Jan 16, 2017

Iraqi Turkmen: TRF Denounces Politicization of the Human Rights Commission


 

In a statement published on 15 January 2017, the Turkmen Rescue Foundation denounces the politicization of the formation process toward a new Human Rights Commission in Iraq. The foundation denounces the “political pressure exerted against the committee supervising the selection of the new members of the Human Rights Commission” and calls for the authorities to intervene in order to preserve its independence.

Today [16 Jan 2017], on Iraqi Turkmen martyr day, UNPO wishes to underline once again the importance that all ethnic components of Iraq are consulted and involved in different levels of government and given the possibility to be part of the reconstruction process after the liberation of their territory from ISIS.

Below is a statement published by the Turkmen Rescue Foundation:

Despite the vicious attack perpetrated against the Iraqi people by gangs of crimes and terrors for more than a decade, and in spite of the accusations directed against the security and military Iraqi forces who are fighting the fiercest organization on earth and resisting such criminals by the blood of Iraqis to prevent further crimes, and in spite of the mass protest movement in Iraq during the past few months to reform the political system in the Iraqi State and to eliminate the quota system and the division of privileges and positions in the Iraqi State on the basis of sectarian or partisan rules, and in spite of the promises given by institutions of the Iraqi State to reform the political system that brought the country to the abyss because of the corruption of political parties and quotas abhorrent, and in spite of the technocrats’ logo raised to repair the system and combat corruption by positioning them in authority places to convince the international community to help Iraq and get out of the hard economic and security situations. In spite of all the above-mentioned facts, one can see today how one of the most important institution in the Iraqi State, which is supposed to be independent and used for nonpolitical issues and whose main function is to defend human rights and Iraqis’ rights and resist all kinds of fierce attacks against Iraq by the civilian ways, media and all democratic tools, namely the Human Rights Commission, will turn into a political parties’ Rights Commission because of the political pressure exerted against the committee supervising the selection of the new members of the human rights commission. Unfortunately, it will be subjected to the authority and control of the ruling parties and also will not issue any humanitarian report related to the rights of Iraqis or defend Iraq in a professional manner. It is also observed, despite the fact that minorities in Iraq are more affected by terrorism and that they have been abandoned, slaughtered, burnt and their women abducted and become captives of the terrorist gangs, and despite the fact that criminal groups committed numerous mass graves and massacres against them, that this commission will be free from any name that will represent the minorities with all their diversity, which is an injustice and another kind of terrorism against oppressed communities in Iraq.

We demand and call the religious authority in Najaf (Marajaaia), the UN [United Nations] mission in Iraq, the Presidency of the Republic of Iraq, the Parliament and Ministers to intervene to keep these institutions away from the political quota system and the build independent bodies to defend Iraq and the rights of Iraqis, through the selection of a group of professionals dedicated to the issue of human rights.