Hammurabi Human Rights Organization followed with great concern the systematic violence that targeted Iraqis demonstrating for their most basic rights in front of the Green Zone on September 3, 2024. It is worth noting that most of the demonstrators are pharmacists, doctors, laboratory experts, nursing staff, students, and others.
It is unfortunate that some security services are tools that do not respect the constitution and act as if we were in the bygone era when we had no right to express our opinion for the most basic rights?! Where are we returning to, O new Iraq? Do you believe or not that we have changed the system from authoritarian to democratic? That is, from confiscating opinions to freedom of expression, dialogue, and understanding? Does the constitution have a place in mind, while from the preamble to many articles, it emphasizes respect for the rules of law, strengthening freedom of opinion, and ensuring the safety of demonstrations as acquired rights that occupy the heart of the constitution.
Are we not in a democratic system today and not a repressive one? This means that the people have their say and their place, because they are the "source of authorities" and their goal. Here we remind you of what is stated in some articles of this constitution that are being violated quite simply and in full view of all civil authorities, including the judiciary! The constitution is the basic guarantor of the freedom of all segments of society. It is not enough to enact constitutional and legal texts to protect public freedoms. But the legislative and executive authorities must abide in all their actions by the constitutional texts first and the legislative texts second. And this is what is called the principle of the rule of law. Seeing the crime of attacking the recent demonstration, we can present constitutional articles as follows to clarify the suppressing acts;
The preamble states: "The system of government in Iraq is a federal, democratic, pluralistic one. We are determined, with our men, women, elders and youth, to respect the rules of law and achieve justice and equality." This means that everyone has a role in managing their rights and performing their duties. Respected security services, overthrowing the demonstrators is the opposite of your duty to secure their lives during the period of their legitimate demands to listen to those demands, receive them in writing and deliver them to the relevant authorities, and not to approach or mix with the demonstrators since you are armed and your presence is to protect their gathering while they are unarmed, by remaining meters away from them, to avoid any friction between you and the demonstrators who are angry because of their difficult conditions. In principle, in your service or duties, it is related to the security of the citizen, regardless of his status and circumstances. Your duties are to serve and protect the lives of citizens before anything else. In any case, your mission is neither to direct insults nor to strike with which you incite the defenseless who in turn try to defend themselves against your weapons aimed at them. As a result, since you are part of the authority and armed, you confront the defenseless while you are armed! Your actions cannot be exonerated, which unfortunately may have led to injuries among you. This is a foregone conclusion of the intimidation and armed confrontation that you have witnessed. If you limit these missions to the principle of protecting the state represented by the figures of authority themselves without the purpose of their existence as public figures, then you need more details. We will certainly hear you say, "We are ordered slaves." This is also unacceptable, because the era of slaves is gone, and atrocities are held accountable regardless of their perpetrators, because they are serious crimes and unjust violations. The question might be: is this one of our basic missions? Yes, even if the mission is to protect an official, the basic goal is to serve the citizen. As citizens, we must ask further: Who gave you this degree of tyranny against people who have worked hard to live a decent life and serve their country? This is one of their most basic rights, which is to demand the right to work. Let us reach out to the constitution to see the extent of the security authorities’ commitment to respecting it:
Article 38 The state guarantees, without prejudice to public order and morals, freedom of expression by all means.
First: Freedom of the press, printing, advertising and publishing.
Second: Freedom of assembly and peaceful demonstration. This is regulated by law, and even if there are no laws yet in this regard, the constitution is the law of laws.
Article 9/First states: “The Iraqi armed forces and security services are composed of components of the Iraqi people...and are subject to the leadership of the civilian authority. They shall not be a tool for suppressing the Iraqi people and shall not interfere in political affairs, etc. “ So who is the political party from which the armed elements in camouflage uniforms derived their power and authority and in the name of riot police attempted to kill, injure, humiliate and beat women with " Military bot " including severe beatings in stomach, not just cursing, swearing, dragging with hair, touching with intimidation and threats and describing them with all kinds of obscene titles! One of the victims witnessed in her interview with Hammurabi Human Rights Organization what is unacceptable in terms of backwardness and violence practiced by those agencies that cannot be affiliated with state institutions in any way and are concerned with protecting Iraqis and Iraq.
Article 2-C states that "No law may be enacted that contradicts the freedoms stipulated in this constitution." After this text, will those forces recognized as "security" return to the law of the bygone era that allows them to suppress and kill because of the exercise of freedoms as human rights?
Article 5 - Sovereignty belongs to the law and the people are the source of authority and its legitimacy.... Has the apparatus forgotten this, that it is the people who give them the legitimacy of their positions, which instead of protecting and serving the demonstrators as a people who express their suffering in an honorable manner, and who practice the first criteria for the existence of democracy, i.e. the demonstration, some security agencies spread them with wounds and insults in the squares of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities by using excessive and inappropriate authority and force? While the Iraqi borders are being breached, and Iraq's sovereignty is being hit by attacks and retreats, etc., as a result of its public violation, where are the muscles of these "heroes" who use tools of severe beating to shed the blood of cadres who did nothing but exercise a small part of their right to demand a decent life?
Article 7 - Secondly, the state is committed to fighting terrorism in all its forms... Are these practices not legalized and imposed terrorism? Who knows? And the testimony of one of the young wounded said to Hammurabi, "They were with the knowledge of the leaders, and systematically from the drug gang, or rather from those trained to fight drugs, as if they had no connection to the riot forces in the cities." How can you accept, Mr. Prime Minister, that chaos prevails in the ranks of these multiple security agencies? Is there a need for all these weapons in the Iraqi streets to be directed at the chests of the Iraqis? What has the citizen done but live in the woes that you have no end for? According to an official in the coordination of demonstrations, 25 were wounded, two of whom are in danger and two others are missing, in addition to the humiliation of the rest in the investigations, while they had officially requested approval to practice this demonstration and their coordination is known to the security services!
D- "The Iraqi National Intelligence Service collects information, assesses threats to national security, and advises the Iraqi government. It is under civilian control, subject to legislative oversight, and operates in accordance with the law and in accordance with recognized human rights principles": What have the intelligence and national security agencies done to prevent the occurrence of such horrific violations that only add to Iraq's backwardness and regression in the entire development process, and even a continuous testimony to the sophistication of violence and abuse of the people, especially women? According to which law allows these agencies to commit these crimes, and the constitution protects two areas of rights: the law and human rights principles, i.e. Iraq's international obligations regarding international human rights law, to which Iraq is a party and bound by it through many binding declarations and agreements, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the two 1966 International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In the September 3 demonstration, as in all previous demonstrations, October and others, all these violations are flagrant violations and deserve condemnation and justice by holding accountable those behind them and those responsible for them, regardless of their positions, in addition to compensating the victims and their families for the physical and psychological harm they suffered.
Article 22/First: "Work is a right for all Iraqis in a way that guarantees them a decent life." What did the demonstrators do other than apply this article? To whom was this constitutional article directed, only to those who hold positions and are attached to them? Or have those whose work is secure forgotten that they are serving those who have no work!! The security apparatus's mission is to protect them, and the administration's mission is to create job opportunities for them and facilitate the demands of the private sector to absorb the largest possible number of them, and even respect those rights that are often distributed on purely sectarian grounds.
Second: The state guarantees the right to establish unions and professional associations, or to join them.... What are the missions of these unions and governmental and non-governmental civil organizations except to join forces to convey the voice of the concerned citizens by all available means, including organizing demonstrations with the aim of rescuing the rights of every individual from the hands that do not make room for the public.
Article 37: First A - "Human freedom and dignity are protected." It seems that, as usual, Iraqis write the best things and practice the worst without any accountability to the conscience that is already more and more counted among the dead! Preserving the dignity of the demonstrators was the duty of all governmental and other agencies, especially the armed security agencies, which are required by the civil agencies not to leave them alone in public gathering squares without specifying their stopping points while doing their work, away from the gathering itself, to avoid incitement to acts of violence. So unfortunately, what resulted was nothing but a testimony of their enjoyment of the escalation of the instinct of violence and bloodshed by both parties, as this article does not exist in their imagination.
B- "No one may be arrested or investigated except by virtue of a judicial decision." Is there respect for the judicial authorities in giving them the necessary opportunity to do their work? Or has Iraq become prey to everyone who is strengthened by strangers?
Article 46: "The exercise of any of the rights stipulated in this Constitution may not be restricted or limited except by law or based on it, provided that such restriction or limitation does not affect the essence of the right or freedom." The gist of these facts is that laws that affect the essence of human rights and freedom cannot be acted upon. Therefore, the road is long for all security and civil authorities to understand and practice the protection of these rights that derive from the loftiness of human rights and the sanctity of human dignity, which cannot be violated for any justification, but rather to serve man in ruling with justice and equality, correcting his paths, and respecting all his simple and basic rights, whether they are natural and born with his birth, or those acquired and legislated by laws ...
We conclude by repeating that every violation directed at human dignity represents a crime. Because human dignity is inherent in him and is inalienable. And for the sake of that dignity that gives human being superiority over other creatures, the right or rights were and continue to be demanded by their owners, regardless of the grip of the authorities, and this is the standard of democracy ...
Long live Iraq of democracy and respect for freedoms
Hammurabi Human Rights Organization / Baghdad September 5, 2024
