Statement

National Institute for Human Rights is expressing its deepest concern towards the rapid pace of events that accompanied the demonstrations that set off October 25, 2019, with the participation of the young and children under 18 in many Iraqi provinces, and resulting in killing and wounding dozens of demonstrators and security forces and journalists in addition to arresting hundreds of the demonstrators as well as sabotage private and public properties that came along as a result to the accumulation of legit needs of the community members as unemployment for the young and the administrative and financial corruption since 2003 and the drop of standard of living below the poverty line for most members of society and the lack of plans and methodologies to improve the living conditions of Iraqis, despite the availability of resources.

The right to demonstrate and freedom of expression came in international conventions and the Iraqi constitution of 2005. Therefore, our organization calls on the Iraqi government to oblige the competent security forces to deal with the demonstrators in accordance with international standards and to preserve their lives. We call on peaceful demonstrators to exercise their right to freedom of demonstration and to express an opinion of total peacefulness and to stay away from acts of sabotage of public and private property and categorizing their legitimate demands in accordance with the capabilities of the Iraqi government.