General Update
On 20th June 2025, at the 59th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, GCHR, in co-operation with Amnesty International, the Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights (IOHR) and the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), organised a side event focused on Iraq entitled, “The fragile human rights situation in Iraq: International mechanisms including the UN system must act now”.
The moderator and the speakers discussed the various violations happening in Iraq and called on Iraq to fulfil its international obligations in the field of human rights, in particular to respect the civil and human rights of all citizens of Iraq, including the protection of their right to peaceful demonstration throughout the country. In addition, they called on authorities to conduct an independent, impartial, thorough and prompt investigation into the targeted killing of human rights defenders and other activists in recent years, since the start of the popular protests on 1st October 2029, with a view to disseminating the results and bringing those responsible to justice in accordance with international standards. Also, they called on the Iraqi government to ensure that all human rights defenders in Iraq, who carry out their legitimate work in defence of human rights, are able to operate without restrictions, including judicial harassment.
On 2nd July 2025, GCHR delivered a statement at the UPR adoption for Iraq. GCHR noted that while recommendations on legal instruments and the death penalty were rejected, most recommendations on Freedoms for Expression, Association, and Assembly, were accepted. However, GCHR highlighted the fact that laws punishing criticism of the authorities or vague defamation laws were used to silence peaceful dissent.
GCHR, IOHR, INSM for Digital Rights, FIDH, CIVICUS and Metro Center for Defending Journalists’ Rights made a joint submission to Iraq’s UPR regarding extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and targeted harassment of human rights defenders, as well as existing and proposed laws restricting the rights to freedom of opinion and expression and peaceful assembly, the misapplication of laws on defamation and insult, and the continued targeted harassment of journalists.
Expression
On 20th August 2025, Amnesty International reported that journalist Sherwan Sherwani had been sentenced to another four years and five months in prison just weeks before his planned release. Sherwan Sherwani is a journalist whose work, up until his arrest, focused on human rights, including freedom of expression, and corruption. He was arrested in October 2020 along with four other journalists and activists and sentenced to six years in prison in a grossly unfair trial based on vague and overbroad laws. The trial was marked by serious violations of his right to a fair trial, including allegations of torture that were not investigated, and the use of torture-tainted confessions.
His sentence was later commuted, but Sherwani faced additional spurious charges designed to prevent his release; in July 2023, months before his scheduled release, he was sentenced to a further four years on charges of forgery, according to the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR). Witnesses described to Amnesty International that armed men in civilian clothing intimidated Sherwan Sherwani’s family members, activists and others who had gathered outside the court after the hearing, including waving guns.
His latest conviction is for allegedly threatening a prison officer. Amnesty has described this recent prison sentence as unjust, spurious and a blatant ruse by the authorities to keep him behind bars. The human rights organisation has also stated that the case against Sherwani follows a pattern of authorities targeting journalists and other critics who are already imprisoned with new charges as their release dates approach.
Separately, on 1st August 2025, Amnesty International expressed its concerns that the new draft Law on Freedom of Expression and Peaceful Assembly would unduly restrict freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly. The Authorities are reported to have increasingly relied upon articles of Iraq’s Penal Code pertaining to defamation, vandalism and destruction of government buildings to arrest and convict activists and journalists, who have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from months to years, while others have faced hefty fines.