KRG Authorities Detain a Journalist for One Year
2 Jan. 2015 – JFO The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory expressed its concern about the continuing detention of a journalist by KRG authorities since January 2014. As there have been no reasons given for his detention, this directly violates the terms of the Iraqi constitution, as well as international conventions. The journalist, Saif Hashim Al-Obaidi, who […]
Al-Qushla: Iraq’s Oasis of Free Expression
Al Jazeera – Baghdad On Friday mornings, Yasser Kian and his friends leave behind the pressures of work and school and the dangers of life in Baghdad to come to a small square that has become an oasis of free expression. On a recent Friday, Kian, dressed in a suit jacket, bowtie and retro sunglasses, pretends […]
Year in Review: Iraq is Still There in Body, But Not in Spirit!
niqash |Baghdad The past year in Iraq is not easy to review. The assorted crises, both in security and politics, are well known around the world and for many Iraqis it’s been one long nightmare. NIQASH went to gather ordinary Iraqis’ opinions on the year gone by and ended up speaking to one local whose […]
Coping With Success Against ISIS
James F. Jeffrey – The Washington Institute Although Washington should have no illusions about resolving the region’s wider problems, it can build on early successes against ISIS by making the commitments needed to fully defeat the group in Iraq and Syria, including a modest, enduring U.S. military presence. The battle against the “Islamic State”/ISIS has […]
Mission Report to Iraqi Kurdistan Finds Media and Civil Society at Risk!
2014-12-31 – gc4hr Many see Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous region in Northern Iraq, as a safe haven, a place of relative calm away from the terror and chaos that exists in much of the rest of Iraq. Yet independent journalists and human rights defenders are at risk, says a mission report by the Gulf Centre for Human […]
Iraq: Dire Winter Conditions Expose Shocking Gaps in Humanitarian Assistance for Thousands Displaced
Source: Amnesty A lack of coordination and major gaps in humanitarian assistance is causing untold hardship for many of the 900,000 people displaced by the conflict in Iraq who are sheltering in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), said Amnesty International. Delegates from the organization who have just returned from a visit to the KRI […]
A Brutal “Torture Report,” but No Accountability!
Source: Truthout The long-awaited “torture report” released today by the Senate Intelligence Committee on the CIA’s top secret, post-9/11 torture program is certainly brutal, and the Obama administration does not deny that. The administration is, however, refusing to hold anyone publicly accountable. Yes, it’s brutal. Some detainees were placed in “ice water baths” and at […]
STOP TORTURE: Accountability: YES – Impunity: NO!
Source: brussellstribunal This petition will be delivered to: US Government – International Criminal Court – President of the UN General Assembly – President of the Human Rights Council – European Court of Justice You can sign the petition here Petition initiated by two former UN Assistant Secretaries-General, UN Humanitarian Coordinators for Iraq: Hans von Sponeck and […]
Iraqis Wage New Battle for Freedoms!
Shukur Khilkhal – Al-monitor The battle over civil liberties has erupted again, after a draft law written under the government of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on freedom of expression, assembly and peaceful protest was returned to parliament in October. This draft law was presented to the previous parliament in October 2012, but it did […]
A New Northern Frontline Where Iraq’s Kurds and Shiites are Facing Off!
niqash | Sulaymaniyah In Iraq’s northern disputed territories, minor skirmishes, rumours of looting, arson and speculation about political power plays have locals frightened of a new front line near Iraqi Kurdistan. It has nothing to do with extremists, rather it’s about the Iraqi Kurdish military and the increasingly troublesome and lawless Shiite Muslim militias. […]
For three days, a group of Iraqi and international civil society activists met in the Norwegian city of Oslo to discuss the current crisis in Iraq. They came together to build international solidarity with civil society in Iraq in order to promote the far-reaching political and social reforms that are essential to confronting the root […]
Civil Society, Civil Forces and the Crisis of Democracy in Iraq
Ismael Dawood The Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiative Paper prepared for ICSSI conference in Oslo – Norway – 2014 The political situation in Iraq has suffered from a kind of paralysis as it waits to see what will happen on the ground: after Mosul and most of the cities of Salahuddin and Anbar fell […]