants in 2022 for death, injury or property damage going back to 2016-17. Nearly one third of those assisted had been harmed in military operations undertaken by the international coalition against ISIS.

‘The US and the UK first invaded Iraq 20 years ago, but the war goes on today,’ added Mr Lattimer. ‘The US Air Force and the Royal Air Force continue to fly combat missions in Iraq’s skies but the mechanisms for compensating civilians harmed in military operations remain woefully inadequate.’

The total paid in compensation by the UK for civilian harm in military operations in Iraq is £26.4 million across 1,893 cases. However, both the UK and the US have sought to avoid any liability for civilian harm in the recent phases of the air war. (For further details see Reparations for civilian harm from military operations: Towards a UK policy.)

The Iraqi government operates its own national scheme for compensating civilians harmed by ‘military operations, military mistakes and terrorist actions’. Over USD 400 million has been disbursed in tens of thousands of cases since 2011.

For more information or to arrange media interviews, please email contact@ceasefire.org

In Iraq’s disputed territories, militias dictate civilians’ lives

31st January 2022

In Iraq’s disputed territories, government-funded militias are having a destructive impact on governance, economic life, and community relations, according to a report released today by the Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights. The dominance of these militias is acting as a major barrier to the return of civilians displaced by the conflict with ISIS, especially members of minorities.

The report, entitled ‘They Are in Control’: The rise of paramilitary forces and the security of minorities in Iraq’s disputed territories investigates the newly empowered role of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq’s ethnically and religiously diverse disputed territories. The report looks at the situation in the Ninewa plain, Tal Afar, Sinjar and Kirkuk since the end of the conflict with ISIS.

Ceasefire opens legal helpdesk in Mosul to promote civilian access to reparation

16th December 2021

Ceasefire opens legal helpdesk in Mosul to promote civilian access to reparation

December 2021

Civilians harmed by military operations have a right to compensation under Iraqi law, but the complex requirements to file a claim have left the process out of reach for many. Ceasefire’s new legal helpdesk in Mosul hopes to solve some of those problems.

UK compensation bill for civilian harm in Iraq and Afghanistan reaches £32m

30th November 2021

UK compensation bill for civilian harm in Iraq and Afghanistan reaches £32m, but MoD still has no effective policy to handle claims – new report

December 2021

Reparations for Civilian Harm in Military Operations: Towards a UK policy

The compensation bill for civilians harmed in UK military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has now reached £32 million, according to a new report by Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights. During the last year the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has quietly settled some 417 claims related to Iraq, and 13 related to Afghanistan, to add to thousands already settled.

The Yazidi Survivors’ Law: A step towards reparations for the ISIS conflict

11th May 2021

On 1 March 2021, after nearly two years of deliberations, Iraq’s parliament passed the Yazidi Female Survivors’ Law, a major step forward in addressing the legacy of violations committed by ISIS against members of religious minorities in Iraq. The law (Law No. 8 of 2021) provides a comprehensive programme of reparations to Yazidi, Christian, Shabak, and Turkmen survivors of sexual violence and other ISIS crimes, including both individual and collective measures.

The law comes in the aftermath of more than three years of armed conflict in Iraq, which left thousands dead and millions displaced. While ISIS targeted many of Iraq’s ethnic and religious minorities during the conflict, the group’s treatment of the Yazidi community was particularly brutal. It is estimated that around 6,800 Yezidis were abducted and around 3,100 killed over a few days in early August 2014. Men and boys were massacred and buried in mass graves while thousands of women and girls were forced into sexual slavery, in a campaign that has been recognized as genocide by numerous international bodies.

After decades of disappearances, Iraq preparing to turn the page – new report

19th January 2021

January 2021

Iraq’s disappeared persons might finally have a chance at justice, according to a new report by the Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights.

The report, entitled The Forever Crime: Ending enforced disappearance in Iraq, argues that Iraq is at a historic juncture in the struggle against enforced disappearance, a practice which has gone on for decades and left virtually none of Iraq’s communities untouched. Draft legislation to suppress enforced disappearances is now under consideration by the Iraqi parliament.

Two years after ‘liberation,’ civilians in Mosul denied justice, reparations – new report

21st January 2020

January 2020

Over two years since the recapture of Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), Iraqi civilians have been largely denied the right to reparations they are owed by parties to the conflict, according to a new report by the Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights and Minority Rights Group International.

35,000 claims from victims of the war against ISIS in Mosul — including thousands who lost their homes or relatives as a result of bombardment by the US-led coalition – have now been lodged with the Iraqi government. Mosul served as the capital of the self-proclaimed ISIS caliphate for some three years. The intensity and length of the military campaign to defeat ISIS left much of the city reduced to rubble and caused between 9,000 to 11,000 civilian casualties. Airstrikes carried out by the international coalition were responsible for the second highest number of civilian deaths.

Iraq joint statement: Stop the killing of activists

7th October 2019

December 2019 update

Civilian activists across cities in central and southern Iraq have been targeted deliberately with live fire, bringing the death toll in the latest protests by early December to over 400, with thousands injured. The killings have been carried out by militia members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and by Iraqi Security Forces, protestors report.

Read the joint appeal issued by CEASEFIRE and 14 other human rights organisations here: Authorities must immediately end the use of lethal force against protestors and stop targeting activists, journalists and the media

Read our October joint letter here: Freedom of speech and assembly under attack in Iraq

‘CEASEFIRE called for effective investigations into a wave of targeted assassinations by alleged PMF members a year ago’, said Executive Director Mark Lattimer. ‘The government’s failure to investigate and prosecute perpetrators means that the militias now feel they can shoot with impunity.’

Read the CEASEFIRE report in English here: Civilian Activists under Threat in Iraq

And in Arabic here نشطاء مدنيون تحت التهديد في العراق

Drawing on thousands of accounts of violations uploaded on CEASEFIRE’s violations reporting platform, the report details a pattern of attacks on civilian activists in 2018 including protestors, journalists and media workers, lawyers, women in public life, and other human rights defenders. In addition to the use of excessive force against protestors on the streets, the report documents a campaign of systematic death threats and premeditated assassinations.

Killings of unarmed protestors continue to be reported by official sources in Iraq as being carried out by ‘unknown assailants’. PMF militias aligned with Iran have, however, made little secret of their willingness to use force to end the protests.

Created in 2014 as an umbrella for militias fighting ISIS, the Hashd al-Sha’abi or Popular Mobilization Forces are now believed to number over 100,000 fighters. They include powerful militias supported by Iran such as the Badr Organisation, Kata’ib Hezbollah and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq. They were given official status by former prime minister Haider al-Abadi and now operate with the authority of the Iraqi state.

Study finds displacement, economic hardship drive domestic abuse among Syrian refugees in Iraq

1st May 2019

March 2019

A two-year programme on sexual and gender-based violence among Syrian refugees in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq found that displacement and economic hardship have led to an increase in physical and emotional abuse, with one focus group of women reporting that as many as half of husbands yelled at and hit their wives.

The programme, a joint project run by the Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights and Asuda, an Iraqi women’s rights group, surveyed Syrian refugees in the governorates of Erbil, Dohuk and Suleymania in Iraqi Kurdistan. The lessons learned from this study are highlighted in Ceasefire’s report: “Combating sexual and gender-based violence in refugee crises: Lessons from working in with Syrian refugees in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq”.

ISIS fighters and their families facing justice: Eight options and four principles

22nd March 2019

March 2019

Crimes under international law committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), including systematic attacks on civilian populations, have shocked the world. Now that the remaining ISIS-controlled territory in Syria is regained, attention is at last focusing on bringing ISIS leaders and fighters to justice. These include Iraqi and Syrian nationals, as well as the so-called ‘foreign fighters’ – nationals of other states in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as European, North American and other nationals. In particular, a global debate has begun about what to do with foreign fighters and their families, including a significant number of women and children.

This Ceasefire briefing considers eight accountability options potentially facing ISIS fighters and their families. It assesses the feasibility of each option and its implications, and then highlights four cross-cutting principles that should be taken into account in any decisions on justice mechanisms.

Iraq

20 years on, Iraqis still wait for justice

In Iraq’s disputed territories, militias dictate civilians’ lives

Ceasefire opens legal helpdesk in Mosul to promote civilian access to reparation

UK compensation bill for civilian harm in Iraq and Afghanistan reaches £32m

The Yazidi Survivors’ Law: A step towards reparations for the ISIS conflict

After decades of disappearances, Iraq preparing to turn the page – new report

Two years after ‘liberation,’ civilians in Mosul denied justice, reparations – new report

Iraq joint statement: Stop the killing of activists

Study finds displacement, economic hardship drive domestic abuse among Syrian refugees in Iraq

ISIS fighters and their families facing justice: Eight options and four principles

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