Iraq

Iraq’s history of authoritarianism, foreign intervention, civil war, and political gridlock greatly influences the government’s actions around ongoing human rights violations. State security agencies continue to carry out wrongful arrests and imprisonment, torture of detainees, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings. Social and economic rights violations also threaten millions of Iraqis, including from environmental devastation. With a political economy dependent largely on oil, Iraq is on the frontlines of worsening consequences of global warming. Troubling governmental responses to growing crises and to popular efforts to address them—including violence against protesters demanding a better future—have only increased violations while failing to address the adverse conditions Iraqis live through every day.