Iraq
The authorities in Iraq have registered a large number of people who are missing in the country. These people disappeared due to prolonged conflicts and human rights violations, including atrocities committed during the Ba’ath Party regime, atrocities committed by Da’esh, and wars with neighboring countries.
In addition, there are large numbers of persons still missing from the Iran-Iraq war, and the first Gulf War, as well as those missing since 2003, including from crimes committed by Da’esh.
More than 250 mass or clandestine graves have been excavated by the relevant government agencies since 2003; over time, conflicts have resulted in increasing numbers of missing persons and a corresponding increase in the number of mass and clandestine graves.
ICMP staff first went to Iraq in 2003 to assess the provision of assistance, and began working with Iraqi institutions in 2005. It established an office in Baghdad in 2008 and in Erbil in 2010.
ICMP assisted in the development of the Law on the Protection of Mass Graves, which was created in 2005 and amended in 2015. The law provides a legal mechanism for locating missing persons, conducting excavations of mortal remains and identifying victims exhumed from mass graves. Under this law, the Ministry for Human Rights is designated to lead these efforts.
10 Jan 2018
In 2012, ICMP signed an agreement with the four ministries engaged in addressing the missing persons issue: the Ministry for Human Rights, the Ministries of Health in Baghdad and Erbil and the Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs. In the preamble to this agreement the authorities recognize that families have a right to know the fate and whereabouts of their missing relatives, that uncertainty surrounding the fate of the missing is a continuing source of anguish and an obstacle to rebuilding civil society in Iraq, that the government has direct responsibility for efforts to locate and identify the missing, and that due to specific circumstances in Iraq an identification process led by DNA and complemented by other forensic methods is appropriate. The agreement was geared towards building Iraq’s institutional capacity to address the issue of missing persons transparently, regardless of sectarian or national origin. In 2022, together with Iraqi partners, ICMP launched a five-year program to help Iraq complete the development of a sustainable process to account for all missing persons and to secure the rights of families, based on conclusions reach by senior Iraqi officials in September 2021.
As part of its program to help develop the technical capacity of Iraqi institutions and set in place a sustainable process of locating, recovering and identifying the missing, ICMP has trained more than 550 Iraqi professionals from the various institutions engaged in the process, from across sectarian and national lines, to work together in the investigation of missing persons cases. ICMP has introduced effective identification methodologies to Iraqi scientists including the use of DNA matching between recovered bone samples and blood samples given by surviving family members. This training, which takes place both in Iraq and at ICMP’s headquarters in Sarajevo, includes basic DNA extraction, sequencing and amplification methodologies, and introduces the concept of high-throughput testing, which is vital to Iraq’s ability to test and match the well over one million blood and bone samples authorities there will have to collect.
As well as providing training, ICMP staff members attend excavations with the Iraqi authorities, where they provide advice and assistance and note additional training needs that are included in future advanced training courses. In addition to other locations, since 2019, ICMP has worked closely with the authorities on the excavation of mass graves in Sinjar and Kojo, supporting the excavation of 19 mass graves in the Sinjar area as well as collecting surface remains in five additional mass grave sites.
ICMP has also developed a network across Iraq of families of the missing who share experiences and information in order to contribute to the process of resolving the fate of loved ones, as well as contributing to the process of truth, justice and restitution.
ICMP has provided assistance to the Martyrs’ Foundation, and the Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs in Iraqi Kurdistan. This has included the formulation of policy initiatives to address the needs of families of the missing and to create a technical plan to locate, recover and identify the missing, while at the same time building the institutional and legal capacity necessary to make this process sustainable. In addition, ICMP has hosted exchange visits of family association members, as well as visits by representatives of the Ministry of Human Rights and the Ministry of Health to ICMP facilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and at ICMP Headquarters in The Hague.
As part of its Civil Society Initiatives program, ICMP is working with key ministries to facilitate dialogue on missing persons issues between civil society and government institutions, and strengthen the capacities of victims’ groups.
Iraq is a state party to the major international human rights instruments including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT). Iraq is not a state party to the Rome Statute, although it took the required steps in 2005 to accede to the Statute but shortly thereafter canceled its decision on accession. In 2010, Iraq signed the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED). In November 2022, the Committee on Enforced Disappearance (CED), the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention, visited Iraq and published its report in April 2023.
The Iraq Constitution of 2005 guarantees a range of human rights and freedoms. Specifically, it provides for protection of the right to life, security and liberty, equality before the law, and the right to privacy and protection of family as a foundation of society.
Human Rights and Freedoms
Within Iraq’s criminal justice system, the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal was established by Law No. 10 of 2005 adopted on 18 October 2005 with jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious crimes committed between 1968 and 2003. The Tribunal has its own Statute and Rules of Procedure and Evidence. The Iraqi CPC is applied in addition to the Tribunal’s rules.
In 2006 the Iraqi parliament passed the Law on Protection of Mass Graves (Law No. 5, 2006) establishing a legal mechanism for locating missing persons, conducting excavations and identifying human remains exhumed from mass graves. The aim of the Law is also to protect mass graves from disturbance, unregulated excavation and excavation without permission of the Ministry of Human Rights, and to facilitate prosecutions.
Under this Law, the Ministry for Human Rights had been designated to lead the effort of exhuming and indexing mass graves, as well as documenting evidence that can be used in a court of law for investigating and prosecuting serious international crimes. Other actors in this process include the courts, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Interior, forensic experts and local government representatives. The Ministry of Human Rights was dissolved in August 2015 as part of government austerity measures.
In terms of rights and benefits for victims, in 2006, the Iraqi Council of Representatives passed the Law on the Establishment of the Martyrs’ Foundation. The Law gives family members of martyrs certain benefits including pensions, housing, tax benefits, scholarships, and other forms of assistance.
Similar benefits are also provided for in the 2007 Law on Rights and Privileges of the Families of Martyrs and Anfal Victims in the Kurdistan region.
In 2021, the Yazidi Female Survivors’ Law was adopted by the Government of Iraq, the law mandates critical reparations for survivors of ISIS crimes from Yazidi, Christian, Shabak and Turkmen Communities. The YSL recognizes ISIS atrocities as crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity and designates 3 August as a National Day of Remembrance. The Directorate for Yazidi Female Survivors Affairs, the implementing agency for this legislation, was established under the federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MoLSA).
