Media Contact: Heidi Altman
Email: altmanh@lchr.org
Tel.: (212) 845 5259

The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights calls on the UN to urgently appoint a commission of inquiry with a view to setting up an internationally established criminal tribunal for Iraq. The commission would be asked to recommend the most appropriate mechanism for prosecuting those responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed in Iraq. LCHR believes that taking such a step now will signal to all those involved in the conflict and to the Iraqi people as a whole, that the international community is serious about bringing to account those responsible for international crimes. At this critical juncture, such a signal could help to prevent further crimes being committed.

The gross and systematic violations of international humanitarian and human rights law committed during Saddam Hussein’s rule are well documented. The long list of abuses include widespread and systematic torture and disappearance of political opponents, violent repression of Kurdish and Shi’a populations and violations of the laws of war during wars on Iran and Kuwait. Efforts to amass evidence that could be used as a basis for criminal prosecutions have been under way for years. The basis for establishing an accountability mechanism for these crimes already exists.

In this regard, LCHR welcomes the commitment that has been shown by some governments to bring those responsible to justice, and we commend the efforts undertaken to amass evidence.

Now is the time to act. A UN commission of inquiry should start work immediately to look into the most appropriate form of tribunal.

LCHR believes that the following principles should guide the work of the commission of inquiry:

• The highest standard of international justice

The severity and scale of the abuses warrant the establishment of a self-standing criminal tribunal for Iraq. This means a well resourced tribunal staffed with the highest caliber judges and other personnel. It also means a tribunal conforming to the highest international standards of fair trial, respecting the rights of the accused as well as those of victims.

• An independent, impartial tribunal

LCHR believes that only a tribunal established under international auspices can offer fully independent and impartial justice for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Iraq at this time. After decades of repression, and taking into consideration the enormous political pressures that can be expected to accompany a judicial accountability process, there must be serious doubt whether the Iraqi legal system would be able to deliver fair, independent and effective trials for these crimes.

• No blanket amnesties

Dispensing blanket amnesties for the most serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law would go against international law and the long term interests of the Iraqi people.

LCHR believes it is essential that an accountability mechanism for Iraq should be established by the United Nations, and not by any individual states, whether those involved in the current war on Iraq or Iraq itself. Only a tribunal established by the UN will achieve the legitimacy and credibility that is needed, and will be able to have perceived and actual independence and impartiality.

Additional advantages of establishment under UN auspices, particularly if it has the backing of the Security Council’s powers, are that all states would be obliged to cooperate, and financing could be organized by the UN.

Questions such as whether the tribunal should sit in Iraq or elsewhere, whether it would include Iraqi judges and how it might relate to the Iraqi judicial system should be examined by the commission of inquiry. The role of Arab regional organizations and judiciary should also be considered. The long term interests of the Iraqi judicial system as well as the interests of peace and reconciliation in the country would need to be taken into account, in addition to the principles of fairness and independence outlined above. So far as possible, such decisions should take into consideration the views of the Iraqi people themselves. However the need for consultation should be balanced against the need to take rapid and decisive steps to move towards the establishment of a mechanism for accountability for serious crimes of the past 25 years.

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