Amnesty International has recently reported that although the Kurdish region of Iraq has made advancements in human rights, security forces continue to “regularly abuse their authority” and inflict violence upon women. The Kurdish are has reached relative stability throughout the Iraq war and has seen “growing prosperity” in terms of human rights. Progress has been made but “serious problems remain”.
The local security forces, known as Asayish forces, have been reported to randomly arrest and detain innocent people. Their detainment oftentimes involving various forms of torture (such as electric shock, sleep deprivation, kicking, suspension by the wrists and ankles, and beatings with fists, cables, and batons) and resulting in forced disappearances.
Amnesty’s director of the Middle East and North Africa Program, Malcolm Smart, urged that the Kurdistan Regional Government take distinct measures to control these forces and hold them 100% accountable under the law in order for recent human rights progress to ultimately be seen as effective. Amnesty International went on to state that Kurdish authorities have also been unable to control the security branches of the two most important Kurdish political movements that comprise the regional government: the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
However, Amnesty’s report cited such progress as the legislation that broadened freedom of expression furthered measures to encourage women’s rights. In regards to that, it stated that “several agencies” are currently working to regulate and prevent violence against women. But Smart pointed out that issues like “arbitrary detention and torture, attacks on journalists and freedom of expression, and violence against women” haven’t ended and “need urgently to be addressed by the government”.
On the topic of violence against women, Smart urges that authorities maximize their efforts to terminate the discrimination and excessive violence that is occurring. As provided by official reports, at least 102 women and girls in the Kurdish region were killed between July 2007 and June 2008. This statistic encompasses an unknown number of “honor killings”, or the murdering of women by their mal relatives who view their behavior as a violation of the traditional code of “honor. Women demonstrated blatant objection to their arranged/forced marriage as well as women engaging in telephone contact with a male sans their family’s approval have also been considered victims of “honor crimes”.
The report also released that an estimated 262 women and children “died or were severely injured in the same period due to intentional burning, including suicides. Some women were reported to having been burned to disguise a killing”. In once case a 13-year-old girl burned herself to death in order to escape being forcibly married to an adult man. Such an example is proof of how much more progress needs to be made in order for women and girls to receive the protection they need and deserve.
On Saturday, a Saudi judge in the city of Onaiza announced his refusal to annul a marriage between an 8-year-old girl and a 47-year-old man. This is the second time that the marriage has been brought before the judge, Sheikh Habib Al-Habib, and it is the second time that he has prevented its annulment.
The first time that this case was brought to court was on behalf of the girl’s mother who brought a petition before the judge in the interest of getting a divorce on behalf of her daughter. However, both times al-Habib has insisted that the girl wait until she reaches puberty to seek a divorce. The first time, the judge ruled that because the girl’s mother is no longer with her father, she is not her legal guardian and thus cannot represent her in court.
According to the family’s attorney, the girl’s father arranged her marriage to pay off his debts to the man who is a “close friend” of his. Upon the initial verdict, the judge ordered that the girl’s husband since a contract pledging that he would not engage in sexual intercourse with her until she reached puberty.
This past March, an appeals court in the Saudi capital of Riyadh refused to accept al-Habib’s original ruling, and ordered that the case be sent back to the judge for reconsideration. Due to the complexity of the Saudi legal system, the appeals court ruling meant that the marriage was still legitimate, but that challenges to the marriage would continue. Thus, the Riyadh appeals court has scheduled another hearing for next month.
The topic of child marriage has stirred many debates recently as groups have been demanding that the government impose laws to protect children from “this type of marriage”. However, the kingdom’s cleric continues to approve of child marriage as long as the girls are 10 years or older.
On Sunday, General Ray Odierno, the top US military commander in Iraq, stated that he is almost certain that US troops will be out of the country by the end of 2011. Odierno was one of the “key architects” of the Surge strategy in Iraq and believes that the strategy led to significant improvements in safety over the past year. For example, there were nine US casualties last month, giving March the lowest monthly toll since the beginning of the War.
Thus, Odierno has stated that security has been improved but begs the question, can it be maintained? He is placing a strict emphasis on the Iraqi’s themselves being able to maintain the improved safety, not the US. Although the US military has made it harder for foreign fighters to enter Iraq through Syria, Iran continues to serve as an outlet for Iraqi insurgency.
Iraq’s national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, agrees with Odierno and is intent on taking up the issue of security into his country’s own hands, “We believe that now we are leading and we are planning and carrying out most of the combat operations in the country…and the United States forces are moving or transitioning to a more support role, more training, more providing more logistical support, rather than engaging a in a huge military or kinetic combat operations”.
No comments:
Post a Comment