Around the world governments has been the protector of human rights for their citizens. They implement rules and laws that explain the consequences of abusing these rights. The government must be able to protect the right to live freely (as long as it does not affect others). In Iraq it seems that because of the invasion of the American and British forces the government was not able to implement or even protect the Iraqis human rights to even live or survive. Chaos caused by the war has sent the country in a wild rage between the people and the government and the coalition forces as well. Iraq is a very diverse society with Sunni’s Shittes and Kurds living all together. As we all know now sectarian violence is increasing every day killing hundreds of innocent civilians and excluding no one, kids, old and even women. The situation is almost helpless for the people living in Iraq now; no security, no protecting, no law and the situation is getting worse and worse everyday. Some Iraqi officials say that the abuses that are happening now are as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and maybe worse.
There are several human rights groups operating in Iraq no, Iraqi human rights group, UN human rights committee; the American Human rights watch Group and Amnesty international. All these group are working together to provide information about the war and the abuses happening during this war and at the same time promoting and trying to protect with the help of the government the Iraqi human rights. For a country with no law or lawlessness it is very hard to protect people’s human rights since there is no state control over the country and thus causing people to do what ever they want and kill who ever they want. The role of government here is to bring an Iraqi criminal justice system and concentrate on issues that matters to the masses of people and thus bringing whoever is responsible for human rights abuses. The justice should be of a prestige level in the government, as I think a strong justice system can bring about changes in a country where human rights are not even recognized. A good example is the American justice system. This justice system will help these campaigners to promote human rights across the region by providing an accountable justice system with no tolerance to any kind of abuses. People in Iraq have suffered for many years since the 1980; starting with the Iraq- Iran war and then 1990 with Iraq invading Kuwait and finally the 2003 war led by the US and UK against Iraq. Though these years’ hundreds of thousands have died and suffered and not to mention the sanction that the UN imposed on Iraq bringing more pain to the people. A country can not survive without its people and also basic needs like water, electricity, good education and health care. Amnesty international is one of the well recognized organizations in protecting and promoting human rights world wide. Its presence in Iraq is very noticeable since the 1960’s. Campaigns are frequently organized to support those who are victims and were affected through human rights’ abuse.
The Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is a clear example of another abuse of prisoners and all supported by pictures taken by the coalition forces. Pictures released of Iraqi prisoners being tortured by the American forces. It showed how the Iraqi government had no control on its own prisons causing to a fail in protecting the Iraqi’s human rights. What the government should do is investigate these breeches and implement laws that would make sure such abuses are not passes with out justice.
"We should not underestimate the depth of this crisis... to distain law on such a fundamental human right as protection against torture is catastrophic. We can be sure that regimes like those in Syria, Uzbekistan, Tibet, and Cuba, will torture with even greater impunity than before, but that is not even the worst of it. If it succeeds, it undermines everything the human rights movement has stood for and threatens all it has achieved. We must not allow it." PHR Executive Director Leonard Rubenstein, .
Governments must work together with campaigners to ensure a strong implementation of laws that protect people and provide security which is one of the major reasons to live in any country. Stability and security provide a better chance to watch and protect human’s rights. I think that campaigners should use more efforts to promote human rights in all countries that abuse and use torture as methods of treatment on human beings. Media like T.V. can be a very effective way of reaching people and showing any abuses done to the people in Iraq, Syria and all countries abusing civilians’ human rights. As an example, some estimates suggest that 600,000 Iraq civilians have died in this war. These figures are very high and if it continues it would be a crisis.
Bibliography
- http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engmde140802003
- http://web.amnesty.org/pages/irq-index-eng
-“ International human rights in context” Henry Steiner and Philip Alston p. 976-998.
