Det Udenrigspolitiske Nævn 2004-05 (2. samling)
Bilag 2
Offentligt
AMNESTY INTERNATIONALHOMELIBRARYMain navigation
WORLD WIDE S
language linksLibrary
E-mail this pageSection navigation
Document libraryRecent documentsDocuments by regionDocuments by themeAnnual reportsThe WireReceive updates by e-mailOrder AI publicationsSearch by AI INDEXGO
LIBRARY MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA MIDDLE EASTIRAQAI Index: MDE 14/001/200522 February 2005
Iraq:
Decades of suffering, Now women deserve bette
1. IntroductionWomen and girls in Iraq live in fear of violence as the conflict intensifies andinsecurity spirals. Tens of thousands of civilians are reported to have been kior injured in military operations or attacks by armed groups since the USinvasion of Iraq in March 2003. The lawlessness and increased killings,abductions and rapes that followed the overthrow of the government of SaddHussain have restricted women’s freedom of movement and their ability to gschool or to work. Women face discriminatory laws and practices that deny tequal justice or protection from violence in the family and community. Abacklash from conservative social and political forces threatens to stifle theirattempts to gain new freedoms. The general lack of security has forced manywomen out of public life, and constitutes a major obstacle to the advancemenwomen’s rights.
View this page inEspañol
In recent decades, the people of Iraq have suffered brutal repression under thgovernment of Saddam Hussain, and the terrible consequences of war andsanctions. Many thousands of Iraqis were killed, tortured and imprisoned bysecurity forces. The 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war cost the lives of half a millionsoldiers. Thousands more died in the 1990-91 Gulf war, the suppression of Sand Kurdish uprisings in 1991, and the 2003 US-led war on Iraq. Thirteen yeof UN-imposed economic sanctions following the disruption arising from yeof armed conflict contributed to the early deaths of hundreds of thousands ofIraqi people, most of them children.
Under the government of Saddam Hussain, women were subjected to genderspecific abuses, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, as politicaactivists, relatives of activists or members of certain ethnic or religious groupWar and economic sanctions had a particular effect on women. They left woand households headed by women, many of them war widows, among thepoorest sectors of the population. In the 1990s the mortality rate for pregnan
women and mothers increased, and became one of the worst in the world forchildren under the age of five.
Since the 2003 war, women’s rights activists and political leaders have beenthreatened by armed groups and a number have been killed. Women have besubjected to sexual threats by members of the US-led forces(1), and some wodetained by US forces have been sexually abused, possibly raped.
Within their own communities, many women and girls remain at risk of deatinjury from male relatives if they are accused of behaviour held to have broudishonour on the family. So called "honour crimes" are in effect condoned inIraqi legislation, which allows the courts to hand down lenient sentences on tperpetrators. Gender discrimination in Iraqi laws contributes to the persistencviolence against women.
Violence against women is a human rights abuse. The 1993 UNDeclarationthe Elimination of Violence against Womendefines it as any act of genderbased violence – that is, violence directed against a woman because she is awoman or that affects women disproportionately – that results in, or is likelyresult in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women,including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty,whether occurring in public or in private life.(2)
In the past year, women’s rights activists have successfully campaigned agaian attempt to amend the Personal Status Law to place certain family mattersunder the control of religious authorities. Numerous non-governmentalorganizations (NGOs) and other bodies working for women’s rights have beeformed, including groups that focus on the protection of women from violenViolence against women is closely bound up and interacts with unequal powrelations between men and women and gender-based discrimination. The rignot to be discriminated against on the grounds of race, sex, sexual orientationgender expression and identity, age, birth or religion, is the basis of human ri– the inherent and equal dignity of every woman, man and child.
Women’s rights NGOs in Iraq have called for measures to be taken in orderstop violence against women and to end discrimination against women. At aconference in June 2004 in Baghdad, attended by 350 delegates from womenorganizations, participants demanded that armed groups were disarmed andmembers of the US-led forces responsible for human rights violations broughjustice.(3) They called for support for women survivors of family violence,including through the establishment of shelters for women and legislativereforms to tackle "honour killings". To address the legacy of the past, theconference demanded support for those still suffering the consequences of whuman rights violations under Saddam Hussain’s government, and investigatinto the fate of the "disappeared". The participants also called for an end todiscrimination against women in law, and equal representation and participatof women in education, employment and political decision-making. They dreattention to women’s gender-specific needs, including in the health sector.
This report is part of Amnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Womencampaign. It focuses on the many ways in which women and girls in Iraq havsuffered from government repression and armed conflict in disproportionate
different ways from men, and also how they have been targeted as women. Itshows how discrimination is closely linked to violence against women, and tparticular ways in which women have suffered from the breakdown in law anorder in many parts of the country since the overthrow of the government ofSaddam Hussain.
Among the recommendations made in this report, Amnesty International callthe Iraqi authorities and members of the National Assembly to ensure that thnew constitution and all Iraqi legislation contain prohibitions on all forms ofdiscrimination against women, and that effective measures to protect womenfrom violence are introduced and supported.
States have an obligation under international human rights law to "respect,protect and fulfil" human rights. They must ensure that human rights abusesnot carried out by public officials or other agents of the state; they must protepeople against human rights abuses by others, including individuals within thown communities and families, and must adopt legislative, administrative another measures to enable the fulfilment and realization of human rights. Inparticular, states should eliminate discriminatory legislation and practice thatwomen at risk of violence, and take steps to protect women againstdiscrimination and violence.
2. Eroded rights, lost freedomsFrom the 1960s to the early 1980s, women in Iraq achieved significant progrin gaining access to education, to employment outside the home, and to sociaand welfare services. Women’s rights were newly enshrined in legislation, anwomen claimed a greater role in political and social activities.
After the Ba’ath Party came to power in 1968, independent civil societyorganizations, including women’s organizations, were closed. The GeneralFederation of Iraqi Women (GFIW) was established in 1969, primarily to suthe government and its policies. Nonetheless, it became an important vehiclewomen’s social advancement and participation in public life. Literacy and otsocial or educational programs for women, for example, were organized byGFIW branches across the country, including in rural areas.
By 1980 women could stand for election to Parliament and local governmenLaws were enacted making education mandatory for girls and boys betweenages of six and 10, and providing literacy programmes for adults. Labour andemployment laws introduced provision for equal opportunities in the civilservice, equal pay for equal work for women, maternity benefits, and freedomfrom harassment in the work place.
The 1980s and 1990s, however, saw the gradual erosion of many of the gainsmade by women under the onslaught of massive and systematic human rightviolations committed under the government of Saddam Hussain (During the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war, women’s emancipation suffered setbacksprimarily as a result of the overall deterioration in the human rights situation
Following the 1990-91 Gulf war, the government consolidated its power throalliances with conservative religious leaders and powerful tribal chiefs. A proof Islamization in Iraqi society took place alongside a similar trend in the reg
at large. An obvious indication of this development was the growing numberwomen wearing the veil. The government appeared to foster this developmenfor example in its "campaign to enhance the [Islamic] faith" (al-hamlahalimaniyyah).
The 13 years of UN-imposed economic sanctions jeopardized the lives ofhundreds of thousands of people. The deprivation and hardship had a particuimpact on women. In a climate of growing conservatism and social restrictiofor women, the impact of two armed conflicts and over a decade of tougheconomic sanctions were devastating. Women who had been left to headhouseholds when male breadwinners were killed in war or forced to seek woabroad were at the same time discouraged from working outside the home anwere even less in control of their lives and choices.
Massive human rights violationsThe war between Iraq and Iran imposed enormous suffering on women, menchildren. Gross human rights violations, including mass killings and expulsiowere inflicted on whole communities. Women were frequently targeted becaof their family relationship with male opposition activists, and were subjectegender-specific human rights violations such as rape and trafficking for sexuexploitation.
At the beginning of the war the government deported thousands of women, mand children to Iran, solely on the basis of their actual or alleged Iranian descThey included Shi‘a Muslim Arabs and Feyli Kurds. Entire families werestripped of their properties, possessions and Iraqi identity documents and, unarmed guard, forcibly transported in trucks or buses to border areas and ordeto cross into Iran. The majority of deportees lived for years in refugee campsinside Iran. Thousands of men and boys from such families, and some womeand girls, aged between about 16 and 40, were arrested and detained indefiniin Iraq. Although many were released in subsequent years, thousands"disappeared", never to be seen again. Most were probably killed.
Tens of thousands of Kurds, including many women and children, "disappeaor were killed in an operation by government forces known as the Anfalcampaign (1987-88). It was estimated that 4,000 villages were destroyed. Inrecently discovered mass grave near the village of Hadhra, south of Mosul,remains of about 300 Kurdish women and children were uncovered by a teamforensic scientists. They were believed to have been shot from close range inback of the head or in the face before their bodies were buried in a pit.(
The use of chemical weapons against the Kurds of Halabja in 1988estimated 5,000 people outright and injured thousands more. By 1998reports that growing numbers of children were dying of leukaemia andlymphoma. Women and babies were particularly affected: medical experts foincreased rates of infertility, miscarriage and infant death; of babies born witdisabilities; and of skin, head, neck, respiratory, gastrointestinal, breast, andchildhood cancers. (5)
There were also indications that senior Iraqi security officials had been involin the trafficking of Kurdish women and girls for the purposes of sexualexploitation as part of the government’s repression of the Kurds. Secret
communications discovered after the overthrow of Saddam Hussaingovernment included a document of 10 December 1989 from the KirkukIntelligence Directorate to the General Intelligence Directorate that listed thenames of 18 women and girls, aged between 14 and 29, who had been detainthe Anfal campaign and sent to nightclubs in Egypt.(6)
The gravity of the crime of trafficking is reflected in the fact that, in somecircumstances, it may constitute a crime against humanity or a war crime.Enslavement has been included among the most serious crimes of internationconcern in theRome Statute of the International Criminal Courtdefines it as the exercise of powers attached "to the right of ownership over aperson [including] the exercise of such power in the course of trafficking inpersons, in particular women and children."(7)
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, women political activists in banned orunauthorized opposition political groups such as al-Da’wa Party or the IraqiCommunist Party, and women relatives of political and religious opponents othe government, were detained, sentenced to prison terms, tortured and killed
Amina al-Sadr, known asBint al-Huda,was believed to have been killed wiher brother, Mohammad Baqer al-Sadr, in April 1980. Mohammad Baqer alSadr, who founded the Shi’a Islamist al-Da’wa Party in 1958, was detained aplaced under house arrest in 1979 after publicly supporting the Islamic revolin Iran and Ayatollah Khomeini. Hundreds of party members were arrested amany later executed. Bint al-Huda made a speech in Najaf, calling for ademonstration in protest at her brother’s house arrest and at the governmentcrackdown on his supporters. She and her brother were detained onafter al-Da’wa Party was accused of being behind an assassination attempt olife of Deputy Prime Minister Tariq ‘Aziz. They were held at the headquartethe General Security Directorate in Baghdad. Three days later, the body ofMuhammad Baqir al-Sadr was returned to his family. The whereabouts of Bial-Huda were never disclosed, but it was widely believed that she wasextrajudicially executed.
Women and their children were said to have been tortured in front of theirhusbands and fathers.Ahlam al-‘Ayashi,aged 20, was arrested inshe was married to a senior member of al-Da’wa Party, Imad al-Kirawee, whwas in prison. When her husband refused to give information to the securityservices, she was reportedly tortured to death in front of him by two securityofficers. Three of her five brothers and Imad al-Kirawee were executed. (
Some women were tortured and spent years in prison because of their own orelatives’ political activities. Two sisters,Yusra Tayef Shafi’andShafi’,were arrested on 17 July 1986 in Basra and questioned about contactwith their brothers, who were wanted by the security services as suspectedmembers of al-Da’wa Party. The two sisters were held for 11 days at the SecDirectorate in Basra, where they were blindfolded, beaten on the soles of the(falaqa), and threatened with execution. Yusra told Amnesty International inMay 2003: "During the period of interrogation it was very hard on us. Eachsecond felt like months. We will never forget this period." After six months aGeneral Security Directorate in Baghdad, the sisters were tried on charges ofprotecting a member of an unauthorized organization, and convicted and
sentenced to 20 and 15 years’ imprisonment without right of appeal. The wothey were alleged to have protected, known as"Safia",had been arrested withem on suspicion of being the contact to a man who was to help the brothersleave the country. Sentenced to death, Safia spent nine months in solitaryconfinement before she was executed. The sisters served their sentences at alRashad women’s prison in Baghdad, for the first two years incommunicado.They were released in a general amnesty at the end of 1991. Seven of theirbrothers, including the six who had been in hiding, are still missing.Photo CaptionYusra and Hadhin Tayef Shafi’at their house in Basra, May 2003
After the sisters were released, people were afraid to contact or speak to themEven family members were fearful of helping them financially. The two sistesupported themselves by working at home as seamstresses. A year after theirrelease a security officer told Yusra that, if there was any trouble in theneighbourhood, they would be the first arrested. The harsh conditions left bosisters with poor eyesight. According to a relative, they were unable to marrybecause of their years in prison. The sisters told Amnesty International that twould like to see those responsible for their torture and imprisonment broughjustice and punished.(9)
During and after failed uprisings in 1991 by the Kurds and Shi’a in the northsouth of Iraq respectively, thousands of people, including women and childrewere killed by government forces. Women and children were also widelyreported to have been used by government forces as "human shields" in militoperations to quell both uprisings, and to have been killed in crossthe security forces and insurgents.
Government repression continued unabated throughout the 1990s, includingagainst women suspected of association with banned opposition groups orsuspected government opponents.Su’ad Jihad Shams al-Din,amedical doctor, was arrested at her clinic in Baghdad on 29 Junedetained without charge or trial for a month on suspicion of contacts with ShIslamist groups. Security agents tortured her frequently, including by beatingon the soles of her feet with a cable, during interrogation at the Baghdad SecDirectorate, she told Amnesty International in November 1999 after fleeing tcountry.
Ahlam Khadom Rammahi,a mother of six children who had left Iraq withhusband in 1982, travelled back from London to Iraq to visit her sick mother28 July 1999, using her British passport. She had not seen her mother sinceleaving Iraq. On 5 August she was arrested in Baghdad at the home of relativand detained for a month before being released without charge onNo reason was given for her arrest, and her terrified family were unable to fiout where she had been taken for several days. During one interrogation sessshe told Amnesty International after her release, a security agent said: "Youknow our torture methods don’t you? We use electricity. You better tell us abyour husband, your contacts with Iran, with al-Da’wa, with Saudi Arabia; yohusband has criticized Saddam Hussain and the regime hasn’t he? If you dontalk we will pierce your hand with a drill." She said that security officersthreatened to torture her daughter in front of her if she did not confess to
opposition activities in London.
Rape was used as a form of torture on women in custody because they wererelatives of opposition activists or in an attempt to force Iraqi nationals abroacease political activities. In June 2000, a videotape showing the rape of a femrelative was sent to Najib al-Salihi, a former army general who fled Iraq inand joined the opposition. Shortly afterwards he reportedly received a telephcall from the Iraqi intelligence service, asking him whether he had received tvideotape and informing him that his relative was in their custody.
In 2000, women were publicly beheaded in a campaign against prostitution.suspected of procuring women for the purposes of prostitution were also saidhave been beheaded. In October 2000, dozens of women were beheaded inBaghdad and other cities. They had been arrested on suspicion of prostitutionill-treated in custody before their execution. Members of Feda’iyye Saddam,militia created in 1994 by ‘Uday Saddam Hussain, used swords to execute thwomen in front of their homes. Several of the killings were reportedly carriein the presence of representatives of the Ba’ath Party and the General Federaof Iraqi Women.
An accusation of prostitution was reportedly used as a pretext to beheadMohammad Haydar,an obstetrician in Baghdad, in October 2000alleged to have been detained for criticizing corruption in the health servicesbefore the policy to behead prostitutes was introduced.
A woman known as"Um Haydar"was reportedly beheaded in NovemberShe was 25 years old and married with three children. Her husband had fledcountry, reportedly after being sought by the security authorities for involvemin Islamist armed activities against the state. Men belonging to FedaSaddam reportedly took Um Haydar from her home in al-Karrada district ofBaghdad and beheaded her in the street, in front of other residents and localmembers of the Ba’ath Party. They took away her remains in a plastic bag, adetained her mother-in-law and children, whose fates were unknown.
Armed conflict and sanctionsAfter half a million Iraqi soldiers died in the Iran-Iraq war, and thousands ofhad been executed or had "disappeared", the widows, mothers and sisters theleft behind frequently had to face alone the devastating impact on the socialfabric of Iraqi society. In many respects, women bore the brunt of the widespeconomic hardship and shattered education and health systems that were theconsequence of warfare and sanctions.
The number of female-headed households increased. Not only war widows balso women whose husbands had been imprisoned, executed or "disappearedhad left home to find work abroad, had to cope with day-to-day privations, ofor the first time on their own. Men who were left with severe disabilities hadbe cared for by their families – a task that generally fell on the women of thefamily. The large number of women unable to marry or left destitute led to ain polygamous marriages.(10)Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990, the UN SecurityCouncil imposed comprehensive sanctions that allowed Iraq to import only
"supplies intended strictly for medical purposes, and, in humanitariancircumstances, foodstuffs" (Resolution 661).(11) However, though theimposition of sanctions was intended as a temporary measure, they remainedforce for 13 years, contributing to a severe deterioration in living conditionsIraq. In 1995, Security Council Resolution 986 established an oilprogramme, which allowed Iraq to sell oil to finance the purchase of mainlyhumanitarian goods. There were claims that the Iraqi government deliberatelmanipulated the sanctions regime and oil-for-food programme for propagandpurposes.(12) Both sanctions and the oil-for-food programme also faced strocriticisms because they lacked a monitoring mechanism to measure their impand effect on the Iraqi civilian population.
Sanctions jeopardized the rights to food, health, education and, in many caselife of hundreds of thousands of individuals, many of them children. Womenwere often disproportionately affected, since they bore the main burden ofmaintaining the household. In female-headed households, it became even modifficult for women to find paid work.
A major impact of the sanctions was a further deterioration of the health servalready severely damaged by two consecutive wars. (13) There was a dramatincrease in risks for pregnant women, mothers and babies in particular.According to a survey of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) published inNovember 2003, the number of women who died in pregnancy and childbirthalmost tripled between 1989 and 2002. (14)
One of the most important indicators used to measure the health situation incountry is the mortality rate of vulnerable groups. In the years before the Guwar, the mortality rate for children under five years of age was on the declineFrom 1990 and under the sanctions regime, child mortality rates went updramatically. In March 2003 the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimated t"one in eight children died before the age of five – one of the worldmortality rates".(15) A UNICEF study of 1999 on child and maternal mortalifound that between 1990 and 1998, 500,000 more children would have survibeyond their fifth birthday if the Iraqi government had continued to invest insocial sector.(16)
Sanctions contributed to a sharp and unprecedented economic decline. The swas unable to continue funding social and welfare services and programmes,most of the population were subjected to severe hardship. Women saw theiremployment opportunities and income shrink, their access to education decliand their household responsibilities increase. This led to a generation gap"between older women who were literate, educated and worked outside thehome, and their daughters who were not in the work force, often more socialconservative, and had not received the same level of education as their mothe17)
Before 1991, women constituted 23 per cent of the labour force.(these women workers were professionals in the public sector where, since thIraq-Iran war, increasingly women had been employed. According to a reporthe International Labour Organization (ILO), by 2000 the share of womenworkers in the public sector had increased further as wages fell and men movto better paid work in the private or informal sector.(19) In addition to earnin
low wages, many working women suffered from the collapse of statesupport systems, including kindergartens and free transportation to schools awomen’s work places.(20)
The rise in households headed by women, and growing economic hardship,increased household responsibilities for women. In the absence of statesponsored social services, they had more care responsibilities for families anchildren. Faced with rising costs and shrinking income, they had to take on ework to provide the essentials. Their increased responsibilities notwithstandiwomen’s role in the public domain was shrinking as they were "pushed backtheir homes and into the traditional roles of being mothers and housewives".(
3. Violence in the present armed conflictContinuing insecurity constitutes a serious threat to the whole population, ana major obstacle for the country’s rebuilding and reconstruction process. Sinthe announcement by US President George Bush of the end of "major combaoperations in Iraq" in May 2003, the violence has not ended. Since then,thousands of civilians – women, men and children – have been killed in milioperations by the US-led forces and in attacks by armed groups.
Violence and threats have directly affected women and have been specificallaimed at women. Armed opposition groups have targeted and killed severalwomen political leaders and women’s right activists. Women detained by USforces have in some cases been subjected to sexual abuse, possibly includingrape.
Because of the increased level of violence and threats, many women try to avleaving their homes as much as possible. The widespread fear of violenceaffecting all Iraqis has restricted the participation of women in civil society sthe 2003 war, particularly in education, employment and political decisionmaking.
Lawlessness and intimidationIn a climate of lawlessness during the first months after the overthrow of SadHussain’s government, there was an increase in reports of kidnappings, rapeskillings of women and girls by criminal gangs. Iraqi officers at a police statioBaghdad reported in June 2003 "that the number of [rape] cases reported wassubstantially higher than before the war".(22)
In one reported case,"Asma",a young engineer, was abducted in Baghdad iMay 2003. She was shopping with her mother, sister and a male relative whearmed men forced her into a car and drove to a farmhouse outside the city. Tshe was repeatedly raped. A day later, she was driven to her neighbourhood apushed out of the car.
Since late 2003 reports of kidnappings resulting in rape or other sexual violeagainst women appear to have decreased. However, many cases of kidnappinand rape are not reported, because relatives fear for the woman’s safety and town, even after release, and because of the stigma associated with rape.
Women continue to be forced to wear headscarves by threats and harassmentfrom members of Islamist groups. These groups have targeted women and gi
who have not covered their heads, including non-Muslims, in the streets, inschools and in universities. As a consequence, the number of women and girwearing a headscarf or veil has further increased. Choice of clothes can be animportant element of the right to freedom of expression. Intimidating womengirls to make them observe a strict dress code amounts to a restriction of thatright. Such forms of social control often have a disproportionate impact onwomen, because their dress and appearance are subject to particular regulatioUnderlying such controls is the threat of injury or worse. They not only restrwomen’s freedom of movement, their rights to education and work, andsometimes their freedom of religion, but also expose women to the risk ofviolence as a penalty for transgression.
Targeted by armed groupsHundreds of women, men and children have died in attacks by armed groupssome cases, civilian deaths have resulted from indiscriminate attacks on spectargets, such as police stations. In others, civilians have themselves been theobjects of attack. In one instance, more than 100 civilians were killed on2004 in nine coordinated attacks in Karbala and Baghdad as millions of Muswere marking ‘Ashoura, the holiest day in the Shi’a Muslim calendar.(
Women campaigning to protect women’s rights have been threatened, kidnapand killed by members of armed groups in Iraq. In several cases, the perpetrahave identified themselves as members of Islamist groups, linking their attacthe women’s activism for women’s rights. In other cases, their activism appeto have contributed to the attack on them. A recent report on Iraq by WomenWomen International(24) is dedicated to "Iraqi women who have been targetmerely because of their leadership activities, the positions they held, or for botherwise visible in public" and lists the names of several who have beenkidnapped or killed over the past year.(25)
Members of the Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) havereported threats received because of their advocacy of women’s rights.ChairpersonYanar Mohammedreported that in January and Februaryreceived several death threats by e-mail from an Islamist group known as theArmy of Sahaba. She asked US officials for protection, but was reportedly tothey had more urgent matters to address. Yanar Mohammed and her colleaguthe Baghdad office of OWFI were forced to avoid public appearances and wbullet-proof vests.(26)
Several women’s centres established by the US authorities to provide supporwomen, including literacy programs, IT training and political awareness raishave had to reduce or review their activities following threats and attacks.
Amira Salih,the manager of a US-funded women’s centre in Karbala reportstepped down after she received repeated death threats.(27) Another womenrights activist from Karbala told Amnesty International that in Aprilwas stopped by Iraqi police in front of a women’s centre where she wanted tattend a meeting. A police officer advised her that this was an unsafe locatioand that she should not enter.(28)The killing of US lawyerFern Hollandand Iraqi assistantSalwa Oumashiarmed attack on 9 March 2004 added to the climate of threat and insecurity
experienced by many women working for women’s rights. Fern Holland wascivilian employee of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the USbody that governed Iraq until the handover of power to an interim Iraqiadministration in June 2004. She played a key role in supporting USwomen’s rights projects in the governorates of Babil, Karbala and Najaf,including by setting up women’s centres in Hilla and Karbala. Although thosresponsible for killing the two women have not been identified, it is widelybelieved that both were targeted because of their promotion of women
The US authorities have frequently announced their support for women in Irawhich has included the allocation of US$10 million for the WomenInitiative for Iraq.(29) However, some women’s rights activists have expressuneasiness about women’s organizations receiving financial or other supportfrom US government bodies. One Iraqi woman working for a womenreceives US-funding explained: "Our society doesn’t understand our relationAmericans, and that’s why I and all of us are afraid. Anyone dealing withAmericans – friendship, work – they’re considered a spy".(30)
Although only states ratify international treaties, many of the international leprinciples contained in such treaties apply also to armed groups and theirmembers. Article 3 common to all fourGeneva Conventionsapplies to allparties involved in an internal armed conflict, and reflects customaryinternational law. Among the actions it prohibits, by armed groups, no less thgovernments, are the targeting of civilians and others taking no active part inhostilities, who must be treated humanely; the taking of hostages; violence toand person, in particular murder, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; andoutrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degradingtreatment.(31)
Some armed groups have made explicit statements that they will respect ruleinternational law. Nevertheless, irrespective of whether or not an armed grouhas made a specific commitment, individual members of such groups whocommit such acts prohibited under international customary law can and mustheld criminally responsible and should be brought to justice.
Several women political leaders have been targets of politically motivated arattacks.‘Aquila al-Hashimi,one of only three female members in the IraqiGoverning Council (IGC), was killed in September 2003, reportedly by armemen opposed to the US-led occupation. (32)Raja Khuzai,another IGC memreported that she received death threats for opposing proposed amendments tPersonal Status Law: "There was a proposal, Resolution 137, which was agawomen’s rights… I succeeded in having this resolution cancelled in February2004]. After that I received so many death threats, telephone calls, letters toand my family".(33) On 29 March 2004,Nisreen Mustafa al-Burawarithen Minister of Public Works and the only woman in the cabinet, survived aattack on her convoy in Mosul in which two of her body guards were killed.
On 20 November 2004,Amal al-Ma’amalachi,a women’s rights activist anadviser at the Ministry of Municipalities and Public Affaires, was killed withsecretary, bodyguard and driver in Baghdad. She was on her way to work whher car was riddled with gunshots and she received at least 10 bullet woundswas a co-founder of the Advisory Committee for Women’s Affairs in Iraq an
the Independent Iraqi Women’s Assembly, which were established after theoverthrow of Saddam Hussain’s government.
A number of women have been taken hostage by armed groups, some of themconnection with political demands. Three relatives of Prime Minister IyadAllawi, two of whom were women, were abducted from their home in Baghdon 10 November 2004 in one hostage-taking. An armed opposition group, Aal-Jihad, claimed responsibility and demanded that US and Iraqi militaryoperations in Falluja be halted and political prisoners be released.(threatened to kill the hostages unless their demands were met within35) On 15 November 2004 the release of the two female relatives, one agedyears and the other pregnant, was reported.(36)
Women of non-Iraqi origin have also been held as hostages, often in an attemto have foreign troops withdrawn from Iraq. Hostages have been beaten andthreatened with execution, and at least one has reportedly been killed. They hincluded Japanese, Polish and Italian nationals. Following their release inSeptember 2004,Simona Torettafrom Italy reported that she and her colleaSimona Pari,were treated with respect by their captors, but that "there weretimes when we feared we’d be killed".(37)
On 19 October 2004,Margaret Hassan,the Iraq country director of theinternational NGO, Care International, was taken hostage in Baghdad whileher way to work. Margaret Hassan, who was married to an Iraqi national andherself a national of Ireland, the UK and Iraq, had lived in Iraq forSeveral video messages that showed her in captivity and clearly in distress wbroadcast. On 27 October 2004,al-Jazeera TVtransmitted a video of herappealing for the withdrawal of UK troops and the release of all Iraqi womendetainees. On 16 November 2004, her family said they believed she was deaafter a video tape appeared to show her being killed.(38) To date, no group hclaimed responsibility for her abduction and killing.
Abuses by US-led forcesThe numbers of civilian casualties in Iraq remain heavily disputed. Differentsources suggest that among the civilian population women are less likely thamen to be killed by the US-led forces. However, the absence of sufficient damakes it difficult to draw conclusions from such findings. Between Marchand mid-January 2005, the Iraq Body Count had recorded between17,500 "media-reported civilian deaths" resulting from US-led militaryintervention.(39) A much higher figure was given in a sample-based studypublished in October 2004 in the UK medical journal, theLancetestimated that "about 100,000 excess deaths, or more have happened since th2003 invasion of Iraq". (40) In response to the estimate in theLancetBody Count pointed out that it counted only civilian deaths and considered itown figures to be an "underestimate of the true position".(41)
Women have also been at risk of torture or ill-treatment as detainees in thecustody of US-led forces. Reports about the torture and cruel, inhuman anddegrading treatment of detainees in Abu Ghraib prison and other US detentiocentres in Iraq have included allegations that women have been subjected tosexual abuse, possibly including rape.
Several women detainees have spoken to Amnesty International after theirrelease from detention, on condition of anonymity. They reported beatings,threats of rape, humiliating treatment and long periods of solitary confinemeSome of the male detainees who alleged torture or ill-treatment in US custodsaid that the sexual humiliation was the worst part of their treatment. For woin Iraq, the stigma frequently attached to the victims instead of the perpetratosexual crimes makes reporting such abuses especially daunting.
Huda Hafez Ahmad,a 39-year-old businesswoman, is one of the few formewomen detainees who have spoken out about their experiences. She was takeinto US custody when she went to look for her sister, Nahla, who had beendetained. The two women were reportedly not seen by a lawyer for more thamonth. In December 2003 Huda Hafez Ahmad and several other members offamily, including her sister Nahla and her brother Ayad, were detained at thebase in the al-A’dhamiya neighbourhood of Baghdad, because they weresuspected of supporting an armed opposition group. In a communication toAmnesty International she made allegations that she had been tortured and iltreated.
Huda Hafez Ahmad said that she was handcuffed and blindfolded after her aand left overnight in a cold room containing only a wooden chair. She allegethat she was hit in the face, made to stand for 12 hours with her face againstwall, and for the next three days subjected to excessively loud music and sleedeprivation..(42) She reported that her brother Ayad Hafez Ahmad died in Ucustody following torture and ill-treatment at this time.
In early January 2004, Huda Hafez Ahmad and her sister were transferred toGhraib prison, where she was reportedly held in a cell on her own for severamonths. The sisters were the last two women to be released from Abu Ghraibprison in July 2004, where – according to US official sources – 42been detained since mid-2003.(43) After her release, she said she was notsexually assaulted by US personnel while held at Abu Ghraib Prison. She waaware of sexual abuse of other women in detention who were held with her aAbu Ghraib Prison.(44) However, US investigations into allegations of tortuand ill-treatment at US-controlled detention centres in Iraq found that womenbeen sexually abused and possibly raped.
Among the "intentional abuse of detainees by military police [MP] personnefound in an investigation by Major General Antonio Taguba were "a male Mguard having sex with a female detainee" and "videotaping and photographinnaked male and female detainees".(45) Military investigators found that "thefemale detainees were made to pose for soldiers taking pictures and on oneoccasion one female was instructed to expose her breasts for a soldier to takepicture".(46)
According to a report on Abu Ghraib prison by Major General George Fay, tUS military personnel received non-judicial punishment for their role in theassault of a female detainee on 7 October 2003. According to the report:"Firstthe group took her out of her cell and escorted her down thecellblock to an empty cell. One unidentified soldier stayed outside thewhile another held her hands behind her back, and the other forcibly
kissed her. She was escorted downstairs to another cell where she wasshown a naked male detainee and told the same would happen to her idid not cooperate. She was then taken back to her cell, forced to kneelraise her arms while one of the soldiers removed her shirt. She begancry, and her shirt was given back as the soldier cursed at her and saidwould be back each night."(47)
Amnesty International takes the view that the rape of a prisoner by a prison,security or military official always constitutes torture. Other sexual abuse ofprisoners by such officials always constitutes torture or ill-treatment.(by international tribunals and statements by UN human rights mechanismssupport this view.(49) The state is accountable under international human riglaw for rape and sexual abuse carried out by, at the instigation of, or with theconsent or acquiescence of any person acting in an official capacity.(ill-treatment, rape and other sexual abuse, irrespective of whether the perpetris a state official or agent, are also proscribed under international humanitarilaw. Depending on the circumstances they may constitute war crimes or crimagainst humanity for which the perpetrators can be held individually responsunder international criminal law. These acts are proscribed as war crimes andcrimes against humanity under theRome Statute of the International CrimCourt.(51)They are also proscribed under the statutes of the ad hoc InternatCriminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda, which haconvicted a number of perpetrators.(52)
Women have also reported being subjected to sexual threats or insults in otheencounters with US-led forces.Huda Shaker Neimi,a women’s rights activ53) and a political scientist, reported how she was treated by US troops at a cpoint in Baghdad at the beginning of 2004. When she objected to a search ofhandbag, one of the soldiers pointed a gun at her. "Then he pointed to his penHe told me: Come here, bitch, I’m going to fuck you", she was reported assaying. (54)
House raids frequently conducted by the US-led forces at night have beenterrifying experiences for many Iraqis. There have been particular concerns tduring such operations women were exposed to male soldiers when they werproperly dressed.(55) A former woman detainee told Amnesty Internationalshe was arrested in August 2003 at her home in Baghdad at aboutsoldiers and taken in her nightclothes to al-Karrade Security Centerreleased in the evening of the same day, at around 9pm, and had to walk backhome still only in her nightwear.(56)
4. Violence in the familyFor decades, violence in the family in Iraq has been under-reported. Most acviolence in the home are carried out on women and girls by husbands, brothefathers or sons. The men are sometimes acting on the orders of family councgatherings of family or clan elders who decide the punishment for womendeemed to have infringed traditional codes of honour. Tradition all too oftenserves as a pretext for acts of brutality against women for daring to choose hto lead their lives. An underlying cause of the violence, and closely bound upwith it, is the discrimination that denies women equality with men in every aof life, including within the family.
In recent years, organizations in Iraq have started working to provide supporwomen who have experienced violence in the home. Women’s rights activishave helped women to escape violent men and to hold their attackers to accoThey confront the prejudices that hold women’s protests and complaints aboill-treatment to be shameful to the family. They are often themselves faced wthreats and assaults from the families of the women they support.
The first shelter for women victims of violence in Iraq was established inthe city of Sulaimaniya, in the Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Iraq. Moshelters were opened in these areas in the following years. Since the earlythe activities of Kurdish women’s rights organizations have raised awarenesswithin their own society about the suffering caused by violence in the familyparticular by "honour crimes". Since early 2004, shelters for women have alsbeen established in Baghdad and Kirkuk by the Organization for WomenFreedom in Iraq. However, for the vast majority of women, support facilitiessuch as shelters or rehabilitation centres are not accessible.The state’s duty to protect women from violence is explicitly stated in the UNDeclaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women:"States shoupursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminatingviolence against women" (Article 4). In so far as it may be claimed that mattof honour are deeply rooted in tradition and culture, the UNConvention onElimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (UN WomenConvention),to which Iraq is a party, places an obligation on states "to modthe social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view toachieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practiceswhich are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of thsexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women" (Article 5).
Women’s rights activists in Iraq have repeatedly emphasized that awarenessraising is one of the most important tools to combat discrimination and violeagainst women.(57) At a women’s conference entitled "Voice of the IraqiWomen", in June 2004 in Baghdad, a number of recommendations forawareness-raising were discussed, including "intensive and comprehensiveawareness [raising] on…gender equality throughout all social organizations,starting with the family, schools, religious, political and social institutions."(
Women should not face these challenges unsupported. Under internationalhuman rights law, the state has an obligation not only to ensure that its agentofficials do not commit violence against women, but also to protect women fviolence committed by private individuals and bodies (sometimes referred to"non-state actors"), including members of their own families and communiti
In order to comply with their obligations to protect women against abuses ofrights by private individuals, states should exercise "due diligence" in securinwomen’s rights to equality, life, liberty and security, and to freedom fromdiscrimination, torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. They muhave policies and plans to enable the fulfilment of these rights, to protect peofrom abuses of these rights, and to provide redress and reparation to those whrights have been violated.
‘Honour crimes’Most victims of "honour crimes" are women and girls who are considered to
shamed the women’s families by immoral behaviour. Often the grounds for san accusation are flimsy and no more than rumour. "Honour crimes" are mosoften perpetrated by male members of the women’s families in the belief thasuch crimes restore their and the family’s honour.
In international human rights law, "honour crimes" are recognized as a formviolence against women in the family or community. The rights that they vioinclude the right to life and security of the person; freedom from torture andcruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; and the right to equality before theand to equal protection of the law. They also deprive women of rights assuretheUN Women’s Convention,for example the rights to choose a marriagepartner, to enter into marriage freely, to freedom from discrimination, and totreated as a human being with dignity and equal rights to men.(59
In recent years, reports by Kurdish women’s organizations on violence againwomen in northern Iraq have gained international attention and been echoedreports by international organizations. The Committee on the Elimination ofDiscrimination against Women, the UN expert body charged with monitorinimplementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination against Women, noted in 2000 that: "The Committee isconcerned by the violence against women perpetrated through honour killingThe Committee urged the Iraqi government in particular "to condemn anderadicate honour killings and ensure that these crimes are prosecuted andpunished in the same way as other homicides".(60) Furthermore, the UN SpeRapporteur on violence against women referred to the practice of "honourkillings" in Iraq in her report of January 2002 to the Commission on HumanRights.(61)
TheUN Commission on Human Rightshas addressed "honour killings" incontext of the right to life and called on States to "investigate promptly andthoroughly all killings committed in the name of passion or in the name ofhonour…and to bring those responsible to justice before a competent,independent and impartial judiciary, and to ensure that such killings, includinthose committed by…private forces, are neither condoned nor sanctioned bygovernment officials or personnel".(62)
The organization, Kurdish Women Against Honour Killings (KWAHK), repthat between 1991 and 1998 hundreds of women had died in so-called "honokillings" in northern Iraq. The report listed more than 100 individual cases ofwomen killed during the 1990s by their husbands, brothers, cousins and othefamily members in northern Iraq.(63) Among reasons given for the killings wthat the women had committed adultery, refused to marry against her will, orhome in order to marry a man of her own choice.
Until legal reforms specifically to address "honour killings" were introducedthe Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq between 2000 and 2002, the perpetraof such killings were either never tried or received generally lenient sentence64) In one well-documented case, a court in Dohuk, northern Iraq, accepted t"honourable motivation" of men who had killed a young woman as groundsleniency in sentencing. (65)Pela,unmarried and living with her family inSweden, was killed on 24 June 1999 on a visit to the family home in Dohuk.Breen, Pela’s younger sister, heard a shot upstairs. Her uncle, Rezkar Atrosh
came out of the room holding a gun, and claimed that Pela had shot herself.Breen, initially made to leave the house, later managed to get back in. Runniupstairs, she found her sister covered in blood but still alive. Pela said that heuncle had shot her. Her mother helped bring her downstairs to the living roomThere she was shot in the head and killed by one of her uncles. On1999 the Dohuk Criminal Court convicted Pela’s father, Agid Atroshi(her uncle Rezkar of the killing, but gave them each a suspended onesentence.(67)
The court referred to a report from the autopsy that "the hymen was broken"to the defendants’ "honourable motivation" in support of its decision. The Coof Cassation reviewed the verdict and on 22 February 2000 ruled that the oneyear sentence be served. In January 2000, Pela’s uncles Rezkar and DahaszAtroshi were arrested in Sweden. On 12 January 2001 the Stockholm City Cconvicted both men of the murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment.sentences were confirmed on appeal.
Mutilation is another form of "honour crime" used in northern Iraq as apunishment for people accused of a relationship considered to be illegitimateJuly 1996,Kajal Khidr,24 years old and pregnant, was accused of adulterytortured and mutilated by six members of her husband’s family near the townRania, Sulaimaniya governorate. They cut off part of her nose, and told her tshe would be killed after the birth of her child. She received treatment at ahospital in Rania, and a further three months of hospital treatment inSulaimaniya, where she was kept under police protection. She then spent a yin hiding before finding refuge with a women’s organization in Sulaimaniya.With the help of local human rights activists, she fled to Syria in Februaryand was recognized as a refugee by the UN High Commissioner for RefugeeJuly 2000 she was resettled in a third country where she lives with her daughTwo of the men who had tortured her were arrested by the Patriotic Union ofKurdistan (PUK) authorities, which controlled the area, but were released wi24 hours on the grounds that they had acted to safeguard the "honour" of thefamily. No charges were ever brought against them.
Dunya(not her real name) from the Rania region was forced to marry againswill in 1999. Before her marriage she had been in love with Ahmed (not hisname), her husband’s nephew. In March 2002 her husband accused her ofadultery with Ahmed, and the families decided to cut off Dunya’s nose and oof Ahmed’s ears. In September 2002 one of Ahmed’s relatives was sentencefour years’ imprisonment for carrying out the mutilations, two years for eachoffence.
Between 2000 and 2002 the Kurdish authorities amended the law so that coucould no longer find "honourable motivation" a mitigating circumstance in"honour crimes" against women.(68)
However, despite these reforms, Kurdish women’s organizations fear that mefforts are made to conceal "honour killings", in order to avoid the judicialconsequences. The Women’s Information and Cultural Centre (WICC) suspethat the bodies of victims of "honour killings" have been hidden, or mutilatedconceal their identities. The Centre has reported recent cases where women hdied in suspicious circumstances, and relatives have claimed that the deaths w
accidental. One man who had killed his daughter-in-law,Gulestanin the Balisan area, told the Centre in August 2002:
"Wekilled this woman to end the problem. If we did not kill this womatwo families would have got into a fight and maybe 15 people would hdied over this. We have tribal customs and we do not take such cases tcourt… If I did not kill her I may have been told many times that I didkeep my honour… If I did not kill her, whenever I will have a familyproblem, the issue will be mentioned again."
He said that they had to act swiftly to prevent the authorities from protectingGulestan. Although he was aware of the legal amendments regarding "honoukillings", he did not expect the case to be brought to trial. An agreement,including the payment of compensation, had been reached with Gulestanfamily, and the local authorities appeared to be aware of the arrangement.(
Women and girls living in hiding to escape "honour killings" have givenvideotaped interviews about their experiences. One of them,Nivanname), ran away in 2002 at the age of 16 to marry the man she loved, againswill of her family. Attempts to reconcile her family and her husbandinvolving religious leaders and local authorities, were unsuccessful. Her famwas allegedly behind an attempt to kill her and her husband, and the killing ohusband three months later in mid-2003. Initially detained on suspicion ofinvolvement in the killing, she was released after two months, and now livesher child in hiding. "I have no future. My family will look for me to kill me.never return to my family," she said.
In recent years several organizations have been established in northern Iraq toffer support for women at risk of violence, including survivors of attempted"honour killings". One of these organizations is the Sulaimaniya-Centre for Combating Violence against Women (Asuda Centre), which in Au2002 opened a shelter for women survivors of violence at a secret location.(Asuda Centre’s work to protect women who have experienced violence or that risk includes negotiating with their families. Most organizations operatingnorthern Iraq and offering support for women who have escaped violence inhome consider a controlled return to the family to be the most likely means oarriving at a long term solution. To ensure a woman’s safe return, the male hof the family is often required to sign an official undertaking to guarantee thewoman’s protection. However, an activist of the Sulaimaniya-based womencentre, Khanzad, told Amnesty International that there had been cases in whifamilies had killed a woman after her arranged return.(71)
Kurdish women’s rights activists have reported that several women who havremained in a shelter for more than a year, because no settlement with theirfamilies could be reached, might only be able to find safety in the long termoutside northern Iraq or even outside Iraq altogether.(72)
Violence associated with "honour crimes" has never been confined to northeIraq. The Iraqi author, Fuad Tekerly, who worked as a judge in Baghdad, toostand against such crimes when he published a short story in 1972claiming that he killed his sister-in-law in order to protect his family honour.story reveals that the woman was murdered because she had discovered her
brother-in-law’s adulterous relationship with a relative.(73)
More recently, lawyers have spoken of their involvement in cases of "honourkillings" in the 1980s and 1990s in central and southern Iraq. A lawyer fromBaghdad reported a case in which she was involved in the mid-1990was representingAzima(not her real name), a teenage girl from the Abu Ghneighbourhood in Baghdad, who had been arrested after running away fromfamily with her lover. After several months of negotiations, she was returnedher family, who promised to ensure her safety. However, a month later she wshot dead by her teenage brother. The brother was sentenced to six monthsimprisonment for the killing.(75)
Another lawyer reported details of more than a dozen cases of "honour killinthat have been tried at Basra Criminal Court over the past three decades. SheAmnesty International about the killing of a young single mother in Basra:
"Inthe beginning of the 1980s I witnessed a case of ‘honour killingon my way to the Basra Criminal Court. About 10 metres away from msaw a young man talking to a woman holding a baby child. Suddenly hpulled out a pistol and fired at her. The woman fell to the ground. Thelifted her up and pulled the child from beneath her. Then he covered hbody, took the child and walked into the court building".
The murdered woman had become pregnant as a result of a secret relationshiShe had turned to the police for protection and had been kept at a police statiuntil her child was about a year old, when she was told to leave. She wasapparently on her way to court to seek further protection when her brother kiher. At his trial, he was given a suspended two-year prison sentence.(
The same Basra-based lawyer also reported cases in which the perpetrators o"honour killings" received significantly higher sentences. She recalled a casethe early 1980s in Basra. A young woman was returned to her family shortlyher wedding by her husband, who claimed that she was not a virgin when themarried. She was stabbed to death by a member of her family. However, theautopsy report revealed that her hymen was intact, and the perpetrator wassentenced to at least 10 years’ imprisonment.
The lawyer had experience of negotiations with the families of women seekiprotection from threats of "honour crimes", and of the killing of a young womby a relative one year after a settlement ensuring her safety had been agreedthe family.
"Honour killings" have continued during and after the Iraq-Iran war, the Gulin 1990-91 and the 2003 US-led war on Iraq.
There is insufficient information available to establish whether the incidence"honour killings" has increased over the past decades of armed conflict in IraHowever, during the months of lawlessness following the 2003 USthe perpetrators of "honour killings" – like other criminals – were unlikely totried. The lack of a functioning judicial system during the months after thewar contributed to an increase in the part played by tribal bodies in resolvingconflicts, including in relation to "honour crimes". In one case at the beginni
2004 in al-‘Amara, there was a settlement between two tribes over an "honoukilling". A husband of two wives had killed his second and younger wife whhe discovered she had been involved in a love affair while he was absent forseveral months. The tribal settlement did not provide any punishment for thekilling of the woman, but required her family to compensate the husband.(
Female genital mutilationThere is no official data and only limited information available from othersources on female genital mutilation (FGM) in Iraq.(78) However, NGOs bain northern Iraq have reported its continued use in some areas. In aon women’s health in southern Iraq, FGM was not identified as a commonpractice.(79)
The practice of FGM involves removing all or part of a girl’s external genitaorgans. It can have dire and lasting consequences for the physical and mentahealth of girls and women. If carried out without anaesthetic, FGM is traumaand terrifying. It can result in excessive bleeding, infection, transmission ofdiseases – including HIV – from use of non-sterile instruments and trauma, aoften leads to excessive pain and difficulties in intercourse and childbirth.
In some rural areas in northern Iraq, FGM appears to be widespread. A midwworking in the district of Rania, the Sulaimaniya governorate, reported that tvast majority of women she had examined had undergone FGM, and only inrecent years had she seen women who had not.(80)
Areas where FGM seems to be common are within the region where the SoraKurdish dialect is spoken, including around Halabja, Germian and Kirkuk.Between September and November 2004 the NGO, WADI, conducted researon FGM in 40 villages in the Germian area. (81) Members of WADI intervie1,544 women and girls, of whom 907 said they had been subjected to FGM.
There are indications that the practice has been decreasing. A Norwegianjournalist and a Kurdish writer from northern Iraq interviewed numerous peoabout FGM – including, doctors, women’s rights activists and Muslim clericin the course of research in late 2003.(83) Two chief physicians at theSulaimaniya University Hospital and at the Soresh Maternity Hospital reportthat in recent years the number of girls brought into hospital with haemorrhacaused by FGM has decreased. The doctors saw this development as anindication that the practice of FGM had declined. Although FGM is usuallycarried out on girls, the doctor at the Soresh Maternity Hospital reported thatthe course of her 25-year career as a gynaecologist, she recalled aboutwhich she or a colleague had carried out FGM on a married adult woman at trequest of the husband.
There have been a number of campaigning activities in northern Iraq againstFGM, involving NGOs, local authorities and clerics, which appear to havecontributed to a fall in the incidence of the practice. Kurdish womenactivists have gained the support of Muslim clerics in their awarenessactivities against FGM. On 8 May 2000, Muslim clerics in Sulaimaniya issuefatwa stating that the practice of FGM was harmful to women. Following thefatwa, FGM was featured several times on the "Religion and Life" televisionprogramme at Gali Kurdistan TV, and on Khak TV and KurdSat.
FGM is a grave violation of a woman’s physical and mental integrity. Someaspects of it are analogous to torture in that it is intentional and calculated, ancauses severe pain and suffering. FGM is opposed by women’s groups arounthe world as a violation of women’s human rights. TheUN Fourth WorldConference on Womenin 1995 condemned FGM as a form of violence agawomen that must be prevented and punished.
Amnesty International calls on states to prohibit FGM and to exercise duediligence in protecting girls and women from this abuse. In its General CommNo. 14 (Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health), the UN Commion Economic Social and Cultural Rights affirmed the responsibility of statesprotect women and girls from FGM: "States are…obliged…to prevent thirdparties from coercing women to undergo traditional practices, e.g. female gemutilation."(84)
Violence in marriageFindings of a study in southern Iraq, conducted in July 2003 by the NGO,Physicians for Human Rights, concluded that about half of both the women amen surveyed agreed that a man has the right to beat his wife if she disobeyshim.(85)
This high level of acceptance of violence within marriage is supported by Iralegislation. According to the Penal Code of 1969, which is still in force, ahusband who "disciplines" his wife is exempt from criminal liability for doin(Article 41(1)).(86)
Iraqi women’s rights activists have suggested that armed conflict, politicalpressure, and economic hardships under the Saddam Hussain’s government mhave contributed to an increase of violence in the family in Iraq.(other countries confirms this view. In the Occupied Territories of Gaza and tWest Bank, for example, Palestinian women have suffered increased levels oviolence in the family since theIntifada(uprising) began in 2000conflict Kosovo, a report by the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEconcluded that violence in the family "appears to have increased since theconflict. Possible explanations…[include] increased acceptability of violenceway to solve problems, the breakdown of tight family and social structures, [a general rise in instability and uncertainty". (89)
Despite indications of increasing levels of violence in the family in Iraq,however, there are no proper monitoring mechanisms. The Ministry of Healthas recently started to document cases, and encourages other authorities toprovide it with information and reports on violence in the family. Most victimviolence in the family have no access to medical treatment.(90)
During the lawlessness after the overthrow of Saddam Hussain’s governmenmany cases of violence, including spousal violence, were not prosecuted.Nineteen-year-old"Fatima"was shot in the legs by her husband in front offamily and their neighbours on 21 May 2003. Married at the age oftreated as a servant and regularly beaten in her husband’s family home. She tAmnesty International that she tried to run away to her own family, but herhusband came and said she should go back. When she refused he became verangry and took a piece of wood to beat her. It broke, so he grew even angrier
took his gun and shot her. Despite the number of eyewitnesses and theseriousness of the crime, neither the family nor the hospital reported the casethe police and the husband was not arrested. The family said it was a mattersolved within the tribe. Fatima returned to her father's house after she lefthospital. Her husband expressed regret and offered her compensation, seekinreconciliation with her through the mediation of elders of her tribe. Howeverrefused to return to him, despite the pressures.
Violence in the family, including forced marriage and sexual abuse, has beencontributory factor in suicides and attempted suicides. Kurdish womenorganizations have investigated and documented suicides among Kurdish woin Iraq. Kurdish Women Against Honour Killings (KWAHK) has documentedozens of cases of women who reportedly committed suicide in theconnection with violence in the family.(91)
Based on research conducted by the Asuda Centre in October 2002newspaper Hawlati reported an alarming number of women who died or werinjured by setting fire to themselves.(92) According to the Asuda Centrefindings, of 105 women from and around Sulaimaniya who were admitted toSulaimaniya Training Hospital in 2001 after apparently burning themselvesintentionally, 63 died and 42 survived. The reasons given by those who surviincluded being forced into a marriage and family disputes. The WomenInformation and Cultural Centre (WICC) recorded similar figures for theSulaimaniya area in 2002, and noted that poverty appeared to be a contributofactor.
Forced marriagesThe equal right of both men and women to enter into marriage only with theifree and full consent is enshrined in theUniversal Declaration of HumanRightsand theInternational Covenant on Civil and Political RightsUNConvention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination AgainWomen (UN Women’s Convention)provides explicitly that states shouldensure that women have the same right as men "freely to choose a spouse anenter into marriage only with their free and full consent" (Article
Many women and young girls in Iraq are denied the right to choose theirmarriage partner freely, and those who oppose forced marriage are at risk ofviolence or even of being killed. The Asuda Centre reported that inyear-old girl from the Rania region of northern Iraq was seeking their protecbecause she had repeatedly refused to be forcibly married.(95)
A forced marriage is a marriage conducted without the valid consent of bothparties, where duress is a factor. It is a violation of internationally recognizedhuman rights standards and cannot be justified on religious or cultural grounWhile both men and women experience forced marriages, it is primarily seenan issue of violence against women.(96) Forced marriage "may involve coermental abuse, emotional blackmail, and intense family or social pressure. Inmost extreme cases, it may also involve physical violence, abuse, abduction,detention, and murder of the individual concerned".(97)
Women and girls who have been forcibly married may be forced to submit toviolence from their partner. If they seek refuge with their families, may be m
to return.
In northern Iraq, the practice of "Jinbe Jin"contributes to the high incidenceforced marriage.(98) It involves the exchange of girls – the girl from one fammarrying the son of another (or from the same extended) family, while his siis given in marriage in return – to avoid having to pay "bride prices" for thedaughters. Similar marriage arrangements take place in other regions of Iraq.
The reasons for forced marriages vary, and include giving women or girls inmarriage to another family in compensation for a killing. The forced marriaggirls reinforces women’s unequal status in society, reduces their life choicesleaves them vulnerable to violence.
Under Iraq’s Personal Status Law, forced marriage is prohibited and punishaby up to three years’ imprisonment (Article 9). The legal age for marriage is(Article 7). Anyone who wishes to marry under the age of 18 must meet certconditions prescribed by law: being at least 15 years old, having the approvaparent or guardian, and having judicial permission (Article 8).(99
However, in practice forced marriages, including of underage girls, continuetake place. Girls under the age of 15 are particularly vulnerable to forcedmarriage, which are arranged by the family in the vast majority of cases. Earpregnancy, frequently a result of child marriage, is associated with adverse heffects for both mother and child.
The UNCommittee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Womenconsiders that the minimum age for marriage should be 18 years for both meand women. When men and women marry, they assume importantresponsibilities. Consequently, marriage should not be permitted before theyhave attained full maturity and capacity to act. The Committee recommendsstates parties should require the registration of all marriages whether contraccivilly or according to custom or religious law, in order to ensure compliancewith the UN Women’s Convention.(100)
Since the civil marriage of a girl under 15 is illegal, underage girls are oftenmarried in religious ceremonies that are not legally recognized. A womenactivist from Karbala told Amnesty International in August 2004 about a reccase in which a 13-year-old girl in her neighbourhood was forced into a marrThe wedding was conducted in a religious ceremony by a Shi’a Muslim cleri101)
5. Discrimination in national lawDiscrimination against women is banned in Iraq’s Constitution, but laws stillcontain provisions that deny women rights and control of their lives, or fail tprotect them from violence.
The 1970 Constitution of Iraq says that "citizens are equal before the law witdiscrimination on the grounds of sex, race, language, social origin orreligion" (Article 19). The Transitional Administrative Law (TAL) of March2004 – effectively an interim constitution – states: "All Iraqis are equal in therights without regard to gender, sect, opinion, belief, nationality, religion ororigin, and they are all equal before the law. Discrimination against an Iraqi
citizen on the basis of his gender, nationality, religion, or origin isprohibited" (Article 12). However, the TAL contains no reference to theextensive legal reforms needed to remove discriminatory provisions from pepersonal status and nationality laws.
Despite Iraq’s obligations under international human rights treaties and its owConstitution, women in Iraq continue to face various forms of discriminationlegislation and legal practice. Most discrimination relates to family mattersincluding marriage, inheritance, and passing on citizenship to childrenthe punishment of men who have committed violent crimes, including murdeagainst women.
In 2003 and 2004 the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the governingappointed by the US-led coalition, introduced amendments to the Iraqi PenalCode, Law 111 of 1969. In response to the increased abduction and rape ofwomen in the months after the US-led invasion, the amendments increased thpenalties for kidnapping, rape and sexual assault, and suspended provisionsallowing perpetrators to escape punishment if they married the womanconcerned.(102) They were not, however, part of any comprehensive approatowards abolishing discrimination or strengthening the protection of womenviolence in law.
The prohibition of discrimination against women is a cornerstone of humanrights law and states cannot derogate from it: it applies even in times ofemergency and war. The Charter of the United Nations, which is binding onUN member states, explicitly refers to "human rights and fundamental freedofor all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion".(103women’s rights to equality and freedom from discrimination is provided fortheUniversal Declaration on Human Rights(Article 2) as well as in bindiinternational human rights treaties to which Iraq is a state party: theInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ArticlesInternational Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights2), 3) and the UNConvention on the Rights of the Child(Article
At a training meeting on gender issues for Iraqi civil servants, organized byUNIFEM in October 2004 in Amman, Jordan, participants raised a number oconcerns about legislation that permits polygamy, abuse within marriage, andlenient sentences for perpetrators of "honour killings".(104)
The Personal Status LawDiscrimination against women in the Personal Status Law, Law 188amended, relates to marriage, divorce and inheritance.(105) Men are allowedpractise polygamy under certain conditions (Article 3(4)). They must havejudicial authorization and the judge should take into consideration whether othe applicant has the financial means to support more than one wife.
The UNCommittee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Womenstated in its General Recommendation No. 21 on equality in marriage and famrelations:"Polygamous marriage contravenes a woman’s right to equality with men, ancan have such serious emotional and financial consequences for her and herdependants that such marriage ought to be discouraged.
"There are many countries where the law and practice concerning inheritanceproperty result in serious discrimination against women. As a result of thisuneven treatment, women may receive a smaller share of the husband's or faproperty at his death than would widowers and sons. In some instances, womare granted limited and controlled rights and receive income only from thedeceased's property. Often inheritance rights for widows do not reflect theprinciples of equal ownership of property acquired during marriage. Suchprovisions contravene the Convention and should be abolished."(
Provisions on inheritance in the Personal Status Law also discriminate againwomen, who are generally only awarded half of the entitlement of their malecounterparts (Articles 86-94). The law provides that both husband and wife cseek to end the marriage under certain conditions to be assessed by a family(Articles 40-45). However, it also allows another form of divorce petition (that may only be filed by the husband and does not require him to give anyreason (Article 34-39).
Apart from these discriminatory provisions, the Personal Status Law is stillgenerally seen as having been an achievement for women’s rights in a regionwhich women often do not have equal legal status to men. In DecemberIGC attempted to amend the Personal Status Law to place certain family matunder the control of religious authorities. However, after protests and lobbyinby women’s organizations, the IGC reconsidered and later withdrew theresolution containing the proposal (Resolution 137).
Impunity for violence in marriageThe Penal Code effectively encourages the persistence of violence in the famby allowing husbands to use violence against their wives with impunity. The"exercise of a legal right" to exemption from criminal liability is permitted incases of: "Disciplining a wife by her husband, the disciplining by parents andteachers of children under their authority within certain limits prescribed byIslamic law (Shari’a), by law or by custom" (Article 41 (1)).
This broadly phrased provision prevents women from obtaining justice forviolence against them by marriage partners. Complaints of violence in marriaare generally brought before a court only when women submit evidence of aby a husband in support of a divorce application.
The application of Article 41 in relation to the "disciplining" of wives wasreportedly suspended in 2001 in the areas controlled by the Kurdish DemocrParty (KDP).
Leniency for ‘honour killings’The Penal Code contains provisions that allow lenient punishment for "honokillings" on the grounds of provocation or if the accused had "honourablemotives" (Article 128). For decades the Iraqi judiciary has relied on Articleto allow such attempts to justify the killings as mitigating circumstances whedetermining sentences for the perpetrators of "honour killings".Penal Code"Excuses either exempt an individual from being punished or have their
punishment reduced. There are no excuses except for those cases specified blaw; other than in these cases, an extenuating excuse is the perpetration of acrime for honourable motives or because of a serious, unjustified provocationthe victim of the crime." (Article 128)According to Article 130, where there are mitigating circumstances, a deathpenalty may be reduced to one year’s imprisonment and a life sentence maycommuted to six months’ imprisonment.
"Whoever surprises his wife or one of his unmarriageable relations under Isllaw(mahrams)in the act of adultery/fornication or finds her in one bed withcompanion and kills them both immediately or kills one of them or attacks thboth or one of them leading to their death or to permanent disablement shallpunished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding three years." (Article
A brother who had killed his sister for becoming pregnant when she was notmarried, even though she later married her lover, received a sevensentence for premeditated murder, a capital offence. This reduced sentence wconfirmed by the Court of Cassation on 13 October 1979, which found that tperpetrator could claim mitigating circumstances under Article 128
In another case, a man who killed his sister for running away from home wasgiven a one-year prison sentence by the Babel Criminal Court on the basis ofArticles 128 and 130. However, on 27 January 1980 the Court of Cassation rthat the crime warranted a stronger punishment and ordered the sentence to breviewed by the Criminal Court.
Articles 128 and 130 were also the legal basis for Dohuk Criminal Court to ia lenient sentence in its verdict of 9 October 1999 in the case of the killing oPela.(107)
Under Presidential Decree 111 of February 1990, men who killed, intentionaor with premeditation, their "mother, daughter, sister, cousin or niece in ordecleanse the shame" were exempted from criminal liability. The Decree wasreportedly not implemented. However,. Presidential Decree 6, issued in Janu2001, allowed anyone who killed a female relative to claim "honourable motin mitigation. It was not known how this Decree was applied in practice.
Penal Code provisions that effectively pressured women to marry men who habducted, raped or sexually assaulted them were suspended by the CPA inThe provisions included Article 427, which allowed a kidnapper to escapeprosecution by marrying the abducted woman.(108) Also suspended was Art398, which stipulated that, in cases of rape or sexual assault, the perpetratormarriage of the victim might be considered a mitigating factor.
Women win legal reforms in the northCampaigning and lobbying by Kurdish women’s organizations against "honokillings" have led to legislative reforms in northern Iraq. On 12 AprilSulaimaniya-based Kurdish authority controlled by the Patriotic Union ofKurdistan (PUK) decreed that:
"The killing or abuse of women with the pretext of cleansing the sham
not considered to be a mitigating excuse. The court may not apply artic130 and 132 of the Iraqi Penal Code number 111 of the year 1969 asamended to reduce the penalty of the perpetrator." (Decree No. 59)(10
The Arbil-based Kurdish authority controlled by the Kurdish Democratic Par(KDP) amended legislation on "honour crimes" in Law No. 14 of
"The perpetration of a crime with respect to women under the pretext ohonourable motives shall not be considered an extenuating legal excusthe purposes of applying the rules of articles 128, 130 and 131 of the PCode, number 111, 1969, amended." (110)
6. Women claim their rightsViolence against women is a manifestation of inequality and discrimination.helps to maintain women in subordinate roles, and contributes to their low leof political participation and to their lower level of education, skills and workopportunities.(111) To eradicate violence against women, it is thereforenecessary to address the context of inequality and discrimination against womnot only in the family but more broadly in public life, political decisionwork, health and education. Human rights, with equality and freedom fromdiscrimination as guiding principles, should be integrated into the fundamentchanges in these areas that have taken place since the war on Iraq in
UN Security Council resolution 1325, passed in 2000, which deals with the rof women in conflict and post-conflict situations, specifically calls for theintegration of gender perspectives into post-conflict processes.(112the importance of women’s participation in peace building and conflict resoland, in that context, calls for measures that ensure the protection of and respefor human rights of women and girls, particularly as they relate to theconstitution, the electoral system, police and judiciary. Similarly, the UNSecretary General, in his 2002 report on women, peace and security, calls forincorporation of gender perspectives in rehabilitation and reconstructionprograms.(113)
In Iraq from 2003 to date, the record has been mixed. While some importantsteps have been taken at the legislative level to increase women’s participatiopolitical decision-making, an improvement in the security situation is an urgand essential prerequisite for the improvement of the overall human rightssituation and for strengthening women’s participation at all levels of Iraqisociety.
Women for Women International commissioned a survey on womenincluding on political, legal, social and economic matters, and on their livingconditions. The survey was conducted in the governorates of Baghdad, BasraMosul in August 2004. Of the women surveyed:¶ 93.7 per cent wanted to secure legal rights for women;¶ 83.6 per cent wanted the right to vote in the referendum on the finalconstitution;¶ 95.1 per cent felt there should be no restrictions on education.On their living conditions, 57.1 per cent said that their families lacked adequmedical care, and 84 per cent of the women had no income from formal orinformal work.(114)
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and theInternational Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR),both of which Iraq is a state party, require states to undertake to ensure the eqright of men and women to the enjoyment of all the rights contained in themHowever, there are several respects in which women’s equal rights to politicparticipation, education, work, and health are threatened or curtailed in thecurrent situation in Iraq.
Participation in political decision-makingDuring the occupation that followed the 2003 US-led war on Iraq, the countrwas governed by the CPA, headed by a US Administrator for Iraq (Paul Bremand a 25-member IGC appointed by the CPA in July 2003 from among thevarious religious and ethnic groups in Iraq. In March 2004 the IGC signed aninterim constitution, the TAL. This came into effect in June 2004and IGC transferred power to an Interim Government of Iraq (IGI) whosemembers had been appointed by the IGC. The TAL provided for the appointof a Provisional National Assembly pending the election of a National Assemno later than 31 January 2005. The legislative tasks of the elected NationalAssembly include drafting a permanent Constitution for approval in a referenin October 2005.TheInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR) and thUNWomen’s Conventionprovide that women and men shall have an equalright to take part in the conduct of public affairs, including the right to vote abe elected at elections, to hold public office and perform public functions atlevels of government.(115) The Women’s Convention provides for states, wnecessary, to adopt temporary special measures aimed at accelerating theimplementation ofde factoequality between men and women, to be discontiwhen the objectives of equality of opportunity and treatment have been achie(Article 4.1). Similarly the UNHuman Rights Committee,which monitorsstates’ compliance with the ICCPR, has urged states to take effective and pomeasures to promote and ensure women’s participation in the conduct of pubaffairs and in public office, including appropriate affirmative action.(
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women hadrawn attention to specific measures that can be taken by states to ensure equparticipation of women in political decision-making, including the adoptionrule that neither men nor women should constitute less than 40 per cent of thmembers of a public body.(117)
Before and after the TAL was adopted, several Iraqi women’s organizationslobbied for the introduction of a quota ensuring that women had 40representation on political decision-making bodies. However, to date, the quof women on such bodies has been set at 25 per cent.
In relation to the National Assembly, the TAL states: "The electoral law shalaim to achieve the goal of having women constitute no less than onethe members of the National Assembly and of having fair representation of acommunities in Iraq" (Article 30). The Electoral Law issued by the CPA in J2004 stipulates that "all seats in the National Assembly will be allocated amoPolitical Entities through a system of proportional representation."(
Political parties must present lists of candidates in ranked order. To ensure threpresentation of women, the Electoral Law states: "No fewer than one out ofirst three candidates on the list must be women; no fewer than two out of thefirst six candidates must be women; and so forth until the end of the list".(These provisions require that about one third of the candidates nominated bypolitical parties are women, although parties may choose to nominate a higheproportion of women candidates.
A 25 per cent representation of women was also reflected in the process ofidentifying the 100 members of the Provisional National Assembly. Threewomen and 16 men had been appointed to this body as members of the IGC,a National Conference of more than 1,000 delegates held in mid-AugustBaghdad to nominate the remaining 81 members. The President of theConference rejected the initial list proposed because it did not contain a suffinumber of women candidates.(120)However, the representation of women in the IGI was lower, at aboutIt was composed of a president, two vice-presidents – all men – andministerial posts, of which six were held by women.
Several Iraqi women’s rights organizations were active in mobilizing womenthe months leading up to the elections in January 2005. However, in thecontroversy over participation in the elections, while many women and womrights activists believed it to be in the interest of Iraqi women to play a role ipolitical decision-making, others chose not to become involved in the currenpolitical process.
The right to work"Many professional women have stopped working. They are being forced toat home", said Manal Omar, the Iraq director of Women for WomenInternational, describing the impact of the continuing violence on womenaccess to employment in November 2004.(121) The failure to restore peace asecurity has increased the risks for women of employment outside the homehampered the creation of new employment opportunities for women.
Women have for many years had a strong presence in certain sectors of the Ilabour force, and particularly in the public sector. According to ministerialfigures released at the beginning of 2004, out of 909,344 civil servants emploat Iraqi ministries (not including the Interior Ministry), 423,801 (aboutcent) were women.(122) The representation of women in middle-positions was particularly high in the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.However, women were underrepresented in leading positions in most ministr
There have never been many women working as judges in Iraq, despite genehigh levels of education among women and many qualified women lawyers.the end of 2004 there were about 700 judges, and fewer than three per cent othem were women. The appointment of women judges continued to faceresentments.(123) In July 2003 the swearing in ofNidal Nasser Hussainjudge in Najaf was indefinitely postponed after religious leaders protested atposition being occupied by a woman.(124)However, since the overthrow of Saddam Hussain’s government, new job
opportunities for women have opened up in the security sector, including in tpolice force and army, which had been the domain of men.(125) The recruitmof women police officers should be an important step towards improvingsafeguards for women, in particular those held in police detention
The high level of unemployment has created severe hardship for many IraqisOctober 2004 the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs estimated "the population to be out of work", and said that it provided social benefits fomore than 100,000 poor families, including widows and divorcees with child126)
However, many female-headed households have continued to live in povertyAccording to findings of the UN and the World Bank published in Octoberalmost 1 million women were heads of their households. Aroundthem were expected to earn not more than US$2.5 per month.(127
The right to educationIraq’s education system before 1990 was considered one of the best in the reeducation was free, and enrolment and literacy rates were high. However, the1990-91 Gulf war and the subsequent economic sanctions led to the rapiddeterioration of the education sector. Iraq’s literacy rate in 2003 was amonglowest in the region, according to a survey of education in the Arab states byUN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).(sample survey conducted in 2000 showed that only 76.3 per cent of childrensix to 11 were reported to be attending primary school; 31.2 per cent of girlsthis age group were not in school, compared with 17.5 per cent of boys. Thegender gap was more pronounced in rural than in urban areas.(129
According to the 2003 Physicians for Human Rights study in three southerngovernorates of Iraq, 90 per cent of the people interviewed were in favour ofequal opportunities for women in education. However, more than half of themindicated that there were reasons to restrict education opportunities at the curtime.(130) This view seemed to reflect in particular concerns about the lack osecurity. Many children have reportedly been withdrawn from school out ofconcern for their safety.
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to whiIraq is a state party, requires states to ensure that girls and women have the srights to education as boys and men. In particular, states should provideuniversal, free and compulsory primary education.(131)
Worrying reports have suggested increasing drop-out rates among schoolchildren, with significantly higher rates among girls. In 2000, UNICEF reporthat about 23 per cent of children of primary school age were not in school, athat only 49 per cent of girls in rural areas attended primary schools.(
In September 2004, UNICEF noted that, out of 4.3 million primary schoolchildren in Iraq, only 1.9 million were girls, and gave the following explanat"The lower figure for girls in school is no doubt a reflection of the ongoinginsecurity, inadequate access to school, over-crowding, and poor water suppland sanitation facilities". (133)
Among girls who do go to school, they have been subjected to increased presto wear a headscarf or veil since the overthrow of Saddam Hussaingovernment. Women and girls at universities and schools have been harassedthreatened. In Basra for example, female students reported intimidation bymembers of Islamist groups at the University of Basra for not wearing the ve134) Women teachers and girl pupils at Basra schools have also been harassethey did not cover their heads.(135) Similar intimidation has been reported frcampuses in other parts of the country. At Mosul University, leaflets werecirculated in October 2004 warning women of "a terrible fate" if they did notwear the veil.(136)
In response, many women students, including non-Muslims, have felt obligewear a headscarf or veil, and some girls and women have reportedly abandontheir studies. At Mustansariya University in Baghdad, pamphlets demandingwomen abandon Western clothing and cover their heads, and calling for theseparation of male and female students, were said to have been circulated.Kiryakus,a Christian student waiting in front of the university to be collecteher father, was reported as saying: "I have no choice but to wear the veil; theterrorists keep watching and targeting the unveiled girl students". By Octobe2004 the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research was reportedknow of about 3,000 women students in Baghdad requesting a postponementheir studies because of the security situation.(137)
The right to healthHealth care and food supply systems already damaged by wars and sanctionswere almost paralysed after the 2003 war on Iraq. There was damage to abouper cent of the hospitals and seven per cent were looted; 30 per cent of theinstitutions that provided family planning services were destroyed. Poorsanitation and shortages of safe water increased the risk of infections.(
Many primary care centres were not equipped to provide antenatal services,according to government sources in 2004. In addition, half of the districtmedical institutions, where high risk pregnancies were referred, were lackingbasic resources and qualified staff. (139)
The 2003 Physicians for Human Rights survey in southern Iraq found that mwomen questioned had restricted access to health care: 82 per cent said theyhad to obtain the permission of their husband or a male relative. The study alfound that only 54 per cent of women received prenatal care for all theirpregnancies.(140) In addition, the lack of security prevented many women frleaving their homes to seek medical treatment.
Iraq lacks appropriate health services for the survivors of abduction, rape,"honour crimes" and other forms of violence against women. The sensitivitysocial stigma attached to these crimes increase the difficulties for women inreporting them or seeking help from the health authorities.
7. RecommendationsAmnesty International’s Stop Violence Against Women campaign calls on wleaders, states, organizations, including the UN, the European Union, the AraLeague and other international and regional organizations and individuals to:* Publicly pledge to make the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
promised equal rights and equal protection for all – a reality for all women;* Develop action plans to end violence against women, and set up mechanismmonitor their implementation;* Fully and speedily implement all international and regional treaties,declarations, resolutions and recommendations aimed at condemning, prohiband preventing all acts of violence against women, investigating all cases ofviolence and bringing perpetrators to justice in accordance with internationalstandards of fair trial, as well as providing reparations for victims;* Support and encourage initiatives to provide training and exchange ofinformation for judicial personnel and lawyers who act on behalf of women whave experienced violence;* Support and encourage initiatives for the prevention of violence and theprotection of women at both the governmental and the NGO level.
To the Iraqi authoritiesAmnesty International urges the Iraqi authorities to publicly and at everyopportunity declare their commitment to eradicating violence against womenIraq and to exercise due diligence in preventing, investigating and punishingof all forms of violence against women, and, in particular, to:¶ Review all legislation discriminating against women, including penal, persostatus and nationality law, and abolish or amend any provision whichdiscriminates against women;¶ Ensure that "honour crimes" and violence in the family are treated as serioucriminal offences. This requires immediate action to be taken in order to aboor amend the following articles of the Penal Code: Article 41 (permitting ahusband to punish his wife), Article 128 (providing lenient punishment if a cis committed with "honourable motivation"), Article 398 (providing lenientpunishment for a rapist if he marries the victim) and Article 409 (limiting thepunishment for a husband who has killed his wife or her suspected lover). Itrequires the abolition of provisions in any other legislation, including presidedecrees issued under previous governments, prohibiting lenient punishment oimpunity for perpetrators of "honour killings";¶ Involve women’s rights organizations in the reform of the judicial system, iparticular to strengthen women's rights and equality in law;¶ Bring to justice those responsible for torture and other serious human rightsviolations, including violence against women under the government of SaddaHussain. in proceedings which meet international standards of fair trial and wno possibility of the death penalty being imposed;¶ Take all steps necessary to ensure that complaints by women of violence inform, whether by private individuals or by officials acting in a private or pubcapacity, or by officials serving in the multinational forces, be promptly,impartially and effectively investigated by a body independent of the allegedperpetrators. When there is sufficient admissible evidence, suspects should bprosecuted. Complainants, witnesses and others at risk during such investigaand prosecutions should always be protected from intimidation and reprisals;¶ Provide training in gender issues to police officers, prosecutors, judges andother officials in the criminal justice system to ensure that women are encourto report violence in the family, and receive appropriate care, medical attentiand support;¶ Investigate promptly, impartially and thoroughly all murders, attemptedmurders and apparent suicides of women, with a view to bringing to justice athose responsible for acts of violence against women, including members of
family councils that ordered the crimes where relevant;¶ Ensure that all who, after a fair trial, are found to have committed violenceagainst women are given sentences commensurate with the gravity of the cri¶ Ensure that all women who have been subjected to violence are provided waccess to redress and reparation, including compensation;¶ Ensure that all primary health care practitioners and lawyers are given trainin responding to family violence, in all its forms, and that appropriate emergmechanisms exist;¶ Encourage and support the establishment of shelters and other facilities forwomen survivors of violence, in consultation with women’s rights organisati¶ Fund and support measures that will enable all women to live free fromviolence, such as programmes of civic education, training and systems to supand protect victims of violence and women’s human rights defenders;¶ Eradicate the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) in all parts of thecountry, including by legal measures, health education and awareness¶ Collect comprehensive data across all regions of Iraq that systematicallymeasure the nature and extent of violence against women;¶ Improve safeguards for women detainees and prisoners, including by ensurthat supervision is carried out by appropriately trained female staff in alldetention facilities. All detainees must be treated humanely and in accordancwith the obligations set out in international human rights and humanitarian la¶ Ensure that no women are refused work on the basis of their gender; andsupport the equal representation of women in public and political life, includin all branches of the judiciary;¶ Take measures to promote the equality of women and counter womenimpoverishment by ensuring equal access to economic and social rights,including education, employment and health services, as well as their freedomovement and political participation¶ Withdraw all Iraq’s reservations to the UN Convention on the Elimination oAll Forms of Discrimination against Women (Women’s Convention);¶ Ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Women’s Convention, enablingindividuals and groups to complain directly to the UN Committee on theElimination of Discrimination against Women;¶ Ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and adoptimplementing national legislation to end impunity for violence against womeall circumstances.
To governments with troops in IraqAmnesty International calls on the governments of all states that have troopsserving in Iraq under the US-led multinational forces to:¶ Fully respect and implement in all their military operations the provisions ointernational humanitarian law;¶ Investigate promptly all allegations of violations of international human riglaw or international humanitarian law, in particular violence against women,including sexual attacks and other torture or ill-treatment, by their forces or oagents. Such investigations should not just cover the direct perpetrators, but minclude the higher chain of command responsibility;¶ Ensure that those responsible for such abuses are brought to justice in civililed mechanisms able to apply international human rights law and standardsrelevant to the investigations of allegations of serious human rights violationthe military;¶ Suspend from duties any officials involved pending the outcome of the
investigation and any subsequent legal or disciplinary proceedings;¶ Ensure, through appropriate policies, training and oversight, that violenceagainst women will not be tolerated;¶ Improve safeguards for women detainees and prisoners, including by ensurthat supervision is carried out by appropriately trained female staff in alldetention facilities. All detainees must be treated humanely and in accordancwith the obligations set out in international human rights and humanitarian la¶ Train the troops on gender issues in order to ensure that women are treatedappropriately and not subjected to violence, threats of violence or insults;¶ Ensure that survivors of violence against women receive full reparations,including compensation, as required under international law.
To armed groupsAmnesty International calls on armed groups to:¶ Stop immediately the hostage-taking, torture and ill-treatment, and targetingkilling of civilians, including hostages;¶ Halt immediately all indiscriminate attacks;¶ End immediately the harassment, death threats and violent attacks on womewho exercise their rights to freedom of expression and to freedom of religionincluding by deciding not to wear a headscarf or veil;¶ Respect minimum standards of international humanitarian law, justice andhumanity in all their actions.Appendix: International standards on violence against women(141)Recent decades have seen significant advances in the commitment of theinternational community to scrutinize and combat violations of womengeneral, and the right to freedom from violence in particular.
TheUN Charter,the founding document of the UN, affirms the realizationfundamental human rights as core UN principles and objectives, and the equrights of men and women. Articles 55(c) and 56 commit UN member states twork towards the achievement of purposes including the promotion of "univrespect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for awithout distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion"
TheUniversal Declaration of Human Rights,proclaimed in 1948General Assembly of the UN, and the founding document of international hurights law, states that "Everyonehas the right to life, liberty and security ofperson"(Article 3), that "Noone shall be subjected to torture or to cruel,inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment"(Article 5), and that everyoentitled to all the rights and freedoms set out the declaration withoutdiscrimination, including on the ground of sex (Article 2).(142)
This fundamental founding commitment to equality between men and womereflected in various human rights treaties adopted following the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights, and which place legally binding obligations onstates parties. Each of the main human rights treaties establishes a treaty bodcommittee of independent experts who monitor implementation of the treatytreaty bodies examine periodic reports by states parties and elaborateinternational human rights law by issuing general comments andrecommendations on the implementation of the treaty provisions. They also
consider communications from individuals who complain that their state hasrespected or enforced their human rights, if such a procedure exists for thatparticular treaty. While Iraq is a party to the ICCPR and the UN WomenConvention, it is not a party to the Optional Protocols to each of these treatiewhich provide for individual complaints to be made under those treaties.
The content of rights is elaborated in declarations and resolutions of internatibodies. They draw on and clarify the definitions of rights in treaties and thejurisprudence of treaty bodies. Although they are not legally binding inthemselves, they are legally authoritative comments which illustrate and provdetail on the content of rights which are binding through treaty obligations.
The work of the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, anindependent expert appointed in 1994 by the UN Commission on Human Righas deepened the international community’s understanding of the causes andmanifestations of violence against women. In addition, the mandates of otherSpecial Rapporteurs have increasingly included an explicit commitment toaddressing the gender dimensions of the specific aspects of human rights wheach of them deals with.
International criminal law has become particularly pertinent to violence agaiwomen in recent years. The development of definitions of crimes, thejurisprudence of the twoad hocinternational criminal tribunals for Rwandaformer Yugoslavia, and the drafting and adoption of the Rome Statute of theInternational Criminal Court have defined violence against women morethoroughly, and in a more gender-sensitive manner, than ever before. Themethods of investigation and court procedures of these international tribunalalso sensitive to the needs and safety of witnesses and victims, particularly osurvivors of sexual violence.International Human Rights Treaties
The 1966International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)which came into force in 1976, provides that"The States Parties to the preseCovenant undertake to ensure the equal right of men and women to theenjoyment of all civil and political rights set forth in the presentCovenant"(Article3). These rights include the right to life (Articleabsolute prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment (Article 7). The stateobligations in the ICCPR have been explicitly interpreted by the Human RigCommittee as including an obligation to exercise due diligence (see below) tprevent and punish human rights abuses carried out by non-state actors (privindividuals), including those who commit violence against women in the homand the community.(143)
In relation to "honour crimes" against women, the Human Rights Committeeconsiders impunity for "honour crimes" a serious violation of the Covenant.(
Freedom from torture and ill-treatment is guaranteed further in theConvention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and DegradingTreatment or Punishment,which came into force in 1987. Elements of tortas defined for the purpose of the Convention, as , , as any act by which "seve
pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted" for apurpose such as "punishment" or "for any reason based on discrimination ofkind", can be found also in violence in the family. The Convention covers actorture or ill-treatment by state officials, and private acts of torture or illtreatment when carried out with the "consent or acquiescence of a public offi(Article 1(1))". Accordingly, the international human rights framework couldapplied to address discriminatory laws or customs, like exceptions for maritarape or the defence of honour, which exempt perpetrators of domestic violenfrom sanctions and reflect the consent of the state.(145)
The 1979Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminationagainst Women(UN Women’s Convention), which came into force inout in detail the obligations of states parties to secure equality between womand men and to prohibit discrimination against women. It expressly requiresstates parties to "takeall appropriate measures to eliminate discriminationagainst women by any person, organization or enterprise"(Articlethe state is explicitly required under the Convention to protect individuals agabuses by non-state actors (see below). As a part of the obligation to transforsocial relationships between men and women to combat discrimination, Articof the UN Women’s Convention requires states to use means:"to modify thesocial and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view toachieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practicewhich are based on the idea of inferiority or the superiority of either of the sor on stereotyped roles for men and women."If the state fails to offer protectagainst discriminatory practices and abuses, or to bring to justice those whocommit such abuses and to ensure reparation for the survivors, it is in breachits legal obligations.
However, Iraq has made reservations to substantial articles of UN WomenConvention, namely Article 2 (f) and (g), which requires states to take measuto modify or abolish laws, regulations, customs and practices and repeal penaprovisions which constitute discrimination against women, and Articleswhich respectively require states to grant women equal rights in relation tonationality (including passing their nationality to their children) and to elimindiscrimination in matters of marriage and family relations.(146)
In June 2000 the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination againstWomen considered Iraq’s second and third periodic reports. In itsrecommendations the Committee urged the Iraqi authorities to "implementawareness-raising campaigns to change stereotypical and discriminatory attitconcerning roles of women and girls, in addition to providing a nondiscriminatory legal basis". It further called on the authorities to "work towathe elimination of the practice of polygamy." The Committee urged the Iraqiauthorities to withdraw its reservations to UN Women’s Convention(majority of these recommendations still apply, as is reflected in a Junereport by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who noted that theTransitional Administrative Law does not offer adequate protection againstdiscrimination in marriage (no equal rights to marry, within the marriage or tdivorce), inheritance and ability to pass citizenship on to their children."(On forced marriages, the Committee on the Elimination of DiscriminationAgainst Women has found that, in practice, "custom, tradition and failure toenforce…laws in reality contravene the Convention" in many countries.
Women’s right to choose a spouse and enter freely into marriage impactsstrongly upon their lives, dignity and equality as human beings. The Commitdraws attention to human rights violations engendered by forced marriages oremarriages. It notes that some "countries allow a woman's marriage to bearranged for payment or preferment and in others women’s poverty forces thto marry foreign nationals for financial security".(149)The Committee has addressed "honour crimes" as a form of family violencehas included among the measures to overcome such violence "legislation toremove the defence of honour in regard to the assault or murder of a femalefamily member".(150)
The 1989Convention on the Rights of the Child,which came into force in1990, defines all those under the age of 18 as children. It requires states to taall effective and appropriate measures with a view to"protect the child fromforms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligenttreatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse while in theof parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of thechild"(Article 19(1)), and to abolish traditional practices prejudicial to the hof children (Article 24). It further places an obligation on states parties to prochildren from all acts of sexual exploitation and abuse (Article 34torture and other ill-treatment (Article 37(1)). Article 2 requires states to ensthe rights set out in the Convention without discrimination of any kind andirrespective of the child’s sex. The Committee on the Rights of the Child hasdetermined that child and forced marriage is both a harmful traditional practiand a form of gender discrimination contrary to the obligations set out in theConvention.(151) Like the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discriminatagainst Women, the Committee on the Rights of the Child has recommendeduse of marriage registers to combat child marriage.(152)
The Committee has stated that "States parties should take all effective measuto eliminate all acts and activities which threaten the right to life of adolescenincluding honour killings. The Committee strongly urges States parties todevelop and implement awareness-raising campaigns, education programmelegislation aimed at changing prevailing attitudes, and address gender roles astereotypes that contribute to harmful traditional practices."(153)
DeclarationsIn 1993, participants at the UN-sponsored World Conference on Human Rigin Vienna declared violence against women to be a human rights violationrequiring urgent and immediate attention.(154) Later that year, the UNDeclaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women(155)by the UN General Assembly.
TheBeijing Declaration and Platform for Action,(156)agreed at the FourWorld Conference on Women in 1995, and reiterated in its five-year review2000, underlined these concerns, which have been further augmented bydeclarations of other UN world conferences.
International Criminal LawThe 1998Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,which enterinto force on 1 July 2002, defines several forms of violence against women,
including rape and other forms of grave sexual violence as war crimes and cragainst humanity It also includes gender-based persecution as a crime againshumanity. (157)
Due diligence and abuses by private individuals and groupsIn recent years there has been an increasing emphasis on states’ obligation tointervene when private individuals and groups (also referred to as "nonactors) abuse human rights. Such people and organizations acting outside thestate, its organs and its agents are often known as "non-state actors".
Abuses by non-state actors that infringe an individual’s human rights includeactions of a violent husband; or cruel, inhuman and degrading punishmentsinflicted by a group that exerts informal authority within the community sucha parallel legal authority; or killings by a group acting unlawfully, such as acriminal gang or an extremist religious group.
States are obliged under human rights law not only to respect rights by refraifrom violating human rights themselves through their state agents and apparabut also to protect rights from being abused by others and to promote enjoymof human rights in a wider sense. The standard ofdue diligenceis applied inorder to assess whether they have carried out these obligations, in particularobligation to protect against the acts of private individuals and groups.
According to the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Wostates should "exercise due diligence to prevent, investigate and, in accordanwith national legislation, punish acts of violence against women, whether thoacts are perpetrated by the state or by private persons."
The UN Human Rights Committee has stated that states’ obligations to ensuhuman rights require that the state protects individuals not just against violatrights by its agents, but also against acts committed by private persons or ent"There may be circumstances in which a failure to ensure Covenant rightswould give rise to violations by States Parties of those rights, as a result of SParties’ permitting or failing to take appropriate measures or to exercise duediligence to prevent, punish, investigate or redress the harm caused by such aby private persons or entities." (158)This requirement of due diligence has been underlined by independent humarights experts including the Special Rapporteur on violence against women i2003 report to the UN Commission on Human Rights: "States must promoteprotect the human rights of women and exercise due diligence: (a) To preveninvestigate and punish acts of all forms of violence against women whether ihome, the workplace, the community or society, in custody or in situations oarmed conflict; … (c) To condemn violence against women and not invokecustom, tradition or practices in the name of religion or culture to avoid theirobligations to eliminate such violence; … [and] (e) To enact and, wherenecessary, reinforce or amend domestic legislation in accordance withinternational standards …".(159).********
(1) The term "US-led forces" is used in this report to refer to both coalition f(during the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq) and multinational forces (s
the handover of power in June 2004).(2) UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, para.Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, GeneralRecommendation No. 19, 1992, UN Doc. A/47/38, para. 6.
(3) The outcome of the conference has been documented in: Iraqi alAssociation, The National Conference for Empowering Women in DemocracBaghdad 16-17 June, August 2004.
(4) Thanassis Cambanis: "Grisly evidence in Iraqi desert", The Boston GlobeOctober 2004. See also: Human Rights Watch, Iraq: The State of Evidence,November 2004,http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/iraq1104/4.htm#_Toc86054845(5) Christine Gosden, "Why I went, What I saw", The Washington Post,March 1998.(6) KurdishMedia, Top secret Iraqi document reveals Kurdish girls sent toharems and nightclubs in Egypt, 2 July 2003,http://www.kurdmediacom/news.asp?id=4057.
(7) In the Rome Statute, enslavement is defined as a crime against humanitywhen committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against any civpopulation, pursuant to or in furtherance of a state or organizational policy tocommit the attack (Article 7 (1) (c) and (2) (c)); the related crime of sexualslavery is defined as a war crime when committed during an international orinternal armed conflict (Article 8 (2) (b) (xxii) and (e) (vi)).
(8) Robert Fisk, "Revealed: The women who suffered Saddam’s tyranny", TIndependent, 23 January 2004.(9) Amnesty International interview, 7 May 2003, Basra.
(10) Nadje Al Ali, Society and Culture: Sanctions and Women in Iraq, pages84. In: Campaign against Sanctions in Iraq, Sanctions on Iraq: Background,Consequences and Strategies, Proceedings of the Conference hosted byCampaign against Sanctions on Iraq; Conference hosted by the Campaign agSanctions on Iraq, 13-14 November 1999, 2000, Cambridge,http://www.casi.org.uk/conf99/proceedings.pdf.(11) UN Security Council Resolution 661, 6 August 1990, UN Doc. S/RES/1990).
(12) Recently there have been claims about corruption within the UNadministration of the oil-for-food programme, which are currently under inqu(13) Campaign against Sanctions on Iraq, Sanctions on Iraq: backgroundinformation, January 1999,http://www.casi.org.uk/halliday/backg.html
(14) Agence France Presse, "Death rate of Iraq mothers triples, UN survey fi4 November 2003. According to the study the number rose from
maternal death per 100,000 live births in 1989 to 310 in 2002.(15)http://www.unicef.org/media/media_9779.html(16)http://www.unicef.org/media/media_9779.html
(17) Women for Women International, Windows of Opportunity, The PursuiGender Equality in Post-War Iraq, January 2005.
(18) ILO Regional Office for the Arab States: ILO Multidisciplinary Mission28 April-5 May 2000,http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/arpro/beirut/infoservices/report/rep
(19) ILO Regional Office for the Arab States: ILO Multidisciplinary Mission28 April-5 May 2000,http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/arpro/beirut/infoservices/report/rep
(20) Nadje Al Ali, Society and Culture: Sanctions and Women in Iraq, pagesIn: Campaign against Sanctions in Iraq, Sanctions on Iraq: Background,Consequences and Strategies, Proceedings of the Conference hosted by Camagainst Sanctions on Iraq; Conference hosted by the Campaign against SanctIraq, 13-14 November 1999, 2000, Cambridge,http://www.casi.org.uk/conf/proceedings.pdf.(21) Nadje Al Ali, ibid.(22) Human Rights Watch, Climate of fear: Sexual Violence and AbductionWomen and Girls in Baghdad, July 2003, p. 3.
(23) Amnesty International, Amnesty International strongly condemns latestbombings (AI Index: MDE 14/003/2004), 2 March 2004.
(24) Women for Women International is an international NGO operating sinin Iraq. For more information seehttp://www.womenforwomen.org/
(25) Women for Women International, Windows of Opportunity, The PursuiGender Equality in Post-War Iraq, January 2005.(26) IRINnews, "Women’s groups under threat in new Iraq", 24 March
(27) Annia Ciezadlo, "After an Advocate’s Killing, Iraqi Women Try to StayCourse", Christian Science Monitor, 1 April 2004.(28) Amnesty International interview, 30 August 2004, Amman.(29) Agence France Presse, 8 March 2004.(30) Elizabeth Rubin, "Fern Holland’s War", New York Times, 19(31) Article 3 common to all four Geneva Conventions:
"In the case of armed conflict not of an international character…each Party t
conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:
1. Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armeforces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat bysickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances betreated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour,religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria. To this endfollowing acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any placewhatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons: (a) Violence to lifeperson, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and tortu(b) Taking of hostages; (c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particularhumiliating and degrading treatment."(32) Appointed by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the Iraqi GoverningCouncil was established in July 2003 and operated until June 2004
(33) Anthony Paul, "Grandmother lends voice to Iraq’s women" Straits Time25 August 2004. See also: Al-Mashriq, 15 March 2004, Baghdad.
(34) In November 2004, US and Iraqi troops launched a major offensive aimgaining control of the city of Falluja.(35) BBC, "Relatives of Iraqi PM kidnapped", 10 November 2004http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3998681.stm(36) CBC News, "Iraq PM’s relatives released by kidnappers", 152004,http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/11/15/allawi-041115.html(37) BBC, "Italy celebrates hostages’ return", 29 September 2004http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3699350.stm.(38) BBC, "Leaders condemn ‘Hassan murder’ ", 17 November 2004http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4018335.stmandhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/3946455.stm.
(39) Iraq Body Count (www.iraqbodycount.net) is a not-for-profit organizatiaiming to provide independent data on civilian deaths in Iraq since theIn September 2004, it named and identified about 3,000 individual victims. Oabout 2,800 cases, where the gender was known, under a quarter were female(40) Les Roberts et al, "Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq:cluster sample survey", Lancet, 29 October 2004. According to the study, ofthose whose deaths were attributed to the US-led forces, 46 per cent werechildren under 15 years and seven per cent were women. The study"excess" death was arrived at by comparing mortality in sample householdsduring the months before and after the US-led invasion in 2003.(41) Iraq Body Count, "IBC response to the Lancet study estimatingIraqi deaths", 7 November 2004, seehttp://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/(42) Luke Harding, "After Abu Ghraib", Guardian, 20 September
Hafez Ahmad is referred to under a different name in the article.
(43) Statement of the US Department of Defense referred to in: Tara McKelvUnusual Suspects, What happened at Abu Ghraib? The government in nottalking. But some of the women are, American Prospect, 4 February(44) Luke Harding, "After Abu Ghraib", Guardian, 20 September(45) Article 15-6 Investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade.http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/iraq/tagubarpt.html.
(46) Criminal Investigation Division report, 28 January 2004.http://www.publicintegrity.org/docs/AbuGhraib/Abu11.pdf.See also AmnesInternational: United States of America: Human dignity denied –accountability in the ‘war on terror’ (AI Index: AMR 51/145/20042004.
(47) AR 15-6 Investigations of Intelligence Activities at Abu Ghraib. Conduby Major General R. Fay and Lieutenant General Anthony R. Jones.http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Aug2004/d20040825fay.pdf,page(48) For more detail on definitions of torture and ill-treatment see AmnestyInternational, Combating torture: a manual for action (AI Index: ACT40/001/2003), 2003, section 3.3. and on rape specifically see 3.3.2(49) See, for example, European Court of Human Rights, case of Aydin v.Turkey (57/1996/676/866), Judgment of 25 September 1997, paraPeru, 1 March 1996, Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission onHuman Rights 1995, page 187; Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torturethe Commission on Human Rights, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1992/SR.21
(50) The state’s obligations under international human rights law includeensuring that all acts of torture (including complicity or participation in suchacts) are offences under criminal law punishable by penalties appropriate to tgrave nature, and bringing to justice those involved in committing acts of torand other ill-treatment.
(51) Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 7 (crimes agaihumanity) and Article 8 (war crimes).
(52) In the cases of Akayesu (Ruwanda Tribunal Case No. ICTR-Judgment of 2 September 1998) and Delalic and others ("Celebici case") ICTCase No. IT-96-21, Judgment of 16 November 1998) rape was identifiedspecifically as an act of torture when perpetrated by or at the instigation of apublic official and in the case of Furundzija (ICTYCase No. IT-95Judgment of 10 December 1998) when it takes place during interrogation. Incase of Kunarac, Kovac and Vukovic (ICTY Case No. IT-96-23 and ITJudgment of 22 February 2001) the defendants were convicted of rape as a cagainst humanity and rape as a crime against the laws and customs of war. TTribunals have convicted men who committed acts such as sexual enslavemeforced nudity and sexual humiliation – in addition to rape and sexual assaultthus recognizing such acts as serious international crimes.
(53) Huda Shaker Neimi established the Baghdad-based women’s rightsorganization al-‘Iraqiya al-Hurra (The Free Iraqi Woman) in October(54) Luke Harding, "Focus shifts to jail abuse of women", Guardian,2004.
(55) Associated Press, "Hamza Hendani: US Raids Offend Iraqi SensibilitiesJuly 2003.(56) Amnesty International interview, 1 July 2004, Amman.(57) Amnesty International interviews: 28 August 2004, Amman;2004, Amman; 2 September 2004, Beirut.(58) Iraqi al-Amal Association, The National Conference for EmpoweringWomen in Democracy – Baghdad 16-17 June, August 2004, page
(59) For further information on international human rights standards on "honcrimes", see Appendix.(60) UN Doc. A/55/38, 14 June 2000, paras 193-194.(61) UN Doc. E/CN.4/2002/83,31 January 2002, para. 23.
(62) Commission on Human Rights, Report to the Social and Economic Couon the Sixteenth Session of the Commission, Resolution 2004/37summary or arbitrary executions, UN doc. E/CN.4/2004/L.11/Add.2004.(63) KWAHK, Honour Killing – a Catalogue of Horror, May 2000
(64) For details on Iraqi legislation on "honour crimes" and amendments in tKurdish controlled governorates, see chapter 5, Leniency for ‘honour killingand Women win legal reforms.(65) Lena Katarina Swanberg, Herdersmordet på Pela. Lillasystern ber.(66) The Dohuk Criminal Court refers to a different family name.
(67) Under Articles 128 and 130 of the Penal Code. For further information alegislation allowing lenient sentences, see chapter 5, Discrimination in nationlaw.
(68) Amendments to legislation on "honour killings" were first introduced bySulaimaniya-based Kurdish authorities in April 2000. The Arbil-based Kurdauthorities followed in 2002.
(69) Women Information Cultural Centre (WICC) Statistical Study on Violeused against Women, 2003, pages 23-28. See the biweekly newspaper, Rewahttp://www.rewan.org/.
(70) Seehttp://www.asuda.org/.
(71) Ruth Jüttner, interview with Khandan Mohammed Jeza, ai-Journal, Octo2003,http://www2.amnesty.de/internet/deall.nsf/windexde/JL2003172(72) Amnesty International interview, 2 September 2004, Beirut.
(73) Fuad al-Tekerly: "al-Firin", 1972; German translation published in: WieWalther (ed.): Erkundungen. 28 irakische Erzähler, 1985, Verlag Volk und WBerlin, pages 25-31.
(74) Some of the people interviewed by Amnesty International about "honoukillings" provided only general information, either to ensure that the individuinvolved could not be identified or because they were unable to recall the detof incidents that occurred more than a decade ago.(75) Amnesty International interview, 29 June 2004, Amman.(76) Amnesty International interview, 29 August 2004, Amman.(77) Amnesty International interview, 28 August 2004, Amman.(78) Seehttp://www.unicef.org/sowc04/files/Table9.pdf
(79) Lynn L. Amowitz et al: Human Rights Abuses and Concerns AboutWomen’s Health and Human Rights in Southern Iraq, in: Journal of AmericaMedical Association, March 24/31, 2004 (Vol. 291, No. 12) pages(80) Nicholas Birch, Genital Mutilation Is Traditional in Iraq’s Kurdistan,Women’s E-News, 1 August 2004,http://womensenews.com/
(81) WADI, an NGO with its headquarters in Germany, has branches in sevecountries of the Middle East, including in northern Iraq (seehttp://www.wadinet.de/).
(82) WADI, Research about circumcisions in Germian area, 2 DecemberThe author of the report pointed out that a number girls who reported that thehad not undergone FGM may have been too young.(83) Hawdam Salih Jaf and Inger Østenstad,Zor kama esta Om omskjæring av kvinner i Sør-Kurdistan, 2003 (En forelrapport).
(84) Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment14 (The Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health), UN Doc. E/C.12/2000/4, 11 August 2000, para. 35.
(85) Lynn L. Amowitz et al: Human Rights Abuses and Concerns AboutWomen’s Health and Human Rights in Southern Iraq, in: Journal of AmericaMedical Association, March 24/31, 2004 (Vol. 291, No. 12) pages
(86) See also chapter 5, Discrimination in law, Impunity for violence in marr(87) Amnesty International interview, 30 August 2004, Amman.
(88) For more details see: Amnesty International: Lives blown apart. Crimesagainst women in times of conflict (AI Index: ACT 77/075/2004),2004.(89) UNIFEM and United Kingdom’s Department for InternationalDevelopment, No Safe Place: Results of an Assessment on Violence againstWomen in Kosovo, April 2000.(90) Amnesty International interview, 3 October 2004, Amman.(91) KWAHK, Honour Killing – a Catalogue of Horror, May 2000(92) Hawlati, An alarming statistic on cases of burned women, 7 October(93) Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 16(2)); InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 23(3)).
(94) For further information on international human rights standards on forcemarriage, see Appendix.(95) Amnesty International communication with the Asuda Centre,2004.
(96) UK Home Office, A choice by right — Report of the Working Group onforced marriage, 2000, cited in report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violeagainst Women, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2002/83 (31 January 2002) paraWorking Group identifies a key factor distinguishing forced marriage fromarranged marriage as the right to choose: in the tradition of arranged marriagthe families of both spouses take a leading role in arranging the marriage, buspouses have the right to choose – to say no – at any time. In forced marriagethere is no choice.
(97) Ain O Salish Kendra and Shirkat Gah, Information Gathering Exercise oForced Marriages, submission by Interights to the Home Office Working GroUK, March 2000.http://www.soas.ac.uk/honourcrimes/FMsubmission.htm(98) This Kurdish expression means: Changing one woman for another.
(99) A 1979 amendment to the Personal Status Law lowered the minimum agfor marriage from 16 to 15 years, because of "the social situation in the counand in particular outside the urban areas where the practice of marrying at ayoung age is widely practiced." The lowering of the minimum age was therejustified as a measure for "reducing cases of marriages conducted outside thecourts".
(100) Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, GenRecommendations No.21 : Equality in Marriage and Family Relations (
session, 1994), UN Doc. A/47/38, paras 36 and 38. The 1964 Convention onConsent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriaobliges States to specify a minimum age for marriage which should not be lethan 15 years. Iraq has not yet ratified this Convention.
(101) Religious marriages are usually conducted in addition to the civil ceremand referred to among the Shiite community as "Zawaj al-Sayid".(102) CPA order No. 31 of 10 September 2003.(103) Articles 1(3), 13 (1)(b) and 55(c).(104) During the training, 35 representatives from all government ministriestrained to become gender focal points at their respective ministries.
(105) Provisions of the Personal Status Law do not necessarily apply to memof non-Muslim communities in Iraq.
(106) Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, GenRecommendations No.21 : Equality in Marriage and Family Relations (session, 1994), UN Doc. A/47/38, paras 14 and 35.
(107) Pela was killed on 24 June 1999 by one of her uncles at her family houDohuk. For more details of the case see above chapter 4, ‘Honour Crimes(108) CPA order No. 31 of 10 September 2003.
(109) Article 132 of the Penal Code provides for the reduction of a penalty ogrounds of mercy.
(110) Article 131 of the Penal Code provides for the reduction of a penalty umitigating circumstances in misdemeanour cases.
(111) Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, GenRecommendations 19: Violence against women (11th session), 19921992, Doc. No. A/47/38
(112) UN Security Council Resolution 1325, 31 October 2000, UN Doc. S/R1325(2000).
(113) UN Security Council, Report of the Secretary-General on women, peacand security, 16 October 2002, UN Doc. S/2002/1154.
(114) Women for Women International, Windows of Opportunity, The PursuGender Equality in Post-War Iraq, January 2005.(115) ICCPR Articles 3 and 25, UN Women’s Convention Article
(116) Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 28: Equality of righbetween men and women (article 3), UN Doc. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1March 2000, para. 29.
(117) Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, GenRecommendations No. 23, Political and Public Life, (16th session,Doc. A/52/38, para. 29.(118) CPA order No. 96 of 15 June 2004.(119) CPA order No 96 of 15 June 2004.(120) Michael Howard, "Chaos and farce as Iraq chooses first assembly",Guardian, 19 August 2004.(121) Sharon Behn, "Iraqi women threatened, killed for defying tradition",Washington Times, 12 November 2004.(122) Iraqi al-Amal Association, The National Conference for EmpoweringWomen in Democracy – Baghdad 16-17 June, August 2004, page(123) According to some interpretation of Islamic Law (Shari’a), women dohave the capacity to be judge.
(124) Neil MacFarquhar: In Najaf, Justice Can be Blind but Not Female, NewYork Times, 31 July 2003.
(125) Reuters, "First Iraq women graduates as armed security guards",September 2003, and see Agence France Presse, "New Paramilitary force seewomen to take on security role", 24 May 2004.
(126) IRINnews, "Iraq: Interview with Minister for Labour and Social AffairOctober 2004.(127) UN/World Bank Joint Iraq Needs Assessment, October 2003Paper, Livelihoods, Employment & Re-integration, page 7.http://lnweb.worldbank.org/mna/mena.nsf/Attachments/IQ-LIVELIHOODS/$File/LIVELIHODS+final+sector+report+16+October.pdf(128) UNESCO, New Courier No. 3, October 2003(129) UNESCO Situation analysis of education in Iraq, April 2003http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001308/130838e.pdf
(130) Lynn L. Amowitz et al: Human Rights Abuses and Concerns AboutWomen’s Health and Human Rights in Southern Iraq, in: Journal of AmericaMedical Association, March 24/31, 2004 (Vol. 291, No. 12), page
(131) International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Artic13 and Article 3.(132) UN/World Bank Joint Iraq Needs Assessment, October 2003Paper, Education Sector, pages 1-2.http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/mna/mena.nsf/Attachments/IQ-EDUC/$File/Iraq+Education+Needs+Assessment.pdf
(133) UNICEF, News note: Helping Iraq’s children get back to school,September 2004.(134) IRINnews, "Iraq: Female harassment from religious conservatives",April 2004.(135) Amnesty International interviews, 28 August 2004, Amman.(136)http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/,28 October 2004.(137) Washington Times, "Women fleeing college under Islamist threats",October 2004.
(138) UN/World Bank Joint Iraq Needs Assessment, Working Paper, HealthOctober 2003 page 7-9.
(139) These findings by the Iraqi Ministry of Health have been referred to inMedact, Enduring effects of war, November 2004, page 3-4.
(140) Lynn L. Amowitz et al: Human Rights Abuses and Concerns AboutWomen’s Health and Human Rights in Southern Iraq, in: Journal of AmericaMedical Association, March 24/31, 2004 (Vol. 291, No. 12), page
(141) Most of the treaties and declarations mentioned in this appendix, as wethe general comments and recommendations of the treaty bodies and the repoof the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, can be found on twebsite of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights at www.ohchr.orga more detailed account of international standards relevant to this issue, seeAmnesty International, The duty of states to address violence against womenIndex: ACT 77/049/2004) June 2004.
(142) Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UNGA res. 217 A(III), adoptDecember 1948.
(143) Human Rights Committee, General Comment No.31 on ArticleCovenant: The Nature of the General Legal Obligation Imposed on States Pato the Covenant, 21 April 2004, para. 8, read with General Comment No.Equality of rights between men and women (article 3), 29 March
(144) In particular of articles 6, 14 and 26. See Human Rights Committee,General Comment No. 28: Equality of rights between men and women (articUN Doc. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.10, 29 March 2000, para 31.
(145) Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Februa1996, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1996/53, para. 45.
(146) See Amnesty International, Reservations to the Convention on theElimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: Weakening theprotection of women from violence in the Middle East and North Africa regi(AI Index: IOR 51/009/2004), November 2004.(147) Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination Against Women : Iraq, UN Doc. CEDAW/C/2000June 2000, paras 192, 26.
(148) Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human RightsFollow-up to the World Conference on Human Rights: The present situationhuman rights in Iraq, UN doc E/EC.4/2005/4, para. 86.
(149) Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, GenRecommendations No.21 : Equality in Marriage and Family Relations (session, 1994), UN Doc. A/47/38, paras 15-16
(150) Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, GenRecommendation No. 19 Violence against women (11th session,A/47/38, para 24 (ii).
(151) See for instance the Committee’s concluding observations regardingBurkina Faso, UN Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.19 (1994), para. 8; Central AfricanRepublic, UN Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.138 (2000), para. 46; and Bangladesh, UDoc. CRC/C/15/Add.221(2003), para. 61.
(152) See, for instance, Concluding Observations on India, UN Doc. CRC/C/Add.115, paras. 32-3, 23 February 2000.(153) Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No.Adolescent health and development in the context of the Convention on theRights of the Child (33rd session, 2003), UN Doc. CRC/GC/2003/424.(154) Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by the WorldConference on Human Rights in Vienna, 25 June 1993, para. 18..(155) UN General Assembly Resolution 48/104, 20 December 1993
(156) Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing,September 1995, A/CONF.177/20/Rev.1, annexes I and II, endorsed by G.A50/42, 50 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 33, U.N. Doc. A/RES/50/49text seehttp://ods-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N96/273/01/PDF/N.pdf?OpenElement.(157) See Article 7 (Crimes against humanity) and Article 8 (War crimes).
(158) Human Rights Committee, General Comment No.31 on ArticleCovenant: The Nature of the General Legal Obligation Imposed on States Pato the Covenant, 21 April 2004, para. 8.
(159) Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Report to the Commison Human Rights, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2003/75, 6 January 2003, para.
AI Index: MDE 14/001/2005
22 February 2005
E-mail this pageFurther informationPeople come first - Protect Human RightsIraq Crisis home pageAI Report 2004 entryBack to Top
ABOUT AI NEWS LIBRARY ACT NOW CAMPAIGNS RESOURCES & LINKS CONTACT US� Copyright Amnesty International
