The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights (IOHR) presents this monitoring report as part of its regular documentation of the state of public freedoms in Iraq. It covers the attacks and violations that targeted activists, human rights defenders, and journalists during the first half of 2026 — the period running from 1 January to 30 June. The report appears against a delicate political backdrop that followed the announcement of the final results of Iraq's November 2025 parliamentary elections and the realignment of power that accompanied them — a context that is typically attended by additional pressure on independent and critical voices.
28 July, 2026
In this report, the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights (IOHR) documents a set of confirmed incidents, distributed geographically between the central and southern provinces on one hand and the Kurdistan Region in the north on the other. It reads in them the recurring patterns that reveal systematic institutional behaviour rather than isolated, individual events.
I. The Overall Picture and a Reading of the Patterns
The incidents on record show that 2026 opened with an environment hostile to freedom of expression and human rights work, in which three principal instruments of repression intersect. The judicial instrument — through vexatious "publication" lawsuits and arrest, investigation, and search warrants grounded in the provisions of Iraq's outdated Penal Code.
The security instrument — through arbitrary arrests carried out by the intelligence services, the National Security Service, and, in the Kurdistan Region, the Asayish (the Kurdish security and intelligence apparatus), frequently without prior judicial warrants. And the instrument of certain political forces, embodied in the armed groups — militias operating outside the law — that resort to threats and abduction to silence those they deem to have crossed their red lines.
IOHR notes that the common thread among most victims is their peaceful activity in the digital space: the majority of the documented cases began with posts or video clips on social media platforms that addressed corruption, the deterioration of public services, or demands for environmental and economic rights.
This confirms that freedom of opinion online has become one of the foremost targeted arenas, and that charges of "defamation" and "insult" have been turned into a flexible legal cover for pursuing critics — regardless of whether the matters were criminal in the first place.
IOHR also records that the targeting of women human rights defenders — and of women more broadly — constitutes an especially grave dimension of this period, whether through direct violence or through the state's failure to provide protection and accountability, at a time when official indicators show a sharp rise in rates of domestic violence.
II. The Centre and the South
The Assassination of Defender Yanar Mohammed
On the morning of 2 March 2026, at around nine o'clock, two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on Yanar Mohammed — a prominent women's rights defender and the founder and president of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) — outside her home in northern Baghdad.
She was aged around 65 to 66. Taken to hospital, she died of her wounds. Since 2003, Mohammed had devoted her life to protecting women from domestic violence, trafficking, and so-called "honour killings," and had established the first safe shelters for women in Iraq. She had been subjected to repeated death threats and to earlier judicial harassment.
The Iraqi authorities opened an investigation into the killing at the time — the Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani, ordered it the same day — yet as of the preparation of this report no party has claimed responsibility for the assassination, and the identity of the perpetrators and their motives remain undisclosed.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights (IOHR) stresses that what matters is not the mere announcement of an investigation, but that it be prompt, independent, impartial, and transparent, and that it lead to genuine accountability. The continued impunity in this emblematic case sends a chilling message to every woman defender and entrenches an environment that puts their lives at risk.
On 6 April 2026, amid an escalating series of violence against women, the lawyer Nour Saud al-Hamdani was killed in the Hamdan area of the Abu al-Khaseeb district in Basra Province, in the country's south. She was shot by her father — a retired officer who used a military weapon in the crime following a family dispute — after which he turned himself in to the police.
IOHR's reading, this crime lays bare the deadly overlap between the spread of unregulated weapons and the weakness of the protective framework for women, and confirms that the official figures showing a sharp rise in domestic-violence rates demand urgent legislative action.
On 9 March 2026, in Najaf Province, the journalist Hussam al-Kaabi was subjected to judicial targeting through arrest, investigation, and search warrants, over his publication of an official document relating to the provincial investment authority — one of three "publication" lawsuits brought against him. On the 24th of the same month, the Najaf Criminal Court overturned the decision to refer him for trial, on the grounds that he was a journalist engaged in media work protected by the constitution.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights (IOHR) also recorded, during the first quarter of the year, that the Communications and Media Commission (the state media regulator) issued decisions banning journalists and outlets, along with administrative measures that restrict coverage and narrow the space for expression.
On 31 March 2026, the independent American journalist Shelly Kittleson was abducted in broad daylight near Saadoun Street in central Baghdad by an armed group that forced her into a car after a brief struggle, having previously received warnings of threats against her. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), this was the first abduction of an American journalist anywhere in the world in over a decade.
Security forces pursued the abductors' vehicle — which crashed during the chase near the town of al-Haswa in Babil Province, south of Baghdad — and arrested one of those involved, while the journalist was moved to a second car that fled. Kataib Hezbollah — an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group — announced her release on 7 April 2026 on the condition that she leave Iraq immediately, in a context that several reports linked to efforts at an exchange involving the release of detained members of the group.
IOHR records that the incident drove a number of foreign journalists to leave the country, reflecting a dangerous decline in the state's ability to protect those working in the media, and an intimidating effect reaching beyond the direct victim — one that recalls the dark era of the abduction and assassination of journalists in Iraq.
On 13 February 2026, the police command of Dhi Qar Province issued a decision banning the cultural festival "Nasiriyah Reads" (Nasiriyah is the capital of Dhi Qar, a southern province with a long history of protest), despite the organizing committee having obtained all the required approvals and gathered thousands of books for free distribution. The day before, a book shipment was stopped at the city's entrance and its driver arrested; then the festival's director — the political activist and engineer Ayman Ammar — was arrested when he tried to resolve the matter peacefully, and was not released until the 15th.
The ban was officially justified by security concerns about the presence of "infiltrators" and by book titles said to be prohibited or to date from the former (Ba'athist) era. IOHR considers that cancelling a cultural event organized by young people aged between eighteen and twenty-five — whose committee had secured every proper approval — contradicts the constitutional duty to protect public freedoms and spread culture, and that confiscating titles, even if violations existed, can never justify punishing the entire public by cancelling the event. The festival was later relaunched on 17 April 2026.
On 6 April 2026, the broadcaster Minas al-Suhail was subjected to a physical and verbal assault inside the Iraq Mall in Baghdad by security guards, while covering a ceremony honouring the Iraqi national football team after it qualified for the World Cup finals. Al-Suhail documented the assault in a video clip in which he explained that he had received blows to the head and shoulder, and announced that he was filing a judicial complaint against the mall's owner and its guards.
IOHR stresses that assaulting a journalist performing his work at a public event is a direct threat to the freedom of media work guaranteed by the constitution, and that impunity in such incidents encourages their recurrence.
The period saw clear targeting of environmental activists in the south. On 4 March 2026, the environmental activist Murtada al-Janoubi was arrested in Maysan Province during a demonstration he had helped organize to demand a fair share of water for the Ahwar — the Mesopotamian Marshes, a UNESCO-listed wetland ecosystem in southern Iraq that has been devastated by drought and upstream water diversion — along with nine other demonstrators, all of whom were released after a brief detention.
Early in the same month, the environmental activist Muhammad Mubarak was arrested in Nasiriyah over a video clip, amid serious concerns that grave charges might be brought against him. IOHR affirms that peaceful environmental work is a legitimate right in a country facing a multi-faceted water and environmental catastrophe, and that criminalizing it aggravates the crisis rather than addressing it.
III. The Kurdistan Region
In the Kurdistan Region — the autonomous, Kurdish-governed region of northern Iraq — the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights (IOHR) documents an intense pattern of repression that escalated markedly during the spring months, tied in large part to a wave of protests over deteriorating living conditions, rising electricity bills, and delayed public-sector salaries. It featured repeated arrests without judicial warrants, and referrals under laws on the "misuse of communications devices."
On 4 February 2026, security forces shut down the offices of the NRT satellite channel (funded by the politician and businessman Shaswar Abdulwahid) in Erbil and Dohuk and barred its staff from working; the offices remained closed. The local authorities justified the move as a judicial decision issued after a public-prosecution investigation, while the Culture Ministry of the Regional Government stated that it had received no official decision on the matter and had no knowledge of it — a contradiction that, in the IOHR's reading, deepens suspicions about the political character of the measure.
A succession of assaults on press crews followed. On 8 April, the crew of Channel 8 (funded by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the region's two ruling parties) and its correspondent Imran Yousef were assaulted while covering student protests in Dohuk and forced to leave the site. On the 16th, the journalist Ayoub Ali Warti was arrested while preparing a report on pollution from oil refineries in Erbil, before being released hours later. And on the 28th, the journalist Jutyar Rasoul was detained in the Rania district by the Asayish for fifty-two hours before being released on bail.
IOHR recorded a series of arrests over peaceful criticism of the local government. On 24 April, the civil-society activists Dalil Harki and Hazhar Baysari were arrested in Dohuk over their criticism of living conditions and taxes, and later released. On the 28th, the activist Devan Ahmed was arrested over a video concerning a court's rejection of a legal complaint relating to the Yazidi community (a religious minority in northern Iraq that suffered genocide at the hands of ISIS in 2014).
On 5 May, the political activist Islam Bibrkhi was arrested in Dohuk and released two days later without a judicial warrant, while on the 13th the political figure Islam al-Zibari was arrested at a checkpoint near Erbil for reasons his colleagues described as purely political — the second time he had been arrested. Likewise, on 4 April, the journalist and activist Sabah al-Atroshi and the activist Reber Ahmed were arrested after calling for protests over the electricity crisis, and were referred to court before being released on bail on 8 June.
IOHR pays particular attention to the case of the journalist and activist Sherwan Amin Sherwani, who on 22 April 2026 — coinciding with Kurdish Press Day — announced a hunger strike in protest at ill-treatment inside prison and the rejection of his humanitarian requests, at a time when his health was described as being at risk. The Observatory recalls that Sherwani, detained since 2020 in connection with his journalistic work, was due to complete his sentence, only for an additional ruling to extend his imprisonment — reinforcing the belief that his continued detention is a decision driven by motives connected to his independent work.
IOHR recorded the suspension of a number of clerics from preaching over their treatment of corruption and living conditions in their sermons. Among these was the arrest of Mullah Rashid Kojar on 26 April without a judicial warrant, and the notification given to Mullah Herman Khalil Besifki on the 16th of a decision relieving him of preaching duties. The Observatory sees in this an expansion of the circle of targeting to encompass every platform that influences citizens' awareness.
IV. A Legal Reading
IOHR notes that most of the prosecutions relied on loosely worded punitive provisions in Iraq's Penal Code No. 111 of 1969 (as amended) — foremost among them the articles on slander, libel, and insult (such as Articles 433 and 438) and Article 229 on insulting officials and official bodies — in addition to the law on the misuse of communications devices in the Kurdistan Region. These provisions, with their broad wording, grant the authorities open-ended discretion that allows legitimate criticism to be transformed into a punishable offence.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights (IOHR) affirms that this course conflicts with Article 38 of the Iraqi Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression, the press, and peaceful assembly, and with Iraq's international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, in particular Articles 19 and 21. Moreover, the arrests carried out without judicial warrants, incommunicado detention, and the failure to notify the Journalists' Syndicate in publication cases constitute grave procedural violations that undermine the guarantees of a fair trial.
V. The IOHR's Position and Recommendations
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights (IOHR) affirms that what it recorded during the first half of 2026 does not represent isolated incidents, but a systematic pattern aimed at silencing independent and critical voices. IOHR stresses that protecting human rights defenders and journalists is not a favour bestowed by the authorities, but a constitutional duty and an international obligation that admits no delay. Accordingly, the Observatory recommends the following:
The immediate and unconditional release of all detained journalists, civil-society activists, and prisoners of conscience who were pursued in connection with the peaceful expression of their opinions.
The opening of independent, impartial, and transparent investigations into the crimes of abduction and assassination that targeted defenders — foremost among them the assassination of Yanar Mohammed — and bringing the perpetrators and those who issued the orders to justice.
An end to the arbitrary arrests carried out by the security agencies without judicial warrants, and a halt to the security agencies' interference in matters of opinion and expression.
Controlling unregulated weapons and holding to account the armed groups that threaten citizens and confiscate their right to expression, and protecting the civic, cultural, and environmental space from criminalization.
The enactment of an effective law against domestic violence and gender-based violence, and the provision of genuine legal protection for women and women defenders.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights (IOHR) renews its commitment to continuing documentation, monitoring, and advocacy, and to standing alongside every defender and journalist who faces danger because of their legitimate, peaceful work.
