Treatment of detainees

1.18.1 Iraq

The June 2018 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions in Iraq states that the Constitution of Iraq ‘guarantees the right to legal representation to all arrested persons during phases of investigation and trial’ and the Constitution ‘prohibits all forms of psychological, physical torture and inhumane treatment, and states that any confession made under duress may not be relied on in court’.⁶⁸⁷ Nevertheless, the UN Special Rapporteur describes several cases of Sunni Arab civilians killed in detention during the military campaign against ISIL from 2014 until 2017. These incidents occurred in Mosul, Tal Afar, Baquba, Muqdadiya and Fallujah. The perpetrators included members of the Armed Forces, the Counterterrorism Service, the Police and also units of the PMU.⁶⁸⁸

Human Rights Watch denounced the precarious conditions in pre-trial detention, comprising overcrowding, ill treatment and torture. Human Rights Watch investigated the conditions of detention and the accusations of torture in several detention localities in Iraq, and presented witness accounts of former detainees and relatives of detainees in the Mosul area. It found only two detainees and one family member willing to testify, but claimed that the torture methods described are consistent with those described by other former detainees and captured in photos and videos by a photojournalist in May 2017.⁶⁸⁹ The conditions for ISIL suspects in the pre-trial detention facilities are described above in the section 1.2.1.

683 UN Security Council, First Report of the Secretary-General pursuant to paragraph 7 of resolution 2233 (2015), 26 October 2015, url, pp. 11-12.

684 UNAMI/OHCHR, Report on Human Rights in Iraq: July to December 2016, 30 August 2017, url, p. 28.

685 UNAMI/OHCHR, Report on Human Rights in Iraq January to June 2017, 14 December 2017, url, p. 10.

686 UNAMI/OHCHR, Report on Human Rights in Iraq: July to December 2017, 8 July 2018, url, p. 11.

687 UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions on her mission to Iraq [A/HRC/38/44/Add.1], 20 June 2018, url, p. 6.

688 UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions on her mission to Iraq [A/HRC/38/44/Add.1], 20 June 2018, url, p. 8.

689 Human Rights Watch, Iraq: Chilling Accounts of Torture, Deaths. 19 August 2017, url.

Amnesty International corroborates the allegations of arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention and widespread torture of terrorism suspects:

‘Men and boys suspected of being members of IS were subjected to enforced disappearance – cut off from their families and the outside world – in facilities controlled by the Iraqi Ministries of the Interior and Defence, the KRG and in secret detention centres. Detainees were interrogated by security officers without lawyers present and were routinely tortured. Common forms of torture included beatings on the head and body with metal rods and cables, suspension in stress positions by the arms or legs, electric shocks, and threats of rape of female relatives. Detainees faced limited access to medical care, which led to deaths in custody and amputations. They also endured harsh conditions, including severe overcrowding, poor ventilation and lack of access to showers or toilets.’⁶⁹⁰

Not only ISIL suspects, but also other detainees face ill treatment and torture, as pointed out by other sources. In its 2017 periodical Human Rights report, UNAMI/OHCHR received a number of complaints from detainees, prisoners and defendants that they had been subjected to torture and ill treatment to extract confessions during police interrogations.⁶⁹¹

UNAMI/OHCHR monitored places of detention run by the Ministry of Justice and found that the ‘physical conditions in many detention facilities and prisons remain poor.’⁶⁹² Furthermore, UNAMI/OHCHR noted that at the end of 2017, UNICEF reported that at least 1 036 children up to the age of 18 (1 024 boys and 12 girls) remained in juvenile detention facilities on charges related to national security, in most cases for alleged association with ISIL.⁶⁹³ Human Rights Watch noted that children are not always separated from adult detainees.⁶⁹⁴ In 2015 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed serious concerns on the detention of children under terrorism charges: the large number of children accused or convicted for terrorism-related charges, the way how they were held in detention, and the fact that child relatives of terrorism suspects were ‘illegally arrested, held without charge or charged with covering up terrorist acts’.⁶⁹⁵ Furthermore, the UN Committee for the Right of the Child reported the following abuses:

 Children detained on terrorism charges suffer ill treatment and acts amounting to torture while in detention.

 The detention conditions are very poor, and that children are frequently detained along with adults.

 Those children are reportedly detained in extralegal facilities.

 Children are transferred to death row upon reaching 18 years.

 The families are not always informed that the child is being held in detention.⁶⁹⁶

690 AI, International Report 2017/2018, The State of the World’s Human Rights – Iraq, 2018, url.

691 UNAMI/OHCHR, Report on Human Rights in Iraq January to June 2017, 14 December 2017, url, p. 6.

692 UNAMI/OHCHR, Report on Human Rights in Iraq: July to December 2017, 8 July 2018, url, p. 8.

693 UNAMI/OHCHR, Report on Human Rights in Iraq: July to December 2017, 8 July 2018, url, p. 8.

694 Human Rights Watch, Flawed Justice. Accountability for ISIS crimes in Iraq, December 2017, url, p. 2.

695 UN Committee for the Right of the Child, Concluding observations on the report submitted by Iraq under article 8, paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, 5 March 2015, url, p. 6.

696 UN Committee for the Right of the Child, Concluding observations on the report submitted by Iraq under article 8, paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, 5 March 2015, url, p. 6.

1.18.2 Kurdistan Region of Iraq

The June 2018 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions in Iraq signalled worrisome detention, including juveniles, by the Kurdish authorities under the counter-terrorism regime, which ‘due to a lack of procedural guarantees places the detainees at risk of human rights violations. This risk is increased by the severely limited access to detention facilities by local and international organizations, rendering monitoring of the situation almost impossible.’⁶⁹⁷

According to a UN source interviewed during the 2018 DIS/Landinfo mission to KRI ‘conditions in detention facilities for general criminality in the Kurdistan Region are generally acceptable, but detention facilities holding terrorism suspects are overcrowded and services are strained, which raises concerns about radicalization of detainees. The source was concerned by numerous reports of torture or mistreatment at the time of arrest or interrogation. Terrorism suspects are held in facilities run by Asayish intelligence services, along with suspects for other security related crimes, drugs, and fraud. Access to assess conditions in some of these facilities is restricted.’⁶⁹⁸

In its 2017 human rights report USDOS observed that ‘abusive interrogation, under certain conditions, reportedly occurred in some detention facilities of the KRG’s internal security unit, the Asayish, and the intelligence services of the major political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) Parastin and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s (PUK) Zanyari’.⁶⁹⁹In a December 2017 report Human Rights Watch also expressed concern that ISIL suspects are facing torture and other forms of ill treatment in the KRG. Human Rights Watch has documented allegations of torture by KRG forces holding ISIL suspects. Out of nineteen child ISIL suspects held by the KRG and interviewed by Human Rights Watch, seventeen said that Asayish forces tortured them in order to extract confessions. KRG authorities have not granted researchers access to adult ISIL suspects yet.⁷⁰⁰

Reporting on events of 2017, UNAMI noted its concern regarding allegations that detainees are subjected to torture and/or other ill treatment during the interrogation phase in order to force them to make confessions. UNAMI has previously noted that detainees are reluctant to report torture and/or other ill treatment for fear of reprisals or difficulties in the legal procedures. It appears that there is no uniform and effective policy in place to deal with allegations of torture and other ill treatment raised by the defendants before the courts.⁷⁰¹ Amnesty International wrote in an October 2016 report that former detainees report beatings and other ill treatment in some facilities controlled by the Asayish, particularly in the initial period of their detention. It appears that detainees are subjected to such treatment to punish them for crimes committed by ISIL or to extract information from them. A number of former detainees interviewed by Amnesty International, currently living in territories controlled by the KRG, also ‘appeared reluctant to complain about ill-treatment, telling the organization’s researchers that they were just relieved to be at liberty and wished to move on with their

697 UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions on her mission to Iraq [A/HRC/38/44/Add.1], 20 June 2018, url, p. 9.

698 Denmark, DIS, Norway, Landinfo, Iraq: Security situation and the situation for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the disputed areas, 5 November 2018, url, p. 92.

699 USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2017 - Iraq, 20 April 2018, url.

700 Human Rights Watch, Flawed Justice. Accountability for ISIS crimes in Iraq, December 2017, url, p. 51.

701 UNAMI/OHCHR, Report on Human Rights in Iraq – January to June 2017, url, p. 9; UNAMI/OHCHR, Report on Human Rights in Iraq: July to December 2017, 8 July 2018, url, p. 10.

lives. Those who recounted their experiences only agreed to do so if their identities were concealed out of fear of reprisals.’⁷⁰²

702 AI, ‘Punished for Daesh’s Crimes’. Displaced Iraqi’s abused by militias and government forces, October 2016, url, p. 47.