Based off Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) review of the records of a committee in Nineveh from January to June 2020, they say that within this time period the judge and his colleagues took seriously the details of individual cases and ordered the release of children who met the conditions of amnesty under Iraqi law, did not have sufficient evidence against them, as well as prevented double jeopardy. This amounted to 75 alleged child offenders.
“The work of this committee suggests that some Iraqi judges understand how to apply international human rights principles and are doing so even if the rest of the system ignores them,” said Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch, in a statement released Sunday. “We hope that the High Judicial Council shares this positive example with courts across the country to allow this to become the norm rather than the exception.”
Iraqi and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) authorities have charged hundreds of children with terrorism for their alleged links to ISIS, says HRW. According to the group, many of the children have been charged by courts based on forced confessions and “dubious accusations”.
“The Iraqi government and Kurdistan Regional Government should amend counterterrorism laws to end the detention and prosecution of children solely for participating in ISIS training or membership, recognizing that international law prohibits recruiting children into armed groups,” reads the statement from HRW.
Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein met with the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Bahrain earlier this month to discuss the repatriation of ISIS-linked women and children.
More than 30,000 Iraqis are estimated to be in Syria’s al-Hol camp, home to thousands of ISIS-linked women and children. The camp is also home to 25,000 Syrians, and many women and children from Europe and further afield.
Foreign governments are mostly reluctant to repatriate their citizens, however.
