Syria: Sexual Assault in Detention

Security Forces Also Attacked Women and Girls in Raids on Homes

JUNE 15, 2012

(New York) – Syrian government forces have used sexual violence to torture men, women, and boys detained during the current conflict. Witnesses and victims also told Human Rights Watch that soldiers and pro-government armed militias have sexually abused women and girls as young as 12 during home raids and military sweeps of residential areas.


Human Rights Watch interviewed 10 former detainees, including two women, who described being sexually abused or witnessing sexual abuse in detention, including rape, penetration with objects, sexual groping, prolonged forced nudity, and electroshock and beatings to genitalia.Many of the former detainees told Human Rights Watch that they were imprisoned because of their political activism, including for attending protests. In other cases, the reason for the detention was unclear but detainees suffered the same abusive tactics.


“Syrian security forces have used sexual violence to humiliate and degrade detainees with complete impunity,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The assaults are not limited to detention facilities – government forces and pro-government shabiha militia members have also sexually assaulted women and girls during home raids and residential sweeps.”


Human Rights Watch documented over 20 specific incidents of sexual assault, five of which involved more than one victim, that took place between March 2011 and March 2012 across Syria, including in Daraa, Homs, Idlib, Damascus, and Latakia governorates. The majority of cases were from Homs governorate. Interviewees described a range of sexual abuse by Syrian security forces, the army, and pro-government armed militias referred to locally as shabiha.


Human Rights Watch interviewed eight Syrian victims of sexual violence, including four women, and more than twenty-five other people with a knowledge of sexual abuse – former detainees, defectors from the Syrian security forces and the army, first responders and assistance providers, women’s rights activists, and family members.


The full extent of sexual violence in and outside of detention facilities remains unknown, Human Rights Watch said. The stigma in Syria surrounding sexual violence makes victims reluctant to report abuse. Survivors also may face dangers when they make crimes public, and researchers have had limited access to the country to document abuses. In many cases interviewees told Human Rights Watch that victims did not want their families or others in the community to know about the assault because of fear or shame. In one case, a female rape victim who was willing to be interviewed was not permitted by her husband to speak to Human Rights Watch.


Even when they may wish to seek help, Syrian survivors of sexual assault have limited access to medical or psychological treatment and other services in Syria. Survivors who have fled to neighboring countries also face obstacles in seeking treatment, including limited service options and inability to access services that are available because of social taboos surrounding sexual abuse, families restricting their movement, and the fear of being subjected to so-called “honor” crimes.


It is critical that survivors of sexual assault have access to emergency medical services, legal assistance, and social support to address injuries caused by the assault; prevent pregnancy, HIV, and other sexually transmitted infections; and to collect evidence to support prosecution of perpetrators, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch called on the Syrian government, countries hosting Syrian refugees, and donors to ensure that survivors have information about relevant health and psychosocial services, including that they should be accessed on an urgent basis, as well as facilitate victims’ access to them through safe and confidential mechanisms.


Human Rights Watch does not have evidence that high-ranking officers commanded their troops to commit sexual violence during home searches, ground operations, or in detention. However, information received by Human Rights Watch, including from army and security force defectors, indicates that no action has been taken to investigate or punish government forces and shabiha who commit acts of sexual violence or to prevent them from committing such acts in the future.


Many of the reported assaults were in circumstances in which commanding officers knew or should have known the crimes were taking place – for example, assaults committed on an apparently regular basis in detention centers under the full control of particular commanders.


Sexual Abuse in DetentionDetention facilities where male and female detainees have reported sexual torture include Military Intelligence Branch 248 and Branch 235 (known as “Palestine Branch”) in Damascus; the Military Intelligence facilities in Jisr al-Shughur, Idlib, and Homs; the Political Security branch in Latakia; the Air Force Intelligence branches in Mezze, Latakia, and Homs; and the Idlib Central Prison.


Salim (all names have been changed to protect the identities of the interviewees), a soldier who was detained in June 2011 while on leave at the Air Force Intelligence branch in Latakia, was questioned about his brother’s and father’s roles in demonstrations. He told Human Rights Watch:

They started torturing me here (gesturing toward his genitalia) [with the electricity]. They were also beating me and there was a guard behind me turning the electricity on. I passed out. They were beating me and shocking me. The interrogator was beating me with a cable over my whole body. I still didn’t have any clothes on … they asked me every thirty minutes if I would confess.

While a number of female detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that they were not sexually abused in detention, others reported that they were subjected to sexual abuse and other torture. One was Sabah, who was detained in the Military Intelligence facility in Jisr al-Shughur, Idlib in November 2011.

“They took my abaya off,” she said. “I was wearing jeans and a tee-shirt underneath, and a guard tied my hands behind my back ... He grabbed my breasts … I said, ‘Beat me, shoot me, but don’t put your hand on me.’ … He came to grab my breasts again and I pushed him ... Then he grabbed me by the chest and threw me against the wall. I fell and he started beating me with a stick. On the knee and on the ankle. My ankle was also broken [along with my hand]…”

At least two male former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch also reported hearing women’s screams – in the Air Force Intelligence and Military Intelligence branches in Homs, and an ad hocshabiha facility in Latakia. Human Rights Watch does not have further confirmation that women were actually held and sexually tortured in these facilities.

All former detainees who described sexual abuse said they had received no medical or psychological treatment in prison for the sexual abuse. Only one of the 10 former detainees interviewed about sexual abuse in detention said she received medical treatment after her release. All of the former detainees interviewed have left Syria.

Sexual Abuse During Home Raids and Ground Operations
Human Rights Watch spoke to two women sexually assaulted in their homes and six other witnesses, including two male family members, with knowledge of sexual assaults against women and girls.

In five of these cases all of the interviewees described the attackers as shabiha. Descriptions and characterizations of shabiha forces varied, but in four out of five cases witnesses described them as armed men in civilian clothing operating alongside Syrian government forces, though official forces were not always present during the sexual assaults.

Maha, from Daraa, told Human Rights Watch that in February 2012 Syrian government forces andshabiha raided her house looking for her husband. She said that a member of the shabiha assaulted her and that a member of the army threatened her with rape if he did not turn himself in. She said:

They broke the door – it is just a regular wood door – and came in… They said to me, “Where is your husband?” I said, “I don’t know. He left a long time ago.” Then the one standing next to me came at me. He tore my shirt and started grabbing my breasts … The one who grabbed me looked like shabiha. He was wearing civilian clothes … The person in charge was outside. Someone came in and said, “The officer said to tell her that if he doesn’t turn himself in that she will see worse than this”… [This person] was wearing plain green military clothes. He was clearly from the army.

Four army and security force defectors also told Human Rights Watch about incidents – five in all – that they were aware of or received information about in which government forces sexually assaulted women during home raids or detained women to sexually assault them. Three of these defectors described incidents in which women were taken to another location and sexually assaulted.

Walid, an army defector from Hafiz al-Nizam (riot police), told Human Rights Watch that officers bragged about raping women during home raids in Daraa: “[One officer] joked that during that house raid, ‘When I fucked the woman, she made a lot of noise because I must have pleased her so much.’”

Another defector, Toufiq, who belonged to a security force mudahama (raid) unit told Human Rights Watch that a friend in his unit admitted to having participated in a gang rape of two women detained during a home raid in November 2011 in Homs. He saw video on his friend’s cellphone that confirmed the gang rape.

Human Rights Watch also spoke to a first responder who worked in Homs and seven assistance providers outside of Syria who described their work with sexual assault survivors and who discussed the availability of assistance.

Human Rights Watch called on the Syrian government to end all use of or tolerance of sexual violence by its forces or by shabiha under its command or control, and to investigate and punish those responsible. Human Rights Watch also urged the United Nations Security Council to demand that the Syrian government grant the UN Human Rights Council-mandated Commission of Inquiry unrestricted access to all parts of Syria, especially detention centers, so that the commission can investigate all allegations of human rights violations.

The Syrian government should also give the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS), tasked with monitoring the implementation of the Annan plan, unrestricted access to all places of detention to monitor abuses. The mission should include among its personnel people trained to identify gender-based violence and other gender-specific human rights violations.

Human Rights Watch also reiterated its call to the UN Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and urged other countries to join the calls for accountability by supporting a referral to the ICC as the forum most capable of effectively investigating and prosecuting those bearing the greatest responsibility for abuses in Syria.

Human Rights Watch called on international nongovernmental organizations, humanitarian assistance providers, the United Nations, and local organizations to develop, expand, and improve access to medical, psychological, social, and legal assistance to Syrian male and female victims of sexual abuse inside and outside of the country. Assistance providers should, in accordance with the UN Guidelines for Gender-based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Settings, ensure that survivors have information about and access to this package of services. In accordance with the Annan plan the Syrian government should also grant humanitarian assistance providers access to “all areas affected by the fighting” so that they can provide assistance to those affected by sexual violence.

“The international community urgently needs to address the human rights violations going on in Syria,” Whitson said. “The Security Council should send a strong signal to the Assad government that they will be held accountable for sexual violence and other human rights violations – by referring the situation to the ICC.”

Evidence on Sexual Abuse in DetentionSalim, the soldier who was arrested in June 2011 while on leave and questioned about his brother and father, told Human Rights Watch in a face-to-face interview:

[T]hey took me downstairs, two sets of stairs with a turn. Each 15 steps … I couldn’t see and my hands were tied [I was naked]. We were in the interrogation room. They were beating me for the first hour with their hands. Then they used a wood baton. I didn’t confess. The interrogator said, “Bring me the electricity.”…The guard brought two electric prongs. He put one in my mouth, on my tooth. Then he started turning it on and off quickly. He did this seven or eight times. I felt, that’s it. I am not going to leave this branch. Then they started asking, “Will you confess now?” I said I had nothing to confess to.

They removed the electricity from my tooth and put it on my knees. Here they used the electricity the longest. It is still marked. They would put it on for a long time and then take it off ... They started torturing me here (gesturing toward his genitalia) [with the electricity]. They were also beating me and there was a guard behind me turning the electricity on. I passed out. They were beating me and shocking me. The interrogator was beating me with a cable over my whole body. I still didn’t have any clothes on … They asked me every thirty minutes if I would confess. I said no. At a point they said, “We will kill you,” and I said, “Ok, ok, kill me. Death is better than the torture you are putting me through.” ... When he shocks you the electricity hits your whole body. I was there for hours. They had to carry me on a mattress to the cell. I couldn’t walk after that.

Khalil, who was detained in Idlib governorate in late June 2011 and spent about two months in several detention places, including about one month in the Idlib Central Prison, told Human Rights Watch in a face-to-face interview that when he was detained there:

They forced me to undress. Then they started squeezing my fingers with pliers. They used a stapler to put nails in my fingers, chest, and ears. I was only allowed to take them out if I spoke. The nails in the ears were the most painful. They used two wires hooked up to a car battery to give me electric shocks. They used electric stun-guns on my genitals twice. I thought I would never see my family again. They tortured me like this three times over three days.

Amer, a man from a town in Idlib governorate, described to Human Rights Watch in a face-to-face interview how he was tortured during his 42-day detention in the Political Security Branch in Latakia:

They undressed me, tied my hands behind my back, and hit me on my private parts. They clipped my hands to a metal pipe and lifted me so that my feet hardly touched the floor. They kept me like that for two days. When they released me I couldn’t stand, my feet were completely swollen. I then spent five days in a single cell with six other people. After that 15 officers took me to a separate room. They were cursing my mother and sister and threatened to rape me. They put me on a flying carpet – I was lying on my back, tied to a board, and they lifted my head and legs. All this time I was undressed. They wrapped wires around my penis and turned on the electricity. I could just hear it buzzing. They did this maybe five times for about 10 seconds. I passed out. When I regained consciousness they were pushing my legs and hands into a tire. My entire body was blue from beatings.

Hussein, who was detained in Daraa at the end of April 2011 after he was shot in both legs and then held in Military Intelligence Branch 248 in Damascus told Human Rights Watch:

When I arrived at Branch 248 I was screaming from pain because my legs were broken [from gunshot injuries]. They laid me down in an underground corridor. After five minutes five guys came and started to beat me. I was still blindfolded, but I was able to see a bit under the blindfold. They punched me in the face so I started bleeding from the nose. They left me alone when I pretended to be unconscious. Afterwards another guy came and smacked my head into the ground. Finally an officer came. They wanted to transfer me to a cell, but there was no room for anybody with broken legs so they transferred me to Hospital 601 instead. After six days in the hospital they took me back to 248. In the cell, two guards held my legs apart and beat me in the groin.

Nour, who was detained in February 2012 at a checkpoint in Homs and held for approximately two-and-a-half months in the “Palestine Branch” told Human Rights Watch that while in detention she and three other women who were held with her were repeatedly raped. Nour said that she suffered from amnesia as a result of her detention, however Human Rights Watch could not independently verify her condition. Nour, who has left the country, told Human Rights Watch that she could not remember her life before she was detained. She could not recall information such as her name, her age, or whether she was married and had children. She said:

The earliest thing I remember is being stopped at a checkpoint in Homs. I thought I was going to be detained but the soldiers there took me to an apartment where there were other girls … I was there for two or three days and then they took me to Damascus to the Palestine Branch. They held me there for two-and-a-half to three months. There were three other women there … They had a schedule. They would take turns with us. More than one man would rape you. It wasn’t every day, but it was regular….

Sabah, who was detained in the Military Intelligence facility in Jisr al-Shughur, Idlib in November 2011, told Human Rights Watch in a face-to-face interview that she had participated in demonstrations and prepared food and drink for demonstrators. She said that when she was detained she was beaten and groped:

The director asked me why I was going to demonstrations … I didn’t lie. He asked what I said in demonstrations and I told him … Then he slapped me. I will not forget it. He told the boys to come take me … they took me to a closed room. There were boxes in it. It was like a storage room. There were also broken chairs and other things. They took my abaya off. I was wearing jeans and a tee-shirt underneath, and a guard tied my hands behind my back. I said, “A dog like you doesn’t have a right to do anything [to touch me] …” He grabbed my breasts. [Eventually] he let my arms untie. I said, “Beat me, shoot me, but don’t put your hand on me.” … He came to grab my breasts again and I pushed him ... When I pushed him he fell on the boxes. Then he grabbed me by the chest and threw me against the wall. I fell and he started beating me with a stick. On the knee and on the ankle. My ankle was also broken [along with my hand]…

Former detainees also told Human Rights Watch that they had witnessed sexual abuse when they were in detention. Salim, the soldier arrested in June 2011, told Human Rights Watch that while he was detained in the Political Security branch in Latakia, a Brigadier General told him that he had to confess. Salim said:

He [the Brigadier General] told the guard to take my blindfold off. He wanted me to see with my own eyes how the other detainees were being tortured. He showed me the detainees. Two were being tortured. The interrogator and the guards were with me. He told me we will do this to you if you don’t confess. They were putting them [the two detainees] on coke bottles. He told me their crime was going to demonstrations. They looked 24 or 25 years old. For five minutes they showed me this, their making them sit on the coke bottles. I put death in my mind. They took me to the end of the corridor to an empty room. Here they blindfolded me again. There were two guards and an interrogator with me in the room. They put me on my knees and started beating me on my back with a steel cable.

At least three adult male former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch confirmed the presence and sexual abuse of adult women and male children in detention facilities across Syria. Samih, who had been held in the Political Security branch in Latakia, told Human Rights Watch in a face-to-face interview that children were subjected to worse treatment than adults, including rape, specifically because they were children:

We were 70 to 75 people in a group cell that was three by three meters…. There were 15 and 16-year-old kids in the cell with us, six or seven of them with their fingernails pulled, their faces beaten. They treat the kids even worse than the adults. There is torture, but there is also rape for the boys. We would see them when the guards brought them back to the cell. It’s indescribable. You can’t talk about it. One boy came into the cell bleeding from behind. He couldn’t walk. It was something they just did to the boys. We would cry for them.

Malik, a 28-year-old from Latakia who told Human Rights Watch that he took part in demonstrations, said in a face-to-face interview that he was detained in late March 2011 in Latakia in an ad hoc facility run by shabiha where female detainees were sexually assaulted:

There were 35 of us in my cell. We were all there because of participation in demonstrations. There were no children … and no women, but you could hear the sound of women screaming. They were on the floor above us. They were being sexually assaulted, screaming, and yelling. We could hear the guards talking to them. We would cry listening to them…

Wissam, who was detained for several months in a number of facilities and released in November 2011, also told Human Rights Watch that he heard women being sexually assaulted while in detention:

They [the female detainees] were in a cell next to us … This was in both the Air Force Intelligence branch and Military Intelligence branch in Homs … From the noise it seemed to be a lot of women. We would hear that all day … Some of them were detained because their husbands or brothers were wanted … When the guards were screaming at them we would hear them say, “Let your son [who they wanted] come and get you,” or, “Let your brother come and set you free.” They would respond with crying, saying, “I have nothing to do with it. I didn’t do anything.”

Evidence on Sexual Abuse During Home Raids and Ground Operations in Residential Areas

Maha, from Daraa, who described how government forces and shabiha raided her house looking for her husband, said that they assaulted her and threatened her with rape if he did not turn himself in:

We were sleeping, me and my girls all in one bed. I have five girls. They are aged from 12 years to nine months. They broke the door, it is just a regular wood door, and came in. The first room you enter in our house is where we were sleeping. I got out of bed and they said to me, “Where is your husband.” I said, “I don’t know. He left a long time ago.” Then the one standing next to me came at me. He tore my shirt and started grabbing my breasts. My chest was completely exposed and I started to scream. Each one of them had a gun with him. The one who grabbed me looked like shabiha. He was wearing civilian clothes. When he did this the others were searching the house … The person in charge was outside. Someone came in and said, “the officer said to tell her that if he doesn’t turn himself in that she will see worse than this.” When he said this I feared rape … [This person] was wearing plain green military clothes. He was clearly from the army.

Wafa, who lived with her family in Hayy Ashera, Homs told Human Rights Watch in a face-to-face interview that a soldier tried to rape her while her husband hid during a home raid on March 8, 2012:

Two [soldiers] came into my house and … asked me where my husband was. They were wearing camouflage. They had vests that were full of weapons, knives, bullets, etc ... I told them there were no armed people in the house and that my husband was traveling. I started to show them around the house – we had nothing to hide. One of them … grabbed me when I went to open the pantry door. He grabbed my arm, and grabbed me by the side. I was afraid that if I screamed, my husband would hear from his hiding place [just outside the house] and would come up, but I did make some noise, and the other soldier heard me. He yelled, “Hey, leave her alone! Go out to the sitting area!” I thought if I made a noise we were all done for. He was trying to push me into the bedroom, and I was trying to pull myself back into the corridor … We fled three days later.

Suha from al Qusayr, Homs, also told Human Rights Watch in a face-to-face interview that the Syrian army raided her house a number of times during arrest operations. During one of these raids, she saidshabiha raped her 28-year-old neighbor whose house was also raided:

I heard her screaming [when my house was being searched] and went to her house [after the army left]. She was hysterical, and we talked. She told me one attacked her. The other two were at the door. She resisted him. When he was done he let the other two in. They took her hijab off. Her face was cut and bleeding when I saw her. She was hysterical. Blood was coming down her face. When the army left she went to her family’s house. There are no communications so I don’t know what happened after that. Her two kids were sitting in the corner [during the attack].

Selma, from Karm al-Zeitoun, Homs told Human Rights Watch in a face-to-face interview that she heard her neighbors being raped while hiding in her apartment in March 2012. She told Human Rights Watch that her family members had already fled the area and that she had returned home to pack clothing for her children when she realized she could no longer flee because the army and shabiha had entered her neighborhood:

I saw the security forces and the shabiha and I went into the house [and hid] ... My neighbor has girls. I heard her say to them, “Don’t let out a noise.” Our apartments are wall-to-wall ... They [the shabiha] came to our building … The door to my house was open still [as I left it when I was packing]. From my hiding place I could hear that someone came in and said “This one is empty, there is no one here”… They knocked on my neighbor’s door … One of them said, “Open or we will shoot.” She did not open the door and they shot at it … When they went in one said, “Why are you not opening the door?” She was saying, “Oh God, God forbid, don’t come close to me.” She said, “I will kiss your feet but don’t come near us”… The girls were protesting. I could hear them saying not to grab the mother and she was just saying, “Don’t touch my daughters.” I could hear one girl fighting with one of them. He was saying, “Oh, you are going to scratch me too?” She pushed him and he shot her in the head. She was the oldest. 20 years old … They grabbed the youngest. She was 12. You could hear her say, “Don’t take my clothes off.” The mother said, “This girl is 12.” The youngest, I saw her [later], her sweater was torn, all the way down the front. They raped her and they raped the two others … The other girls were 16 and 18 … I waited, hiding after they left. I didn’t move for one hour or so until the thuwar (revolutionaries) came ... The girls had closed the door to their house and were crying … I knocked on their door and said, “I am your neighbor let me in.” The scene on the inside was unreal. The 12 year old was lying on the ground, blood to her knees. I told them to get up, that this happened against their will. More than one person had raped the 12 year old. I heard them from my hiding place, saying, “Come on, enough, my turn.” She was torn the length of a forefinger. I will never go back there. It comes to me. I see it in my dreams and I just cry.

In a face-to-face interview Mansour, from Baba Amr, Homs told Human Rights Watch that when the army invaded in March 2012 that he knew from listening to her screams that his neighbor was sexually assaulted in her home by shabiha. In tears, he said:

Ten of them went into the house … Her screaming filled the air. Afterward they killed her in the street. They took her out into the street with her kids. She has three boys and two girls. They were all killed … we could see and hear the screaming from where we were … You hear a woman screaming and there is nothing you can do to help.

Talal, a taxi driver from Homs told Human Rights Watch in a face-to-face interview that shabihaapparently raped and killed a woman in her apartment in the Karm el Zeitoun neighborhood in Homs in April 2012. A close relative had called Talal, asking him to pick him up because his building had been attacked during the night. When he entered his relative’s apartment building, Talal noticed that the door to the apartment below his relative’s was open. When he and his relative entered the apartment they found a woman and a small child in the bedroom, both dead, apparently killed by knife wounds to the neck. Talal said the woman was naked from the waist down and had bruises on her thighs. His relative, who had hid in the attic during the night, said that he had seen the shabiha enter the building and that he had heard screams from the woman’s apartment.

Khalid also described to Human Rights Watch the sexual violence that accompanied the mass displacement following the Syrian army’s entry into the Baba Amr district of Homs in early March 2012:

One of my relatives – she is married with two kids – told me about how she was raped … After her house was shelled she left with her husband and two kids to live with neighbors. When they were there, the army came in and arrested the men, and only women and children were left … She said that 15 minutes later some army soldiers dressed as civilians came into the neighbor’s house where she was and put her and the other women there in the living room of the house. One of the soldiers took her, and put her in a room with a guard … She resisted him and he beat her. She showed me her hands. I saw her seven to eight days later. Her hands were still bruised. She tried to stop him, to beat him with her hands and legs but he said he would kill her two kids if she didn’t give in … [She said] he was dressed in military gear ... After that she fled from Baba Amr to al Qusayr. I saw her here. Her husband is still detained.

Yousef told Human Rights Watch that he watched soldiers from the security forces rape his wife during a military operation in Daraa on June 25, 2011. He said about 25 security agents and shabiha entered his house in the afternoon during house-to-house searches in the city. When the security forces had finished searching the house some left, leaving seven inside.

“They had handcuffed me and three of them were surrounding me,” he said. “Three others grabbed my wife and tore off her clothes and then the last guy raped her. They were all cursing and insulting us. There was nothing I could do to stop them. Then they took off the handcuffs and left.”

Security force and army defectors interviewed by Human Rights Watch face-to-face confirmed that women were sexually assaulted during home raids or detained during home raids so they could be assaulted.

Ghassan, a sergeant who defected from Brigade 18, Battalion 627, told Human Rights Watch that on the night of February 18, 2012, he was stationed at a small military camp outside of Zabadani, a town near Damascus, when a young woman, who may have been a minor, was brought to the camp and, he believes, raped by a captain when he forced her into an armored vehicle and held here there for two hours:

Some men wearing civilian clothes – I think they were intelligence or shabiha – came to the camp in a grey van with a girl around 16 to 19 wearing an abaya but her face was showing and her hands were handcuffed. They handed her to a captain at about 2:30 in the morning, who took her inside an armored vehicle. She was crying and screaming. I suspect she was arrested during one of the home raids in the area. I saw and heard this from about 150 meters away. The captain and the woman stayed in the tank until about 4:30 a.m. [when] a black van came and seven men dressed in black took the girl away.

Ahmed, an army defector from Division 10, Brigade 85, Battalion 37, also told Human Rights Watch that that in the second half of February 2012 a woman in Zabadani had been raped by a commander:

During the second part of February, at our camp, I heard members of the Hafiz al-Nizam (riot police) … say that they raided a house with no men [in Zabadani]. They said they took out a young woman after blindfolding her and covering her mouth so that she couldn’t speak or scream and put her in a vehicle. She was sent to a commander to be raped offsite.

Other defectors told Human Rights Watch that fellow officers bragged about raping women during home raids. Walid, the defector from Hafiz al-Nizam (riot police), told Human Rights Watch that other officers told him they had raped women during home raids in Daraa when they found women alone:

Last July I heard … [a Major from the Brigade] boasting about raping a woman. He was describing an incident that happened in the days or weeks before. He joked that during that house raid, “When I fucked the woman, she made a lot of noise because I must have pleased her so much.” A colleague responded, “You are not as clever as me, when I have sex with one of these women, I bind their mouths so that they don’t make any sounds. I don’t want people listening in.”

Toufiq, the defector who belonged to a security force mudahama (raid) unit, told Human Rights Watch that a friend in his unit admitted to having participated in a gang rape of two women during a home raid in November 2011 in Homs. He saw video on his friend’s cellphone that confirmed the gang rape.

He told me that the young women were taken to a military base and raped for two consecutive nights before they were released ... the men demanded that the two sisters have sex with them at the base but they protested that they were virgins and begged to keep their virginity. He told me that they threatened the women by brandishing a weapon, after which they complied … On the first clip of the video, I saw the two women being pulled by their hair from their homes and taken into vehicles. In another video, I heard one of the men speaking to the women while they were at the base. He said, “If you don’t have sex with us, I am going to kill you.” I saw both women crying, pleading with the men to let them go home. Some of the five men held one of the women down, one pulled her hair while another ripped off her clothes and then they proceeded to rape her. The second woman was raped as well and I saw the rape on the video. The women were held in the same room. In total I saw five men and recognized all of them but I can’t give their names especially since one of them is a good friend.

Limited Services for Sexual Violence VictimsSyrian survivors of sexual assault are reluctant to report sexual violence and seek treatment because of rampant stigma and the fear of reprisals by the attackers. Even if they seek help, survivors in Syria have limited access to medical or psychological treatment and other services due to a dearth of resources and inadequate mechanisms to facilitate and ensure access to appropriate health and other services. One Syrian women’s rights activist, Leila, told Human Rights Watch that she and her friends have tried to fill the service gap for women and girls by providing underground medical services, including abortion services, and safe shelter in Syria.

In May 2012, Leila said that her group had supported a family of three women, including two teenage girls, ages 14 and 21, after 10shabiha gang raped them in Homs during a home raid. The husband was killed trying to protect them. Leila told Human Rights Watch that they assisted the family after they relocated to a different city in Syria by finding them shelter, providing them with money, and assisting the 14-year-old girl in getting treatment for a sexually transmitted infection contracted during the attack. The mother and girls have not been able to get any psychological support.

Farah, a woman from Homs with medical training, also told Human Rights Watch in a face-to-face interview about the limited services she and others working in field hospitals in Homs were able to provide to female rape victims. She told Human Rights Watch that she cared for the injured during Syrian government ground operations in Hayy Ashera, Karm al-Zeitoun, and Nazheen, Homs in March 2012 and that through this work she had encountered a number of female rape victims, including children, some of whom had been killed. She said the services they were able to provide were limited to giving victims stitches if their genital skin was torn from the attack, providing them with aspirin, and helping them stop their bleeding. Describing the military operation in Hayy Ashera she said,

There were around seven girls [who were brought to] … the field hospital that had been killed. Some of them had been stabbed. You could see the knife marks. If they resisted they were beaten, you could see the marks. They were not wearing clothes on the bottom half, and above they were torn … There were five girls that came that were alive, that had been raped … They were blue and bruised … You could tell from their wounds that they were raped, most of them were girls (virgins) not women so it was obvious, they had blood running down their legs. We would give them a shot … to stop the bleeding and I would sew them up below [if their skin was torn]. I gave one three stiches, another four stiches. One girl was cut from front to back … I used six stiches to sew her together.

Farah also said that she saw six or seven young women and girls in a field hospital in Nazheen, Homs, after the military operation there in March and that she treated three teenage sisters, whose ages she approximated at 14, 16, and 18, who had been raped in their house in Karm al-Zeitoun in March 2012 after the army invaded.

Syrian women who have fled to neighboring countries also face obstacles in seeking treatment, even if services are available. In Jordan, a humanitarian assistance provider working with Syrian refugees told Human Rights Watch that her group is prepared to provide services to survivors of sexual abuse but that no victims have come forward. She said that barriers to assistance included social taboos surrounding sexual abuse and the fear of being subjected to honor crimes. She noted that there was also a need to build capacity to meet the needs of male sexual abuse survivors, who require different services and expertise.

A representative from a local women’s rights nongovernmental organization working with Syrian female rape victims in Jordan told Human Rights Watch in a face-to- face interview that some women seeking their services had to do so secretly, without telling their families. The representative said that the local group could not provide statistics on the numbers of rape survivors they were seeing but that in her field office in Ramtha, near the border with Syria, she had seen cases since February or March 2012 and that they were able to provide assistance to the victims. She noted that the numbers of those seeking assistance varied, saying, “One week you may get several cases and then a month may go by and you won’t see any.”

The Lebanese Council to Resist Violence against Woman told Human Rights Watch that their ability to provide assistance to sexual abuse survivors in Tripoli, Lebanon depended on funding. The Council’s president said, “We will provide [Syrian sexual assault] victims with social, medical and legal services …[but] unfortunately, if we don’t have enough funding we will not be able to continue with the program.”

Four community leaders in Lebanon who provide assistance to Syrian refugees separately told Human Rights Watch that no services were available to victims of sexual abuse in the Bekaa region, where there is a concentration of Syrian refugees. Human Rights Watch interviewed Sheikh Ayman from the Al Azhar Institue in Majdal Anjar, Lebanon, who is working to register and distribute aid to Syrian refugees in the Bekaa. He said: “We heard about two women who were raped in Syria but of course nobody will talk about it. There are no organizations working on the issue in the Bekaa.” Others who said there were no organizations working on the issue in the area included the mayor of Majdel Anjar, Anwar Hamzeh.

Source:http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/06/15/syria-sexual-assault-detention

Ontario amends Human Rights Code to extend protections to transgender people

BY KEITH LESLIE, CANADIAN PRESS JUNE 13, 2012

TORONTO — Ontario’s Human Rights Code was updated Wednesday for the first time since the 1980s to extend protections to transgender people, something Manitoba was expected to do Thursday.

Members of all three parties in Ontario’s legislature voted to amend the code to add the terms “gender identity” and “gender expression” to prevent discrimination against transgender people.

It was the first change to the code since it was amended to add the words “sexual orientation” to protect gays and lesbians.

New Democrat Cheri DiNovo, who tried for six years to amend the code with three previous private member’s bills, called the vote historic, and said it would prevent discrimination against transgender people looking for a job or a place to live.

“A long time coming, but it’s a very good day,” a beaming DiNovo told reporters after the vote.

“There’s a whole host of things that will be opened up for trans people because of this, and really this recognizes them simply as humans, with all the rights of every other human in Ontario.”

A similar amendment to Manitoba’s Human Rights Code to include gender identity was expected to pass into law Thursday.

The Ontario legislation was called Toby’s Act, in honour of the late musician Toby Dancer, who led the choir at the Toronto United Church where DiNovo was a minister before she became a member of provincial parliament.

A large percentage of transgender people attempt suicide and nearly half live below the poverty line, which DiNovo said shows they are a marginalized and vulnerable community in need of the same protections from discrimination as everyone else.

Liberal Yasir Naqvi, a co-sponsor of the all-party bill, said politicians thought they had covered all the bases when they amended the code in the 1980s to protect homosexuals.

“We thought at that time that by just adding “sexual orientation” we were covering all kinds of people, but we recognized soon after that was not the case, that we had excluded members of the trans community,” Naqvi told the legislature during third reading debate.

“Today, we’re taking that very important historic step forward by adding gender identity and gender expression ... so that no human being is left outside the scope, the protection, of the Ontario Human Rights Code.”

Deputy Progressive Conservative Leader Christine Elliott, the other co-sponsor, said DiNovo’s persistence on the issue helped persuade her colleagues about the need to protect transgender people.

“We have been educated in this process, and we have a much deeper understanding of some of the things that people in the trans community go through,” Elliott told the legislature.

“That’s why we’re here today, to make sure that we amend our Human Rights Code to properly reflect the need to protect the rights of everyone in our society, and that’s what this is all about.”

DiNovo credited the fact Ontario now has a minority government that makes it easier to get opposition bills brought forward for debate for her success in finally getting Toby’s Act passed into law.

“This shows minority government working as I think the electorate wants it to work, which is to work together,” she said.

Ontario is the first major jurisdiction in North America to provide human rights protections for transgender people. The Northwest Territories passed a similar bill, and DiNovo expects other provinces and American states to soon follow suit.

“The reality is this is very exciting, and I’m already getting calls from New York state, from North Carolina, so hopefully it starts a wave of moves across jurisdictions for trans,” said DiNovo.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

Source:http://www.canada.com/news/Ontario+amends+Human+Rights+Code+extend+protections+transgender+people/6776765/story.html

Activists say 53 killed yesterday- (11 June 2012)

Daily News Brief

11 June 2012

Local Coordination Committees (LCC) in Syria said 53 people died across Syria yesterday, including 5 children and 3 women. 26 were killed in Homs, 7 in Idlib, and 6 in Lattakia. 96 deaths were reported Saturday.

In Dara’a’s Daeel, Inkel, Hirak and Kafar Shams districts, heavy gunfire and shelling was reported by government forces, the LCC said. In Aleppo’s Hayyan, Kafar Karmein, Atareb, Kafar Aleppo, Kabeesa, Ibyen and Jeena districts, many were killed and homes destroyed by government shelling yesterday.

The Homs districts of Ghanto and Khaldieh were heavily shelled yesterday, LCC claimed. Lebanese paper Al-Hayat confirmed this, adding that the city of Rastan was under heavy shelling. More than 500 rockets and mortar were launched on the town since Saturday, Al-Hayat said.

Beirut’s Daily Star reported that activists said the Syrian army used artillery, mortars and rockets in Homs, in one of the biggest bombardments since a failed UN-mandated cease-fire in April.

Syrian forces also hit opposition strongholds in the towns of Quseir, Talbiseh and Rastan in central Syria in a renewed push to regain rebel-held areas, the paper reported.

In Talbiseh yesterday, rebel forces attacked and captured a military base, with a colonel and several officers defecting to the opposition, Free Syrian Army representatives and activists told the Daily Star.

And in Deir ez-Zor’s Baserah district the village of Rez was shelled “by tanks and anti-aircraft” weapons, the LCC said.

Security forces, stormed a “terrorist group” hideout in Yelda town in Damascus countryside and seized explosive devices and toxic materials, SANA reported.

An “armed terrorist group” sabotaged a power transmission station in the city of Homs, SANA said. And an “armed terrorist group” today attacked a military unit at al-Ghanto town in Homs countryside.

Al-Wattan, a Damascus daily, said that “armed terrorist groups” tried last Friday to enter Damascus from several directions, but the result was a “disastrous failure” by the Syrian Free Army, many of whom were killed, wounded or detained.

SANA said the bodies of 22 security personnel were laid to rest yesterday.

Armed groups yesterday fired a mortar shell at the Syrian Cabinet building in Damascus, Al-Adounia TV reported yesterday. Details are not clear but media sources said the shell came from al-Razi orchards, the scene of recent clashes between rebels and government forces. Witnesses apparently said that UN observers visited the site.

Opposition Syrian National Council elects new leader

Abdulbaset Sayda was elected yesterday in Istanbul as the chairman of the Syrian National Council, replacing Burhan Ghalioun, the BBC reported. Sieda, born in 1956, said at a press conference that he will do his best to unify various opposition groups.

Speaking yesterday, Sayda told reporters he wanted to reform and restructure the Syrian National Council, the BBC said. “We are entering a sensitive phase. The regime is on its last legs. The multiplying massacres and shellings show that it is struggling," he said.

Russia clarifies arms sales to Syria

Russia was completing its air defense contracts with Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on June 9, Russian media agency RIA Novosti reported. Lavrov said that “Russia is not supplying any arms that can be used against protesters.”

Lavrov said that in contrast to Moscow “our US colleagues are supplying countries of the Persian Gulf region with the very type of arms that could be used against peaceful demonstrators."

Activists say 14,100 killed since March 2011

The London-based Syrian Observatory for human rights said yesterday that 14,100 people have died in the Syria uprising: 9862 civilians, 783 army defectors, and 3470 army and security force personnel. “Shabiha” militias are not included. 3000 people have died since the April 12 ceasefire.

Source:http://www.syria-today.com/index.php/component/content/article/748-daily-news-brief/20649-11-june-2012 For more informatin refer to http://www.syria-today.com

WHAT IS GENOCIDE?

THE TERM "GENOCIDE"

The term "genocide" did not exist before 1944. It is a very specific term, referring to violent crimes committed against groups with the intent to destroy the existence of the group. Human rights, as laid out in the US Bill of Rights or the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, concern the rights of individuals.

In 1944, a Polish-Jewish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959) sought to describe Nazi policies of systematic murder, including the destruction of the European Jews. He formed the word "genocide" by combining geno-, from the Greek word for race or tribe, with -cide, from the Latin word for killing. In proposing this new term, Lemkin had in mind "a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves." The next year, theInternational Military Tribunal held at Nuremberg, Germany,charged top Nazis with "crimes against humanity." The word “genocide” was included in the indictment, but as a descriptive, not legal, term.

THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE

On December 9, 1948, in the shadow of the Holocaust and in no small part due to the tireless efforts of Lemkin himself, the United Nations approved the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This convention establishes "genocide” as an international crime, which signatory nations “undertake to prevent and punish.” It defines genocide as:

[G]enocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

While many cases of group-targeted violence have occurred throughout history and even since the Convention came into effect, the legal and international development of the term is concentrated into two distinct historical periods: the time from the coining of the term until its acceptance as international law (1944-1948) and the time of its activation with the establishment of international criminal tribunals to prosecute the crime of genocide (1991-1998). Preventing genocide, the other major obligation of the convention, remains a challenge that nations and individuals continue to face.

"This article is taken from the website of 'United States Holocaust Memorial Museum" for detail information on Genocide Studies you can refer to http://www.ushmm.org

Human Rights Watch: Liberia Militias Attacking Ivorian Villages

Groups who supported former president have killed at least 40 civilians, says human rights group

Laura Burke Associated Press

June 07, 2012

ACCRA, Ghana(AP) -- Armed groups in Liberia who supported Ivory Coast's former president have killed at least 40 civilians in cross-border raids into Ivory Coast since July and are recruiting children as young as 14 into their ranks, a human rights group said Wednesday.

Human Rights Watch says the armed men, most of whom fought for Ivory Coast's former president and flooded over the border to Liberia following his arrest, carried out at least four attacks targeting ethnic groups who support Ivory Coast's current president, Alassane Ouattara.

Ivory Coast was brought to the brink of civil war when former President Laurent Gbagbo refused to cede power to Ouattara in a 2010 election. The U.N. estimates at least 3,000 people were killed in the six months of violence that followed. Gbagbo was arrested with the help of U.N. and French forces in April 2011, and is now facing charges of war crimes at The Hague.

Both sides handed out weapons and recruited young men to fight during the conflict. Several thousand Liberian mercenaries joined the fight, the vast majority for Gbagbo's side, Human Rights Watch says. Following Gbagbo's arrest, many of the mercenaries and militiamen who fought for him fled across the porous border into Liberia's forests, or clandestinely, into its refugee camps.

The New York-based rights group says the Liberian government has failed to respond to the presence of armed groups on the border or to the recruitment of child soldiers.

``Rather than uphold its responsibility to prosecute or extradite those involved in international crimes, Liberian authorities have stood by as many of these same people recruit child soldiers and carry out deadly cross-border attacks,'' said Matt Wells, West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.

There was no immediate reaction to the report by the Liberian government, though Ivory Coast deputy defense minister Paul Koffi Koffi said the Ivorian and Liberian authorities are collaborating to prevent further attacks.

``We're working with the Liberians and we have reinforced patrols along the border,'' Koffi Koffi said. He said there was a joint military program in place, but that it was secretive and he could not provide details.

Human Rights Watch said it had documented armed groups recruiting Liberian children and residents of several Liberian border towns also described seeing children at a training camp for fighters. A 17-year-old boy told the group he led a unit that included other children and that they had participated in cross-border attacks.

The rights group says the government is also responsible for releasing ``war criminals'' from prison. In April, Liberian authorities released Isaac Chegbo on bail, a mercenary better known as ``Bob Marley'' for his long dreadlocks. Chegbo is accused of leading massacres in Ivory Coast last year that left more than 120 people dead.

News Courtesy:http://theskanner.com/article/Human-Rights-Watch-Liberia-Militias-Attacking-Ivorian-Villages-2012-06-07

Problem of Human Right in India: Special reference to “Violation of Human Right in Assam”

This article is contributed by Mr Priyanku Narayan Baruah. He is a research scholar at CMJ University, Shillong, Meghalaya. You can contact Priyanku @ 08822797237 & alwayspriyanku@gmail.com

India’s experience in enforcement of human right is not very significant. There are many social, political, economic constrains in this field. Thousands of cases of violation of human right suffering from the dirty bureaucratic RED TAP. Although in theory Indian constitution emphasizes socio-economic, political justice, liberty of thought expression, belief, faith and worship, equal status and opportunity, fraternity and dignity of individual. There are many recognized and accepted human rights like freedom of information, association, political right of women and children, social security of discrimination, elimination of all forms of slavery and torture and ensuring of freedom. Within Indian context the Constitution empowers the Supreme Court and High court to enforce the rights. Similarly the Constitution also leaves scope to ensure empowerment and good governance. The Constitution (Art 23) and Indian Police Act forbid torture similarly the Indian Panel Court (IPC) expands the protection of rights. Such as the rape of the women in police custody carries none enchants punishment.. There are many laws and regulations expanding the orbit of social security. Tribal have been given special protection and effective action and laws are aimed that removing discriminations. In addition laws and regulation the Government of India has set up NHRC as acquired by as HR Protection 1993. The states have said their HR Commission. A National Women’s Commission has also been set up. We have specific Commission for STs and SCs, minorities as well as backward classes. Apart from all these the civil commission studies issues of HR from time to time and enumerates new laws and amendments to existing laws. Much more important are the institution of free press, strong impartial judiciary who play very important role.

Surprisingly even if these sorts of provisions are enumerated in Indian Constitution, tragic truth was that these laws are never implemented properly till now. Many women, children and other vulnerable sections of society have suffered. While in theory human rights are guaranteed to all the citizens, in reality only a few obtain the benefits of the rights. Even after more than five decades of independence, land reforms have not been implemented throughout the country. The peasant still suffers under tenancy laws. Primary education has not been imparted to all the children of the country. Unemployment has remained a major problem being faced by the youth .It can be critically say that the democratic process has become the monopoly of a class and is not the representative of the masses today. Cases of violation of human rights are more critical in Assam. In respects of Assam, grave violation of human rights occurs primarily because of the lack of primarily education, in effective delivery system, lack of awareness and due to extreme party politics, as well as ineffective administrative system sponsored top to bottom level corruption In Assam; blasting, bombing and corruption represents the modern Assamese culture in contemporary days. Open Murder, Rap, Dacoiti becomes the significant character of present Assamese social life. Administration turns to be the handicap spectator. Government frequently sounds of a Healthy and Wealthy Assam, but they even know their failure. It is a very shameful story that teachers were beaten by police; during democratic protest session, media persons have been victimized in many cases. Still Foreigners issue, Autonomy issues are unsolved, ULFA question is burning. Even if Assam government demanded that in Assam life and property of general public is safe, truth showed another picture. Still in Assam child workers have lost their right, still Nikita Jain, like girls are the victims of dowry, although the victims are punished very rarely. Bomb blast in Guwahati, Nalbari of Assam etc. indicates how the term human rights have been violating in Assam. As the public today are very professional and day by day as most of human being loss their moral sense, it becomes the important factor which inspires the evil groups to do the danger, as public have no time to sound against them. Luckily in recent days some protests are continuing against terrorism and other forms of violations of human rights.

           

  With active campaign and cooperation by all human rights organizations and government and the people, the cases of abuses can come down. Transparency in the functioning of bureaucracy is needed to provide credibility to the system. Number of human right organization (HRO) s has come up. Young men and women inspired by the spirit of human freedom should work at grassroots level among the deprived and exploited sections of the people, such as the tribal, dalits, women and landless labourers to make them aware and instigate to fearlessly fight for their rights.    

          For elimination of any kind of violation of human right; the awareness of the civil society is must.

Riot-hit western Burma province in state of emergency

Burma's president Thein Sein has announced a state of emergency in the western state of Rakhine, following a week of attacks in the area.

A spate of violence involving Buddhists and Muslims has left seven people dead and hundreds of properties damaged.

Trouble flared after the murder of a Buddhist woman last month, followed by an attack on a bus carrying Muslims.

Officials announced a curfew in four towns in the state earlier, expressing concerns about further clashes.

A state of emergency essentially allows the military to take over administrative control of the region.

State television said the order was in response to increasing "unrest and terrorist attacks" and "intended to restore security and stability to the people immediately".

President Thein Sein said the violence could put the country's moves towards democracy in danger.

"If we put racial and religious issues at the forefront, if we put the never-ending hatred, desire for revenge and anarchic actions at the forefront, and if we continue to retaliate and terrorise and kill each other, there's a danger that (the troubles) could multiply and move beyond Rakhine," he said.

"If this happens, the general public should be aware that the country's stability and peace, democratisation process and development, which are only in transition right now, could be severely affected and much would be lost."

A nominally civilian government was elected in 2010 and, in April this year, opposition politicians led by Aung San Suu Kyi entered Burma's parliament following historic by-elections.

However, the government is still dominated by the military and concerns over political repression and human rights abuses continue.

The violence began on 4 June when a mob attacked a bus in Taungup, Rakhine province, apparently mistakenly believing some of the passengers were responsible for the earlier rape and murder of a Buddhist woman.

The suspected perpetrators were later arrested in the town of Ramree in the far south of the province and are now on trial.

Ten Muslims died in the attack, which led to rioting in Maung Daw and Buthidaung townships on Friday and attacks on Buddhist properties.

According to state media, the rioting left at least seven people dead and 17 wounded.

Rakhine state is named for the ethnic Rakhine Buddhist majority but also has a sizeable Muslim population, including the Rohingya minority.

The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic group and are stateless, as Burma considers them to be illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18384929

World Report 2012: Iraq

Source:http://www.acus.org/content/iraq

Human rights conditions in Iraq remained extremely poor, especially for journalists, detainees, and opposition activists. In part inspired by peaceful uprisings elsewhere in the region, thousands of Iraqis demonstrated in the streets to demand better services and an end to corruption. Security forces and gangs responded with violence and threats.

Reports continued of torture of detainees unlawfully held outside the custody of the Justice Ministry. In late June or early July United States forces handed over the last of the 192 detainees in Iraq who were still under US control at the end of 2010, including some former members of Saddam Hussein's government. Attacks by armed groups killed hundreds of civilians as well as police. The US continued to withdraw troops as part of a 2008 agreement that calls for a complete US withdrawal by the end of 2011.

Freedom of Assembly

After thousands took to the streets in February to protest widespread corruption and demand greater civil and political rights, federal Iraqi authorities and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) authorities both responded with violence.

On February 21, Iraqi police stood by as dozens of assailants, some wielding knives and clubs, stabbed and beat at least 20 protesters intending to camp in Tahrir Square in Baghdad, the capital. During nationwide demonstrations on February 25, security forces killed at least 12 protesters across the country and injured more than 100. Baghdad security forces beat unarmed journalists and protesters that day, smashing cameras and confiscating memory cards.

Anti-government protests started in Kurdistan on February 17. At this writing security forces had killed at least 10 protesters and bystanders and injured more than 250.On March 6, masked assailants attacked demonstrators in Sara Square—the center of daily protests in Sulaimaniya—and set the demonstrators’ tents on fire, but failed to evict the demonstrators from the site. On April 18, security forces seized control of Sara Square to prevent further demonstrations. On April 27 the KRG released a 19-page report that determined that both security forces and protesters were responsible for violence, and that security forces “were not prepared to control the situation.”

On June 10 in Baghdad government-backed thugs armed with wooden planks, knives, iron pipes, and other weapons beat and stabbed peaceful protesters and sexually molested female demonstrators as security forces stood by and watched, sometimes laughing at the victims.

Authorities also used legal means to curtail protests. On April 13, Iraqi officials issued new regulations barring street protests and allowing them only at three soccer (football) stadiums, although they have not enforced the regulations. In May the Council of Ministers approved a "Law on the Freedom of Expression of Opinion, Assembly, and Peaceful Demonstration" that authorizes officials to restrict freedom of assembly to protect "the public interest" and in the interest of "general order or public morals." At this writing the law still awaited parliamentary approval.

Freedom of Expression

In 2011 Iraq remained one of the most dangerous countries in the world to work as a journalist. Armed groups and unknown assailants killed at least five journalists and one media worker, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Journalists also contended with emboldened Iraqi and KRG security forces.

On February 20, dozens of masked men attacked the private Nalia Radio and Television (NRT) station in Sulaimaniya. They shot up broadcasting equipment and wounded one guard. They then doused the premises with gasoline and set fire to the building, according to the station's staff. NRT had begun its inaugural broadcasts of footage of the protests only two days before the attack.

On February 23 security forces in Baghdad raided the office of the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, a press freedom group. Their destructive search lasted more than an hour and they seized computers, external hard drives, cameras, cell phones, computer disks, and documents as well as flak jackets and helmets marked “Press.”

More than 20 journalists covering protests in Kurdistan said that security forces and their proxies routinely threatened journalists, subjected them to arbitrary arrest, beatings, and harassment, and confiscated or destroyed their equipment. After quashing the daily protests in Sulaimaniya in April, KRG officials and security forces expanded their suppression of journalists through libel suits, beatings, detentions, and death threats. The threat of attacks and arrests sent some journalists into hiding.

On September 8 an unknown assailant shot to death Hadi al-Mahdi, a popular radio journalist often critical of government corruption and social inequality, at his Baghdad home. The Ministry of Interior said it would investigate his death, but at this writing no one had been charged. Immediately prior to his death al-Mahdi received several phone and text message threats not to return to Tahrir Square. Earlier, after attending the February 25 “Day of Anger” mass demonstration in Baghdad, security forces arrested, blindfolded, and severely beat him along with three other journalists during their subsequent interrogation.

In April Iraq’s parliament approved a Journalists’ Protection Law, intended to protect media workers and compensate them for injuries sustained while working. Critics say the law does not do enough to ensure proper protections for journalists.

In May the Council of Ministers approved adraft of the “Law on Freedom of Expression of Opinion, Assembly, and Peaceful Demonstration,” which contains provisions that would criminalize speech, with penalties of up to 10 years in prison. Under article 13, anyone who “attacks a belief of any religious sect or shows contempt for its rites”, or publicly insults a “symbol, or person who is held sacred, exalted, or venerated by a religious sect” would face up to one year in jail and fines of up to 10 million Iraqi dinars (US$8,600). The law provides no guidance about what might constitute an unlawful insult.

Secret Prisons and Torture

In February Human Rights Watch uncovered, within the Camp Justice military base in Baghdad, a secret detention facility controlled by elite security forces who report to the military office of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Beginning on November 23, 2010, Iraqi authorities transferred more than 280 detainees to the facility, which was controlled by the Army's 56th Brigade and the Counter-Terrorism Service.

The same elite divisions controlled Camp Honor, a separate facility in Baghdad where detainees were tortured with impunity. More than a dozen former Camp Honor detainees told Human Rights Watch how detainees were held incommunicado and in inhumane conditions, many for months at a time. Detainees said interrogators beat them; hung them upside down for hours at a time; administered electric shocks to various body parts, including the genitals; and repeatedly put plastic bags over their heads until they passed out from asphyxiation. On March 14 the Justice Ministry announced that it would close Camp Honor after a parliamentary investigative committee found evidence of torture during a spot inspection of the facility. Human Rights Watch has since received credible information that elite forces may still hold and interrogate detainees at Camp Honor.

At this writing the authorities had not prosecuted any officials responsible for torture at Camp Honor.

Women’s and Girls’ Rights and Gender-Based Violence

Iraq adjudicates family law and personal status matters pursuant to a 1959 Personal Status Code. The law discriminates against women by granting men privileged status in matters of divorce and inheritance.The law further discriminates against women by permitting Iraqi men to have as many as four polygamous marriages.

On October 6 Iraq’s parliament passed legislation to lift Iraq’s reservation to article 9 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Article 9 grants women equal rights with men to acquire, change, or retain their nationality and pass on their nationality to their children.

Violence against women and girls continued to be a serious problem across Iraq. Women's rights activists said they remained at risk of attack from extremists, who also targeted female politicians, civil servants, and journalists. “Honor” crimes and domestic abuse remained a threat to women and girls, who were also vulnerable to trafficking for sexual exploitation and forced prostitution due to insecurity, displacement, financial hardship, social disintegration, and the dissolution of rule of law and state authority.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is practiced mainly in Kurdish areas of northern Iraq and several official and non-governmental studies estimate that the prevalence of FGM among girls and women in Kurdistan is at least 40 percent. On June 21 Kurdistan’s parliament passed the Family Violence Bill, which includes several provisions criminalizing the practice, as well as forced and child marriages, and verbal, physical, and psychological abuse of girls and women.

Attacks on Civilians

Attacks by armed groups killed hundreds of civilians and security forces. Assailants targeted provincial councils and government officials, checkpoints, markets, and mosques. In one of the worst attacks, a string of over 40 coordinated assaults in 17 cities on August 15 killed more than 90 people, including many unarmed civilians and members of the security forces.

The ongoing attacks, along with injuries from abandoned landmines and cluster munitions, have created a disproportionately high number of persons with physical and mental disabilities, many of whom have not received rehabilitation or support for re-integration into their communities. On August 17 Iraq's parliament held a second reading of a resolution to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Two draft disability laws under consideration would create a national body to oversee disability issues. But the proposed laws have several deficiencies including language that is incompatible with the CRPD.

Key International Actors

The European Court of Human Rights issued two landmark judgments on July 7, 2011, which ruled that the United Kingdom’s human rights obligations apply to British acts in Iraq, and that the UK had violated the European Convention on Human Rights by failing to adequately investigate the killings of five Iraqis by its forces there, and that its internment of Iraqis had amounted to arbitrary detention.

On September 8 a three-year UK inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa, a hotel receptionist who died in British custody following serious abuse by British soldiers, condemned inadequate detention procedures, leadership failures, poor training, a loss of discipline, and a lack of “moral courage” among soldiers to report abuse. Only one British soldier was convicted of any crime in connection with this killing, and he was sentenced to only one year in prison.

In September Wikileaks released thousands of classified cables from the US embassy in Baghdad, one of which called into question the results of a US military investigation of a 2006 incident in which US soldiers may have handcuffed and executed at least 10 Iraqi civilians.

In July the United Nations Security Council voted to extend the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) for another year. UNAMI’s 2010 Report on Human Rights in Iraq, released in August 2011, found that “significant problems remain with law enforcement and the administration of justice, especially in relation to the provision and respect for due process and fair trial rights,” and that “incidents of abuse and torture remain widely reported.” 

Source:http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2012/world-report-2012-iraq