IRQ 001 / 1209 / OBS 178
Assassination
Iraq
December 2, 2009
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Iraq.
The Observatory has been informed by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) about the assassination of Mr. Majeed Sahib Kareem, Internal Relations Secretary of the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW).
According to the information received, on November 26, 2009, Mr. Majeed Sahib Kareem was killed by a bomb that had been attached to his car. Mr. Majeed Sahib Kareem was a leading force for the organisation of workers in the public sector.
The Observatory fears that Mr. Majeed Sahib Kareem's assassination might be related to his trade-union activities, and recalls that over the past years, several trade unionists were murdered in Iraq, and that the perpetrators have not yet been found nor brought to justice.
The Observatory recalls that on March 27, 2007, Mr. Najim Abd-Jasem, General Secretary of the Mechanics, Printers and Metalworkers Union in Baghdad since 2003 and a founder as well as a leader of the GFIW, was abducted in Baghdad. His body, showing clear signs of torture, was found three days later, on March 30, 2007[1]. On January 25, 2006, Mr. Alaa Issa Khalaf, a member of the Executive Board of the Baghdad branch of the Mechanics Union, and a prominent member of the GFIW, was shot dead by several unidentified men as he left for work from his home in Baghdad. Likewise, Mr. Thabet Hussein Ali, Director of the General Trade Union for Health Sector Workers in Iraq, was abducted on April 7, 2006 by a presumed terrorist group as he was leaving his union’s headquarters in Baghdad Al-Mansour neighbourhood. His body was found the following day, riddled with gunshot wounds and bearing marks of torture[2].
The Observatory is very concerned with the murders of labour leaders that occurred over the past years in Iraq, a country where trade unionists still operate under anti-union legislation which dates back to the Saddam-era. In this regard, the Observatory urges the Iraqi authorities to immediately ratify the Convention 87 on Freedom of Association of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
The Observatory more generally expresses its deepest concern at the situation of human rights defenders in Iraq, who face tremendous risk to their lives and security given the overall context, and are conducting their activities in an extremely precarious situation.
Please write to the authorities in Iraq, urging them to:
Geneva-Paris, December 2, 2009
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.
The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need. The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:
[2] See Observatory Annual Report 2006.
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