201001clwyd Submission
201001clwyd Submission
201001clwyd Submission
January 2010
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January 2010
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Contents
Appointment .. ...... ....... ....... ...... ....... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... 4
Reason for Appointment ....... ...... ....... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... 4
Terms of Reference ...... ....... ...... ....... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... 6
Visits to Iraq .. ...... ....... ....... ...... ....... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... 8
Issues of Focus..... ....... ....... ...... ....... ....... ...... ....... ...... ....... 10
Support for civil society in Iraq, including human rights NGOs and
trade unions
Women’s Rights
Iraq ‘Round-tables’
Appointment
I was appointed by then Prime Minister Tony Blair as his Special Envoy
to Iraq on Human Rights Issues on 23rd May 2003. I was re-appointed
by Gordon Brown when he become Prime Minister.
I also believed that this represented an opportunity for the UK and the
coalition to embed human rights best practices as the institutions of a
new Iraqi government and society were being formed. I knew that the
Iraqi people had been brutalised under the regime of Saddam Hussein
and that good human rights practices would at first be alien to many of
the Iraqi people. Adherence to international human rights standards
needed to be embedded as the institutions of the new Iraq were being
created.
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I had been involved in Iraq since the late 1970s when I met some Iraqi
students in Cardiff. They opened my eyes to the brutality of the regime
of Saddam Hussein. I campaigned against the abuses of Saddam’s
regime, first through the organisation CARDRI, the Committee Against
Repression and for Democratic Rights in Iraq, with exiled Iraqis like
Hoshyar Zebari, now Foreign Minister in the Iraqi Government, and
Latif Rashid, the Water Minister. In late 1996, I was involved in setting
up the organisation INDICT, which campaigned for Saddam and other
leading members of his regime to be prosecuted for war crimes,
crimes against humanity and genocide, through an international
tribunal set up by the United Nations, and then later for those
prosecutions to take place in individual countries with an international
jurisdiction with respect to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The evidence compiled by INDICT – of the crimes that had taken place
and of the direct involvement of individual members of the regime –
and the knowledge and experience that I had acquired, were thought
by the Prime Minister to be invaluable in assisting the trials process
and in the management of mass grave sites.
Terms of Reference
Visits to Iraq
The dates and places I have visited in the role are as follows:
Issues of focus
I have been in the Special Envoy role since May 2003 and continue in
the role to the present date. I have been concerned with many issues
during that time, but the following are some of the main human rights
issues that I have been involved in identifying and working on.
Several mass graves sites had been identified well before 2003, but
many more were identified after UK, US and coalition forces had
entered Iraq in 2003.
I worked so that forensic evidence from the mass grave sites and other
locations could be used in relevant legal proceedings and so that Iraqis
could develop their own forensic capacity. Amongst other assistance
provided by the UK, the FCO funded a training project for Iraqis to
develop their skills in this area.
Support
Supp ort for civil society in Iraq, including human rights NGOs and trade
unions
sought to foster links between UK and Iraqi trade unions and to argue
for the positive role trade unions can play in Iraq.
Trade unions in Iraq are severely restricted and not in line with
International Labour Organisation agreed standards. I have met with
Iraqi trade unionists visiting the UK and with the TUC. I have raised
concerns with senior Iraqi ministers, FCO ministers and the Prime
Minister. The British Embassy in Baghdad has an objective to provide
support to Iraqi unions following my encouragement of the issue.
I was also able to secure funding from the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office for a Human Rights Small Grants Fund. Around 30 NGOs from all
over Iraq were allocated small amounts of ‘seed’ money to help them in
their work. This money was allocated to fund a wide range of work –
training for staff in a women’s shelter, education to stop the practice of
female circumcision, books for a human rights library and so forth.
Women’s rights
Minister for Human Rights and his successors. I encouraged other Iraqi
Ministries to engage fully with the new Minister.
I also worked to drive human rights issues up the agenda in Number 10,
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department for International
Development and the Ministry of Defence, through regular meetings
with the Prime Minister, Whitehall ‘roundtables’ and meetings with the
FCO, DfID and MOD.
The ongoing role has helped ensure that human rights work remains
central to Government policy in Iraq. To support this there is one full
time member of staff in Baghdad and one in the FCO looking solely at
human rights issues in Iraq.
‘Round--tables’
Iraq ‘Round
In 2008, the FCO adapted the way it interacted with the human rights
community engaged in Iraq. I chaired a forum meeting to discus
human rights priorities in Iraq in December 2008. This meeting was
attended by the Iraqi Minister for Women, the FCO Minister of State,
international and Iraqi NGOs, embassies and other UK government
departments.
It was agreed that there were three broad areas that required ongoing
attention, women, freedoms and rule of law. Working groups to
discuss further these areas and agree specific actions were set up.
Each working group met in 2009, chaired by myself.
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Over the period that I have been in the role of Special Envoy, this has
been the area of greatest focus and concern. Since 2003 when isolated
instances of abuse were brought to my attention, I raised – and continue
to raise – with US civil and military authorities in Iraq and Washington
DC the conditions under which detainees were held, allegations of
abuse, the numbers in custody, the arrest procedures, the manner and
speed in which cases are reviewed, the way in which evidence is
collated and cases prepared for transfer to the Iraqi criminal justice
system, issues around the transfer of US facilities to Iraqi control and
the provision of information to families and political representatives.