On November 13, 2022, the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights claimed that Prime Minister Mohammed Shia'a al-Sudani should include civil society in the special committee that was announced to receive complaints from people who have been tortured.
On November 11, 2022, the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani called on people who were tortured during the investigation stages, or whose confessions were extracted by force, to submit their complaints supported by supporting evidence, via an email allocated by the government, according to a government statement.
This call comes based on information and reports that the (Anti-Corruption Committee), also known as the Abu Ragheef Committee (after its head, Ahmed Abu Ragheef, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior for Intelligence Affairs, in the previous government headed by Mustafa Al-Khadimi) used torture during the interrogation stages of businessmen and politicians. who was arrested on corruption charges? Torture is not limited to this committee only. According to reports that monitored this over the past years, torture has turned into something like a phenomenon in Iraqi prisons and detention centers.
On this basis, the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights considers the importance of not turning the work of this committee into a revenge action that lacks human rights standards and contradicts human rights principles, and that its goal (the committee) is to uncover the facts and hold the perpetrators accountable for any violations, violations or crimes they committed.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights appreciates this call, which, if it turns into actions on the ground, is a real reinforcement for the protection of human rights, but it remains an incomplete call and needs greater comprehensiveness in the files being investigated, including the involvement of civil society to ensure transparency and prevent Use it for political ends and purposes.
Torture operations are not limited to the interrogation stages, but also in the stages of imprisonment and imprisonment, as the confessions of the released prisoners or the families of some still in prison confirm the continuation of torture.
In March 2021, the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights issued a research paper on torture in Iraqi prisons entitled (torture in Iraqi jails... Systematic methods of the security forces) and found that torture turned into systematic work in Iraqi jails. Therefore, Al-Sudani’s government must open extensive and comprehensive investigations in this regard.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights said that the call for an investigation into torture is the first launched by an Iraqi government, and on this basis, it should be expanded to include all human rights violations, and not limited to torture during interrogation or imprisonment only.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights called on Al-Sudani’s government not to use this committee for political purposes and to include all those whose rights were violated during the past two decades, despite the difficulty of interrogating everyone.
The difficulty of reaching precise results on all violations in light of the complex conditions in the country does not prevent Al-Sudani’s government from expanding its work and involving civil society, in addition to the Human Rights Commission as the country's national institution.
