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Founded | 2005 ,Iraq |
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Type | |
Services | Protecting human rights |
Website | www |
The Hammurabi Human Rights Organization (also known as HHRO), founded in 2005, is a non-profit organization located in Iraq. [1] The organization focuses on human rights on the local and international level. It also focuses on rights for minority groups within Iraq like Yezidis, Sabian, Mandaen, Turkoman, Assyrians, Armenians and more. [2] Its goal is to provide not only documentation for human rights abuses but also to provide humanitarian aid in Iraq. [1] It focuses on vulnerable groups that are more likely to have their rights violated like children and women. To raise awareness about the issues, HHRO publishes an annual report on the human rights situation in Iraq. It looks at what are the violations and who are the violators. [2]
The ideal of creating the Hammurabi Human Rights organization first started in mid-2003 after there was a shift in the government of Iraq. [3] Mr. William Warda and Ms. Pascale Warda started the organization in the Nineveh region of Iraq. [3] Their goal was to get activist involved and to try to expand civil society. They saw that there was a lack of security and more acts of human rights violation across Iraq and decided to act. [3] It was not until April 1, 2005, that the organization would become an NGO. With the Wardas' coordination, it was able to get activists on board with their ideal and formed an official NGO to promote and protect human rights in Iraq. [3]
The primary purpose of the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization is to defend human rights on the domestic level (regional and national) then on the international level. To do so, it concentrates on tracking Iraqi government policy and the international treaties that Iraq has signed and ratified. The HHRO monitors the implication of those policies and international treaties, while at the same time trying to watch over the legislative, executive and judicial branches to make sure that none violates human rights. They also work with Iraqi communities to educate them on the importance of human rights, especially for vulnerable groups. To do so, they produce annual reports to showcase the violation of human rights of the Iraqi people and foreigners living in the country. By organizing seminars and workshops they provide opportunities to educate and raise awareness of core human rights issues. The organization also tries to prevent future human rights violations by raising awareness among the three branches of government. [2] HHRO has also developed, during the years since its creation, key partnership with other organizations in the region to further advance in their goals.
Most of the funding for the organization comes from donations from across the world. All are welcome to join the organization by completing a form. The board of directors are responsible for admitting new members and can have up to 10% of the total amount in the organization. [4]
The HHRO was created by Pascale Warda, a former Iraqi Minister for Displacement and Migration. [5] Pascale Warda is an Assyrian and Catholic Iraqi, born in Dahuk. [6] She has worked with many organizations before creating the HHRO: Assyrian Women's Union, Assyrian Aid Society-Iraq and the Iraqi Women's Center for Development situated in Baghdad. [6] The co-founder of HHRO is her husband William Warda. He has also been part of different human rights group in the region like Alliance of Iraqi Minorities. William Warda also played a political role in the early 2000s. He served as the leader of the political and military department for the Assyrian Democratic Movement. [7]
Since 2007, the HHRO have published annual reports on the human rights situation in Iraq. Each year they focused on a key element in Iraqi society . The 2007 and 2009 reports were short and focused on human rights violations affecting Christians in Iraq. They denounced the decline security situation of the country and a lack of government efforts to stop these violations. To obtain their data they relied on statistics that they researched themselves. [8] [9] The 2011, 2014 and 2015 reports focused on all minority groups and human rights violations committed against these groups, not just on Christian groups. From this point onward, the organization focused strongly on minority groups and how the geopolitical situation of Iraq affected them. [10] [11] [12] The 2016 report once again shifted in its content to focus on all human rights abuses in Iraq. It looks at how the group Islamic State (IS) has affected the human rights situation. The organization also focuses on internally displaced people. [13]
HHRO joined Christian Solidarity International (CSI) in efforts to visit and organize the distribution of relief aid to internally displaced people (IDPs) in the region of Mosul and Baghdad. The relief aid consisted of essential goods for the population like food, milk and more. [1] HHRO sees the opportunity to work with other NGOs in the region as a way to demonstrate that they are committed to help prevent and bring relief to all ethnic groups in the country. HHRO has also played a role with CSI in helping and providing aid to Christian minority group fleeing the terror group IS in Iraq. [14] With the growing presence of the terror group since 2014, HHRO has seen an increase in its activities of delivering aid to affected regions and cities like Mosul with organization like Christian Solidarity. Their partnership has influenced Christian groups across the region that were under IS rules.
The Ceasefire project is a programme supported by the European Union that monitors human rights abuses in Iraq. The goal of the project is that NGOs and civilian monitors the human rights abuses. [15] The project focuses on groups such as women, children, ethnic and religious minorities, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and more. [15] By doing so, the project hopes to entrust NGOs with the power and the capacity to create a system that can help these affected groups by the situation in Iraq. HHRO is a main contributor to the project. Its task is to research, find, help promote human rights and to try to assist those who have been victims of human rights abuses. [15]
HHRO has noted that the advance of military force to defeat IS will not necessarily resolve human right violations against minorities. William Warda, co-founder of the organization, has stated that most Internally Displaced People (IDP) from Mosul would not come back if the coalition forces recaptured Mosul. [16] He believed so because the liberation of Mosul from IS will not mean necessarily lead to law and order, giving the example of the Yazidis in the Sinjar region. [16] Warda points out the historical facts of the country, stating that since Iraqi's independence in 1932 minority groups such has Christian and Yazidis had suffered atrocities. [16]
HHRO started out promoting and safeguarding Assyrian and Christians minority human rights but quickly expanded to cover all minority groups in Iraq, especially with the rise of the Islamic State in the region. [17] To help achieve this goal, they have worked closely with the CeaseFire Project. They have also expanded their reach within Iraq with this project. HHRO is able, with the CeaseFire Project, to help distant minority groups that live in a rural parts of Iraq or in the midst of a military conflict. [17]
HHRO has an active role in broadcasting human rights violations against minority groups conducted by the terror group IS in Iraq. It has teamed up with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to help relay information about the ongoing situation. [18] The U.S. government has been known to work with organizations like HHRO and others to help understand and find solutions to human rights violations in Iraq. [19] With the help of organizations like HHRO that have boots on the ground, USAID has a better knowledge of the situation and thus, can have a more precise response to the human rights violation in Iraq.
HHRO is a regional organization focused on the promotion and protection of human rights in Iraq. It has worked with the United States government to help further its agenda since the U.S. was and still is a major player in Iraq. HHRO does not have many international partners. It has been to Jordan to promote its agenda but not to monitor the situation of refuge camps. HHRO has also worked with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. [17]
In 2013, United States Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns gave the award of Human Rights Defenders to the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization stating that the group demonstrated effectiveness in advocacy for human rights, achievement in protecting female prisoners, and important work in trying to improve religious freedom in Iraq. The group was praised for not only defending human rights and reporting on human rights abuses, but also seeking solutions. It was stated that they are one of the few groups in Iraq that understand that if they want to see real change they have to work with the government and not only oppose it. The award was received by William Warda, Pascale Warda and 13 members of the organization that came from Iraq. This award is given every year to an NGO or activity that demonstrates exceptional work in advocating and playing a leadership role in the protection of human rights. [20]
The main activities of the organization are monitoring human rights violations, campaigning for the rights of women, children and minorities within Iraq, and providing aid to internally displaced persons in Iraq. [21] [22] [23]
The HHRO helped to investigate and document the shooting of civilians in the Haditha massacre. [24]
The organization takes its name from the ancient Babylonian Code of Hammurabi.
Human rights in post-invasion Iraq have been the subject of concerns and controversies since the 2003 U.S. invasion. Concerns have been expressed about conduct by insurgents, the U.S.-led coalition forces and the Iraqi government. The U.S. is investigating several allegations of violations of international and internal standards of conduct in isolated incidents by its own forces and contractors. The UK is also conducting investigations of alleged human rights abuses by its forces. War crime tribunals and criminal prosecution of the numerous crimes by insurgents are likely years away. In late February 2009, the U.S. State Department released a report on the human rights situation in Iraq, looking back on the prior year (2008).
Human rights in pre-Saddam Iraq were often lacking to various degrees among the various regimes that ruled the country. Human rights abuses in the country predated the rule of Saddam Hussein.
Persecution of Christians in the post–Cold War era refers to the persecution of Christians from 1989 to the present. Part of a global problem of religious persecution, persecution of Christians in this era is taking place in Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia and Middle East.
The Assyrian Democratic Movement, popularly known as Zowaa, is an Assyrian political party situated in Iraq, and one of the main Assyrian parties within the Iraqi parliament. The Assyrian Democratic Movement states its aims are to establish equal citizenship rights with the rest of the Iraqi people without discrimination on the basis of nationality, belief, religious affiliation, culture, language and other characteristics of the native Chaldo-Assyrian Syriac people of Iraq, to acknowledge the past massacres committed against them and to ensure they are never repeated again.
Ankawa is a suburb of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It is located 8 kilometres (5 mi) northwest of downtown Erbil. The suburb is predominantly populated by Assyrians, most of whom adhere to the Chaldean Catholic Church.
Tesqopa or Tel Skuf, also Tel Eskof or Tall Asqaf is a town in northern Iraq located approximately 19 miles north of Mosul. The town is populated by Assyrians and they are members of the Chaldean Catholic Church.
Dashqotan is a village in Nineveh Governorate, Iraq. It is located in the Tel Kaif District in the Nineveh Plains.
Sarkis Aghajan Mamendo, is an Iraqi Assyrian politician who was appointed Minister for Finance and Economy in the cabinet of Iraqi Kurdistan on 7 May 2006.
Iraqi Assyrians are an ethnic and linguistic minority group, indigenous to Upper Mesopotamia. Assyrians in Iraq are those Assyrians still residing in the country of Iraq, and those in the Assyrian diaspora who are of Iraqi-Assyrian heritage. They share a common history and ethnic identity, rooted in shared linguistic, cultural and religious traditions, with Assyrians in Iran, Assyrians in Turkey and Assyrians in Syria, as well as with the Assyrian diaspora. Assyrian diaspora in Detroit, Areas with large expat populations include Chicago and Sydney.
Pascale Isho Warda was the Minister of Immigration and Refugees in the Iraqi Interim Government.
Nineveh Plains is a region in Nineveh Governorate in Iraq, to the north and east of the city Mosul. Control over the region is contested between Iraqi security forces, KRG security forces, Assyrian security forces, Babylon Brigade and the Shabak Militia.
The Christians of Iraq are considered to be one of the oldest continuous Christian communities in the world.
William Warda is an Iraqi–Assyrian journalist and human rights campaigner. He is a former leading member of Iraq's Assyrian Democratic Movement.
Human rights in Iraqi Kurdistan refer to the human rights issue in the autonomous area of Kurdistan Region.
The Assyrian exodus from Iraq is a part of refers to the mass flight and expulsion of ethnic Assyrians from Iraq, a process which was initiated from the beginning of Iraq War in 2003 and continues to this day. Leaders of Iraq's Assyrian community estimate that over two-thirds of the Iraqi Assyrian population may have fled the country or been internally displaced since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 until 2011. Reports suggest that whole neighborhoods of Assyrians have cleared out in the cities of Baghdad and Basra, and that Sunni insurgent groups and militias have threatened Assyrians. Following the campaign of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in northern Iraq in August 2014, one quarter of the remaining Iraqi Assyrians fled the Jihadists, finding refuge in Turkey and Kurdistan Region.
The persecution of Christians by the Islamic State involves the systematic mass murder of Christian minorities, within the regions of Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Libya controlled by the Islamic terrorist group Islamic State. Persecution of Christian minorities climaxed following the Syrian civil war and later by its spillover.
Human rights in the territory controlled by the Islamic State (IS) are considered to be one of the worst, if not the worst in modern history and IS has been condenmed by many political and religious organisations, as well as individuals. The Islamic State's policies included acts of genocide, torture and slavery. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) stated that the Islamic State "seeks to subjugate civilians under its control and dominate every aspect of their lives through terror, indoctrination, and the provision of services to those who obey". Many Islamic State actions of extreme criminality, terror, recruitment and other activities has been documented in the Middle East.
Bakhetme is a village in the Dohuk Governorate in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq. It is located in the Simele District.
The Assyrian Policy Institute (API) is a non-governmental and nonprofit organization based in the United States that primarily advocates for the rights of Assyrians and other minorities in the Middle East including Yazidis and Mandaeans.
The University of Al-Hamdaniya. is one of the Iraqi government's universities. It is based in Nineveh Plain. The main building is located near the Al-Hamdaniya intersection, Mosul-Erbil road, around 30 kilometers from Mosul. The University has another building located in Qaraqosh and some other buildings under construction in both Karamlesh and Bartella.