Date: 06/04/2023 - 06/04/2023
Location: Room XXV, Palais des Nations, Geneva

Our coverage of the event:

Iraq has among the world’s highest numbers of disappeared and forcibly disappeared persons, yet receives little attention in international fora, and the victims and family members’ voices go unheard.

As the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearance (CED) releases its country report on Iraq – based on only its second country visit since inception – in April 2023, we bring grassroots Iraqi voices to react to the report and present their ideas to tackle the crisis of enforced disappearance in the country.

Throughout modern Iraqi history, enforced disappearance has been used as a political weapon by multiple perpetrators – including the former Ba’ath regime, ISIS and government-aligned armed groups – affecting all components of the country’s diverse population. Impunity is the norm, intimidating victims’ families into silence and creating a chilling effect that stands in the way of lasting peace, justice, and stability. Family members suffer for decades, with little to no action by the state to reveal the fate of the disappeared, provide just reparation or accountability.

This event – convened by the Iraqi civil society groups Al-Haqq Organisation for Human Rights, Tadaruk Organisation for Human Rights and Democracy, Tamasok for Strengthening Democracy and Transparency along with Impunity Watch and MENA Rights Group – aims to:

  • Provide space for Iraqi grassroots human rights actors and affected communities to access international policymaking circles and express their demands for support to tackle enforced disappearance
  • Use the occasion of the CED’s adoption of its report on Iraq to increase international attention to this issue
  • Build support for Iraqi civil society’s demands for the adoption of a draft law criminalising enforced disappearance and codifying it in domestic law, in line with its obligations as a signatory to the CED, as well as other civil society and victim demands related to this topic

These Iraqi organisations – with support from their international partners – are contributing to increased attention to the missing and disappeared persons crisis in Iraq among policymakers, the media and public debate, including via demands for truth, justice and reparation, and the prevention of future crimes via passing a draft law on enforced disappearance. The event will feature interventions by Iraqi activists and victims’ family members, as well as by members of the CED delegation who visited Iraq:

  • Ms Widad Hammadi Kadhem, an activist with the al-Haqq Organsiation for Human Rights whose son was disappeared in 2006. Al-Haqq works to raise the voices of the families of the missing and disappeared, especially in al-Anbar governorate.

  • Mr Mustafa Abdulwahed, head of the Tadaruk Organisation for Human Rights and Democracy. Mustafa documents cases of enforced disappearance, especially in Salahadin governorate, and pursues a victim-centred approach in his human rights activism.

  • Ms Ghada Ghazwan Ghanem, from the Tamasok for Strengthening Democracy and Transparency, focuses on the cases of enforced disappearance targeting members of the pro-reform Tishreen youth protest movement.

  • Mr Hassan Wahhab has worked in the human rights field in Iraq since 2003 and is founder of the Iraqi Human Rights Defenders Forum, a grouping of activists from across the country.

  • Ms Carmen Rosa Villa Quintana is Chair of the CED and a member of the CED Delegation for Iraq, as well as a former OHCHR Regional Representative for Central America.

  • Ms Barbara Lochbihler is Vice Chair of the CED, Co-Rapporteur for Iraq and a member of the CED Delegation for Iraq. She is a former Member of the European Parliament with the German Greens, where she focused on the EU’s human rights strategies.

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