❤️🌳UN: accountability for
human rights violations during peaceful protests is key❤️🌳
BAGHDAD/GENEVA, 27 August
2020 – Despite promising steps by the current Government of Iraq concerning
human rights violations and abuses committed in the context of recent
demonstrations, accountability remains elusive, according to a UN report
released on Thursday.
The report details actions
and omissions in handling the massive protests that took place between October
2019 and April 2020, highlights the human rights violations and abuses, calls
for immediate action to achieve justice, recommends protection measures for
demonstrators and urges redress for victims.
“Of great concern is the
continued targeting and killing of activists and human rights defenders. This
is not random violence but a deliberate silencing of peaceful voices, coupled
with the total impunity enjoyed by perpetrators,” said the Special Representative
of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.
“Without accountability, the crimes committed will remain mere statistics,
numbers on a page. This report sheds light on the suffering, and provides
concrete recommendations to help rebuild public trust”, she added.
The Human Rights Office of
the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) based its report on more than 900
interviews with victims and their relatives, witnesses, journalists, and civic
and political activists. It documents that at least 487 people were killed and
7,715 injured during the protests, a majority of them young men.
The report highlights a
pattern of unnecessary and excessive force, including live ammunition, when
dealing with protesters.
Another worrying
development were attacks by so-called unidentified armed actors as well as
abductions.
Approximately 3,000
demonstrators were detained, adding concerns about arbitrary detentions and
ill-treatment.
The right to freedom of
expression was also severely curtailed, with frequent Internet blackouts, news
outlets raided, journalists assaulted, harassed and arbitrarily detained, their
material confiscated or deleted.
“People were killed,
injured, tortured and mistreated, kidnapped, disappeared, arbitrarily detained,
for exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.
This is unacceptable. Everyone has the right to peacefully demonstrate and to
publicly express their frustration at not being able to provide for themselves
and their families,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle
Bachelet.
Since taking office in May,
the current government has taken welcome steps to establish an independent
investigative body and offer some redress for the victims and their families,
but much more needs to be done.
ENDS
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26186&LangID=E
❤️🌳🍒#سال_سرنگونی #کروناویروس #قیام_تا_پیروزی # مرگ_بر_دیکتاتور❤️🌳🍒
❤️🌳💧 #شورش زندانیان #تيك_تاك_سرنگوني # شهرهای شورشی#انحلال_سپاه_پاسداران❤️🌳💧#مجاهدین_خلق ایران #ایران #ما بر اندازیم # کانونهای شورشی❤️🌳💧
❤️🌳💧#coronavirus #COVID2019 #IranRegimeChange❤️🌳💧
🍒🌳🌹 ما را در توئیتر با حساب توئیتری 7 @Bahar iran دنبال کنید❤️🌳💧
