Towards the abolition of the death penalty in Iraq and the wider Arab world

Rezgar Akrawi
2025 / 6 / 24

Towards the abolition of the death penalty in Iraq and the wider Arab world *
Rezgar Akrawi
Published in Arabic on 1/11/2014
There is a common opinion among our societies, and even among many human rights activists in the Arab world and Iraq in particular, that the death penalty should exist because it is a protection for society from violence and terrorism, a deterrent to crime, and that it provides fair compensation to victims and their families, and is justified religiously, humanely and legally. While the facts and statistics from various countries of the world that apply this shameful punishment prove the opposite, except that it is possible when applying the death penalty, that a judicial error or defect occurs. Most countries that still use the death penalty lack fair judicial systems, and most confessions are taken under torture and various forms of psychological and physical pressure. In general, the poor and weak segments of society are the ones who are sentenced to death, and this reflects the class character of the punishment.The death penalty legalizes murder and the state has the role of - the murderer - and thus reflects this inhuman culture on society and promotes the spirit of hatred, violence and mutual violence, and reflects the failure of justice and not its achievement.


- The abolition of the death penalty in the world The

abolition of the death penalty movement is constantly evolving, and has become a strong trend at the global level, and annually new countries join the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which aims to abolish the death penalty, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, or practically stop implementing the death penalty voluntarily or reduce the issuance of death sentences to a very large extent, as a result of the escalation of human rights and humanitarian awareness of the seriousness of this punishment, which It is based on the mentality of revenge and punishment, which is a desperate and inhumane response to stop crimes or suppress political opposition, instead of spreading democracy, freedoms, social justice, combating unemployment, reducing class inequality and reducing poverty, as well as developing the judicial system towards the concept - reform - of the human being and not his punishment and execution. The human right to life as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which most countries of the world are signatories.

More than two-thirds of the world s countries have abolished the death penalty or suspended its application According to Amnesty International statistics for 2013: • Abolitionist States for all crimes: 98• Abolitionist States for ordinary crimes only: 7. Countries that have abolished the death penalty in practice: 35• Number of abolitionists in law and practice: 140• Number of retentionist States: 58



. The death penalty in the Arab

worldUnfortunately, all countries in the Arab world impose the death penalty for many crimes except Djibouti, which is the only Arab country that has abolished the death penalty, and some countries have a moratorium on executions for years, such as Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania.
Most Arab countries base their laws on religious laws, lack impartial and fair judicial systems, torture is generally practiced to extract confessions, and death sentences are issued in unfair trials without the accused having the minimum legal protection, and in some of them cases of arbitrary executions, extrajudicial executions or mass executions prevail, most of which are due to opinion or belief. In order to impose legislative reforms in the Arab countries, and develop their penal system in preparation for the signing of the Optional Protocol calling for the abolition of the death penalty, there is a positive trend among some governments to raise the abolition of the death penalty for discussion among public opinion in preparation for its abolition, moratorium or determination.



- The death penalty in Iraq

Iraq has a long and bloody history with the death penalty, and it was mainly used as a method of repression and the imposition of a dictatorial political regime, tens or even hundreds of thousands were executed, whether through mock courts or mass executions inside and outside the judiciary, and the majority of them were under the pretext of what is described as - political crimes - or protecting the state from enemies and spies, and included all Iraqis regardless of nationality, religion and gender. For anyone who violates the system, the number of criminal and political offenses that were sentenced to death increased. The detainees were subjected to various forms of torture and cruel and inhuman treatment and brutally executed without any commitment to the international standards and conventions to which Iraq was a party, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The violent and undemocratic method of the Baathist regime forced the armed opposition to carry out a large number of extrajudicial executions of members of the ruling party, the armed forces and the security services as a kind of military objection and as an attempt to overthrow the ruling regime.

After the fall of the Baathist regime, the death penalty was suspended in June 2003 by the occupation authorities, and soon it was reinstated in August 2004 after the handover of power to the Iraqis with a government based on a national sectarian division, and with a non-independent and non-neutral judiciary affiliated with the executive authority and the ruling and influential parties. To sentence to death! The accused do not have adequate and fair opportunities for self-defence. Penal Code 18 under the Baathist regime is still in force and new anti-terrorism offenses have been added to it that carry the death penalty.

Since then, Iraq is one of the largest countries that govern and apply execution, the official figures do not reflect the actual reality, the real number is very multiplied, except for the official authorities to rule and carry out executions, there are very many extrajudicial executions carried out by militias affiliated with the ruling poles, and on the other end the militias opposed to the regime, and there are no types of fair trials for the victims, and the bodies of a large number of them have not been found so far. The international community is calling for a moratorium on the implementation of the death penalty in Iraq and continuing to apply this barbaric punishment under the pretext of combating terrorism and establishing peace and safety, while all the facts indicate that the impact of this is almost non-existent, and on the contrary, as it has strengthened and prevailed in national and religious fanaticism and a culture of hatred, violence and revenge.


- The need to abolish the death penalty and experiences similar to the Iraqi situation

Do we continue to rule and apply the death penalty in Iraq? There are many countries that have gone through circumstances similar to the situation in Iraq in terms of dictatorships and internal wars, have abolished or suspended the death penalty.

For example, countries that have completely abolished the death penalty: Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Honduras, South Africa, Burundi,

or countries that have practically abolished executions and have not carried out any executions in the last 10 years: Algeria, Eritrea, Liberia, Sri Lanka and Sierra Leone.


Unfortunately, the work for the abolition of the death penalty in Iraq has not taken a large and important place so far in the human rights movement in Iraq, and has not been reflected in the activity of human rights organizations, associations and activists at home and abroad, despite the excessive use of this punishment in the modern history of Iraq, and at the Unification Conference of Human Rights Associations in Berlin in 1999, a clause was approved demanding a moratorium on executions for political crimes. I think it is a great lack of Iraqi human rights awareness compared to the great development in the organizations and coalitions demanding to abolish the death penalty in other Arab countries and globally.

I appeal to everyone in this meeting to activate dialogue on this sensitive issue, and to work towards the adoption of a resolution calling on the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government to moratorium on the death penalty, and to start legal, constitutional and societal reforms in order to abolish the death penalty permanently in Iraq.


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* A speech delivered at the Berlin meeting of Iraqi human rights associations, organizations and activists at home and abroad - 8 and 9 November 2014, and presented as a proposal for the gradual abolition of the death penalty in Iraq, and was discussed and approved as one of the decisions and recommendations of the meeting, as it included the final statement :(-27. Call for the abolition of the death penalty in Iraqi laws and urge all human rights and other civil society associations to contribute to an information and educational campaign in this regard and to call on the authorities Legislative and executive ratification of international conventions on the abolition of the death penalty.)




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