Human Rights Situation in Iraq

A/RES/54/178No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 116cHuman rights situations and reports of special rapporteurs and representatives, published in 2000.

What other versions does this mandate have?

3 versions · 2000–2003

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/57/232

2003A/RES/57/232Human rights situation in IraqLatestCompare with previous version
2000A/RES/55/115Human rights situation in IraqCompare with previous version
2000A/RES/54/178Human rights situation in Iraq

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

13 topics

Capital Punishment Civil and Political Rights Disappearance of Persons Ethnic and Racial Groups Food Distribution Human Rights Human Rights Violations Humanitarian Assistance Iraq Judicial Independence Prisoner Treatment Summary Executions Torture and Other Cruel Treatment

What does this mandate say?

20 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the interim report of the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Iraq and the observations, conclusions and recommendations contained therein, and notes with dismay that there has been no improvement in the situation of human rights in the country;

Strongly condemns:

The systematic, widespread and extremely grave violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law by the Government of Iraq, resulting in an all-pervasive repression and oppression sustained by broad-based discrimination and widespread terror;

The suppression of freedom of thought, expression, information, association, assembly and movement through fear of arrest, imprisonment, executions and other sanctions;

The widespread use of the death penalty in disregard of the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights2 and the United Nations safeguards;

Summary and arbitrary executions, including political killings and the continued, so-called clean-out of prisons, as well as enforced or involuntary disappearances, routinely practised arbitrary arrests and detention, and consistent and routine failure to respect due process and the rule of law, for example, in the execution of delinquents for minor property offences and customs violations;

Widespread, systematic torture and the enactment and implementation of decrees prescribing cruel and inhuman punishment as a penalty for offences;

Calls upon the Government of Iraq:

To abide by its freely undertaken obligations under international human rights treaties and international humanitarian law and to respect and ensure the rights of all individuals, irrespective of their origin, ethnicity, gender or religion, within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction;

To bring the actions of its military and security forces into conformity with the standards of international law, in particular those of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

To cooperate with United Nations human rights mechanisms, in particular by receiving a return visit by the Special Rapporteur to Iraq and allowing the stationing of human rights monitors throughout Iraq pursuant to the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights;

To establish independence of the judiciary and abrogate all laws granting impunity to specified forces or persons killing or injuring individuals for any purpose beyond the administration of justice under the rule of law as prescribed by international standards;

To abrogate all decrees that prescribe cruel and inhuman punishment or treatment, including mutilation, and to ensure that torture and cruel punishment and treatment no longer occur;

To abrogate all laws and procedures, including Revolution Command Council Decree No. 840 of 4 November 1986, that penalize free expression, and to ensure that the genuine will of the people shall be the basis of authority of the State;

To respect the rights of all ethnic and religious groups and to cease immediately its repressive practices aimed at the Iraqi Kurds, Assyrians and Turkmen, in particular their deportation from the regions of Kirkuk and Khanaqin, and at the population of the southern marsh areas, where drainage projects have provoked environmental destruction and a deterioration of the situation of the civilian population, and to ensure the personal integrity and freedom, including the full freedom of belief, of the Shi’a and their religious establishment;

To cooperate with the Tripartite Commission and its Technical Subcommittee to establish the whereabouts and resolve the fate of the remaining several hundred missing persons, including prisoners of war, Kuwaiti nationals and third-country nationals, victims of the illegal Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, to cooperate with the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of the Commission on Human Rights for that purpose, and to pay compensation to the families of those who died or disappeared in the custody of the Iraqi authorities, through the mechanism established by the Security Council in its resolution 692 (1991) of 20 May 1991, and to release immediately all Kuwaitis and nationals of other States who may still be held in detention;

To cooperate fully with international aid agencies and non-governmental organizations in providing humanitarian assistance and monitoring in the northern and southern areas of the country;

To continue to cooperate in the implementation of Security Council resolutions 986 (1995), 1111 (1997), 1143 (1997), 1153 (1998), 1210 (1998), 1242 (1999) and 1266 (1999) so as to ensure fully the equitable distribution, without discrimination, to the Iraqi population, including members of the population in remote areas, of the humanitarian supplies purchased under the oil for food programme and to continue to facilitate the work of United Nations humanitarian personnel in Iraq by ensuring the free and unobstructed movement of observers throughout the country;

To cooperate in the identification of minefields existing throughout Iraq with a view to facilitating their marking and eventual clearing;

Requests the Secretary-General to provide the Special Rapporteur with all necessary assistance in carrying out his mandate, and decides to continue the examination of the situation of human rights in Iraq at its fifty-fifth session under the item entitled “Human rights questions”, in the light of additional elements provided by the Commission on Human Rights.

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