Peaceful Assembly
The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) has reported that in recent months, dozens of peaceful demonstrations and protests were organised by various segments of society, demanding the improvement of public services, the establishment of a fair salary scale, the need to address the ongoing power outages, lack of jobs or salary advancement, and other issues that affect the daily lives of citizens. Some of the organisers and participants in these demonstrations were arrested, and security forces often used excessive force against them.
GCHR reported on the ongoing suppression of protests by unemployed education personnel. In August 2023, members of a group of lecturers and administrators of the General Directorate of Education in Al-Qadisiyah Governorate, numbering more than 12,000 people, expected to receive job contracts. However, despite their continuous services in schools in remote areas of the districts and sub-districts, their names did not appear on the contract lists issued by the directorate.
Since then, they have continued to organise peaceful demonstrations and protests in front of the directorate, including one which lasted for 70 days, during which they were subjected to repression and arrests and were prevented from setting up a tent to gather under. After that, when the new local government was formed, following Iraq’s December 2023 Governorate Council elections, they moved to demonstrate in front of the Al-Qadisiyah Governorate Council building. They also previously demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Education in Baghdad. On 2nd April 2024, the peaceful demonstration organised in the city of Diwaniyah in front of the Al-Qadisiyah Governorate Council building was severely suppressed by riot police who used smoke bombs to disperse protesters despite their peaceful nature and legitimate demands.
On 1st August 2024, the unemployed education personnel organised a demonstration in front of the General Directorate of Education in Qadisiyah Governorate, and received assurances from the relevant officials that their demands would be implemented, according to news published on their Facebook page. On 4th August 2024, press reports confirmed that orders had been issued to appoint all of them to positions in the education field.
On 20th July 2024, hundreds of employees of Iraqi state departments and institutions demonstrated in front of the gates of the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad to demand an amendment to the salary scale to achieve justice. They called on the government to send the Civil Service Law, including the amendment to the salary scale, to the Iraqi Parliament for approval. Amending the salary scale is a very important demand in order to spread social justice in society.
On 2nd June 2024, security forces used excessive force against a peaceful demonstration in front of the Dhi Qar Oil Company in the Khamisat area of Nasiriyah city, where protesters were subjected to a barrage of rubber bullets and severe beatings with sticks and batons. GCHR received reports that more than 20 protesters were injured, most of whom were contract employees demanding permanent employment. One protester sustained a direct injury to his eye and was taken to hospital for treatment. The Ministry of Interior and the Security and Defence Committee in the Iraqi Council of Representatives announced the opening of an investigation into these violent incidents, which were condemned by many parties, including the Iraqi Engineers Syndicate. The results of the investigation are not yet known.
On 1st April 2024, the representative of the Tufan Graduates and Non-Graduates Coordination committee, Engineer Muslim Al-Basrawi, was briefly detained at Al-Maqal Police Station in Basra city, and was only released after signing a pledge. He returned and joined the peaceful demonstration that he had organised, in which dozens participated and which continued into the night. The demonstrators, who are among hundreds of members of these coordination committees, have been demonstrating for years to demand that they be given jobs in the oil companies operating in Basra Governorate, as Al-Basrawi explains in this television interview that took place on 8th June 2024, during another demonstration in front of the Shuaiba refinery in Basra.
On 24th March 2024, teaching staff and students organised a strike in all schools in the village of Dahula in Sinjar district, Nineveh Governorate, in protest against the failure to appoint unpaid lecturers from the Yazidi community. They said in press statements, “The appointment of teachers from other places by the General Directorate of Education in Nineveh and the neglect of the people of this region is clear marginalisation.”
Thousands of Iraqis demonstrate in al-Tahrir Square in the capital Baghdad, in support of Gaza and the resistance. pic.twitter.com/tSMkKCrdp0
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) March 30, 2024
In early May 2024, dozens of students and lecturers from Al-Nahrain University organised a rally on campus in support of Gaza and in solidarity with ongoing pro-Palestinian protests at universities in the United States. Participants waved both Palestinian and Iraqi flags. This rally was part of a broader wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations across Iraq, which began following Israel's bombardment of Palestine on 7th October 2023. On 30th March 2024, in central Baghdad's Tahrir Square, hundreds of Iraqis gathered for a protest organised by civil activists to show support for Gaza. The demonstrators urged a boycott of American and Israeli products and called for an end to the conflict. Previously in early October 2023, large crowds gathered in Tahrir Square, responding to a call for protests by influential Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr in solidarity with Palestine. Separately on 26th October 2023, hundreds of Iraqis staged a sit-in at Iraq’s main border crossing with Jordan, aiming to block oil tanker trucks from entering Jordan, a country that maintains peace agreements with Israel. The protesters expressed solidarity with Gaza, demanding an end to Israel’s bombardments and blockade.
Expression
On 13th July 2024, Al-Esraa University in Baghdad published on its website an arbitrary decision to dismiss Dr. Qusay Shafiq, one of its teaching staff, for opinions he had published ”about the education sector”, according to the text of the letter.
On 12th July 2024, Dr. Shafiq published a tweet on his account on X, in which he harshly criticised the decline in the academic level of university education, due to incorrect decisions such as equating non-sound certificates and giving those who failed exams the right to pass continuously.
On 28th July 2024, he published another tweet in which he announced that a hearing would be held on 8th August 2024 before the Karrada Primary Court in the complaint he filed against Al-Esras University about the decision to arbitrarily dismiss him. He attached a photo of the letter of notification of attendance addressed to the university. Dr. Shafiq uses his account on X to express his views and expose corruption.
On 3rd July 2024, the editor-in-chief of Al-Dustour newspaper, Bassem Al-Sheikh, posted on his Facebook page the following: “A security force from the Anti-Crime Department raided the home of the editor-in-chief of Al-Dustour, Bassem Al-Sheikh, based on a lawsuit filed by the head of the Journalists’ Syndicate, Mu’aid Al-Lami.” A force from the Anti-Crime Department, consisting of ten people and led by a high-ranking officer, raided Al-Sheikh’s home in the Al-Jami’a neighborhood in Baghdad at dawn on 2nd June 2024, in order to arrest him. Al-Sheikh was outside the house at the time, and the raid caused panic for his family. The lawsuit is related to Al-Dustour newspaper publishing an article about the policy of the head of the Journalists’ Syndicate to silence those who object to his legal violations, and its failure to adhere to the procedures of the Accountability and Justice Commission when holding the Syndicate elections.
On 4th June 2024, a number of members of the Federal Police Forces affiliated with the Ministry of Interior arrested the editor-in-chief of the Iraq Fox News Agency, Duraid Al-Khafaji, and journalist Kamel Al-Kaabi, the executive editor of the same agency, while they were filming an American restaurant in Baghdad. Despite identifying themselves as journalists with the necessary identification documents, they were verbally assaulted by an officer and detained for eight hours at the Al-Jami’a neighborhood police station in Baghdad. They were accused of disobeying orders. After being presented to the investigating judge in the Freedom Court, he decided to release them, expressing his surprise at the accusation against them while they were performing their journalistic duty professionally.
On 6th May 2024, journalist and correspondent for I News satellite channel Haider Mohammed Hadi was arbitrarily arrested inside the Karbala Governorate Council building, due to his support for the demand of the family of prominent human rights defender Fahim Al-Taie to reveal his killer, which they made during a sit-in in front of the council building. On 8th December 2019, in the city of Karbala, Al-Taie was assassinated by two masked men riding a motorcycle.
Reliable local sources confirmed that the security forces prevented Hadi from covering and filming the sit-in, beat him, and arrested him. He was released the same day after being detained for several hours in the Camp Police Station near the provincial council building.
On 26th April 2024, blogger Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi (Om Fahad) was assassinated in front of her home in the Zayouna area of central Baghdad by a gunman who shot her after she stopped her car in front of her house, killing her immediately and fleeing on his motorcycle to an unknown destination.
On 25th April 2024, media personality Amal Ali Ismail announced on her Facebook page that she would appear “before the judiciary in the lawsuit filed against me by the representative of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and after the summons that reached me today.” The official summons was issued by the Al-Rusafa Investigation Court specialising in publishing and media cases on 14th April 2024, according to Article 433 of the Iraqi Penal Code, which is concerned with defamation and includes prison sentences and fines. Ismail works for the “I News satellite channel”, where she presents the programme “Political Ink”, a political dialogue programme that deals with daily political issues that concern the Iraqi citizen. The member of Parliament’s lawsuit against her is related to a comment she made in one of the episodes of this programme about his failure to adhere to the schedule of presenting her television programme, which disrupted her work. Many citizens from different segments of society expressed their solidarity with her, and the representative subsequently dropped the lawsuit.
On 18th April 2024, 47-year-old investigative journalist and editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Kul Al-Akhbar”, Aqil Awad Al-Shuwaili, published the following tweet on his account on X, which he addressed to the President of the Supreme Judicial Council and the head of the National Security Service: “There are malicious lawsuits against some Iraqi journalists filed by influential people in the government who exploit their positions in order to break the bones of the journalist who only owns his pen.” Reliable local sources confirmed that influential figures in the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shaye Al-Sudani filed a lawsuit against him in September 2023, due to a story published in the Kul Al-Akhbar newspaper about a dispute related to their financial liabilities. The malicious lawsuit is based on forged documents, is transferred to a new court every three months, and is still ongoing to this day.
On 3rd April 2024, a Federal Police force arrested academic and media specialist Kadhim Al-Muqdadi in the eastern Karrada area in central Baghdad, without a judicial order, and then released him after a brief period.
On 1st April 2024, the Court of Cassation decided to overturn the initial three-year prison sentence issued against civil society activist Ahmed Hussein Muhalhal, revoke the charge against him, and release him. GCHR had documented the Basra Criminal Court’s issuance of a three-year prison sentence against him on 25th February 2018, after convicting him on the charge of allegedly burning the Basra Governorate building on 14th September 2018. He actively participated in all peaceful demonstrations that took place in 2018 in Basra Governorate, which demanded improved public services, support for marginalised groups, and combating corruption. He was imprisoned on 20 February 2024.
On 31st March 2024, a security force affiliated with the National Security Service in Basra arrested civil society activist Alaa Al-Ramahi following a complaint filed against him by the Director of Basra Health, Abbas Al-Tamimi, after he criticised the deteriorating health situation in the governorate. He was released on bail by the Iraqi judiciary the next day.
On 28th March 2024, TV presenter Anne Salah posted the following on her Facebook page: “My dear friends, After 8 years on the Iraqia General Channel our appointment was supposed to be today at 11 pm. I was notified a short while ago that I will not be appearing on screen. The reason is a post on social media in which I talked about the high cost of living. I was investigated, punished and transferred to the radio by the head of the Iraqi Media Network, Karim Hamadi, without legal basis.”
On 20th March 2024, journalist Mustafa Latif, a correspondent for Al-Rasheed Satellite Channel, was notified of the summons issued against him by the Karkh Investigation Court in Baghdad based on the complaint filed against him by the Ministry of Interior. Latif said in press statements that, “The Ministry of Interior filed a lawsuit against me in October 2023, and now the lawsuit has been activated, and I do not know the reason for that,” explaining that the lawsuit against him was filed under Article No. 210 of the Iraqi Penal Code No. (111) of 1969 regarding the dissemination of false news. The judge ordered his release on bail until the case against him is resolved.
On 20th March 2024, the media office of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani announced on its account on the X social media platform that an investigative committee ordered by the Prime Minister had identified members of a security extortion network consisting of high-ranking military officers working in the Ministries of Interior and Defence who were working to create pages under pseudonyms on social media networks in order to “blackmail the security establishment…in addition to blackmailing and bargaining with officers and members.” The investigative committee decided to dismiss several high-ranking officers in the two ministries and to continue the necessary legal procedures and complete the investigations against them.
The discovery of the security extortion network coincided with the kidnapping of media figure Dalia Naeem and the assassination of blogger Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi (Om Fahd), which occurred within approximately five weeks of each other. Despite the many press reports linking the three events, the authorities refrained from revealing the truth to citizens.
On 31st March 2024, in the Kifri district in Diyala Governorate, the Sheikh of the Turkmen Bayat Tribe, Hussein Aloush Al-Bayati, was assassinated by a drone after he parked his car and walked a few metres to buy medicine from a nearby pharmacy. Nearby residents heard the sound of an explosion that took his life. This assassination is considered to be a deliberate targeting of the Turkmen community, which lives in this area.
On 30th March 2024, Muqaddam Al-Majid, a professor of digital media at the College of Media at Dhi Qar University, was subjected to a failed assassination attempt near the expressway in the centre of Nasiriyah, when unknown gunmen opened fire on his car and shot at it twice.
Law on Freedom of Expression and Peaceful Demonstration still under review
Although Article 38 of the Iraqi Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression, this right is largely restricted in Iraq, both in law and in practice. In addition, the Iraqi Parliament has been continuously trying, in its successive sessions since 2013, to legislate a circulated draft law on freedom of expression and peaceful demonstration that contradicts the spirit of the Iraqi constitution in protecting the public freedoms of citizens.
Article 226 of the Iraqi Penal Code amended
The Iraqi Parliament announced on its official website that it had voted to amend Article 226 to criminalise insulting public authorities.
The new amendment states: “The text of Article 226 of the Penal Code shall be repealed and replaced by the following; Article 226: First: Anyone who insults, in any public manner, the legislative, judicial, or executive public authorities, or regional or local authorities, or official or semi-official state departments shall be punished by imprisonment or a fine.
Second: Any statement or action exercised within the framework of freedom of expression of opinion within its constitutional and legal limits or the right to criticise public authorities with the intention of evaluating performance or expressing grievance shall not be considered an insult, according to what is stated in Clause (First) above.”
This new text added the Kurdistan Region, Governorates councils and governors, not specifying the prison term, so it will be decided by the judge himself as it was for seven years before the amendment, and giving the possibility to label any criticism or dissenting opinion as an attack on public authorities and consider it a crime of public law that the Public Prosecution will follow up upon receiving a complaint. This amendment will seriously undermine freedom of expression, especially since Article 226 before the amendment was used as a legal tool to target journalists, bloggers and Internet activists in order to silence them.