22 August 2023
On 15 August, a number of our partners in Iraq gathered along with families of victims of enforced disappearance in Baghdad, Mosul, Najaf, Kirkuk and Nasiriyah, in a campaign to commemorate the victims.
A significant number of relatives of the missing and forcibly disappeared, along with representatives of human rights organisations, held peaceful demonstrations through which they shared their grievances and demands with the Iraqi government, media and society.
The partners, alongside the families of the victims, issued the following statement:
“Those whom we have lost, who disappeared from us for varying periods of time, from all provinces of Iraq, today we stand for them, without reference to racial, sectarian, or religious classification or discrimination.
We stand to say with full hearts: We have remembered you, we miss you, we long for you, we hope for your return, we demand your rights, and we live with your memory. We will not forget you as long as we live, and we will narrate your stories to future generations so that your memory lives as long as conscience is alive. Our demands unite us, led by the necessity to reveal the fate of our missing and forcibly hidden children. This is a priority for us, the victims’ families, whose voices have often risen, demanding the swift revelation of our children’s fate.
Today, our stance demands, in all languages, dialects, and emotions, the closure of this file, which represents the most prominent step among the steps we have previously sought and found no solution for. From this place, in the presence of these crowds and through the media, we also demand reparations, ensuring a dignified life for the victims’ families, establishing a specialised centre, enacting a national law for the forcibly disappeared and missing, and commemorating the memory of our loved ones.”
These gatherings were organised in collaboration with our partners in Iraq, and we at Impunity Watch reaffirm our full support for them and the families of the victims. We join them in their demands, especially their right to know the fate of their loved ones.
Read more from our partners on the issue of enforced disappearances in Iraq