Alliance Internationale pour la Justice
International Alliance for Justice

Press Release - Wednesday, June 26, 2002 - 12:00 AM

IRAQ

AIJ Briefed the European Commission Sponsored Conference in Amman

International Alliance for Justice
June 26, 2002

Press Release

In the context of "The European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights for 2002 - 2004", the European Commission (EC) organized a regional conference in the Mashriq countries from June 10-12 in Jordan, Amman. The International Alliance for Justice (AIJ) along with one hundred representatives of NGOs from 10 Arab countries of Mashriq (Bahrain, Kuwait, Yemen, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt.), EU officials, several European and International NGOs such as FIDH, Amnesty International, Ford Foundation, Henrich Boll Foundation, Frederich Neumann Foundation, Thomson Foundation, diplomats and journalists attended the conference. The AIJ informed the participants about the suffering of the Iraqi people in the hands of the Iraqi regime and its campaign to bring the Iraqi leadership before justice. Also, the AIJ delegation met with several Jordanian NGOs, media such as (Al Hayat, Al Jazira, Al Hadath) and Iraqi refugees in Amman.

The conference was both technical and political. The EC highlighted its role and its policy in the region, its different funding programs and its conditions. The workshops treated the legal framework and obstacles that Mashriq NGOs are facing as well as the NGO recommendations related to their situations and activities.

During the conference the AIJ highlighted the many crimes of the Iraqi regime against the Iraqi peoples in general, the situation of the Kurds in Iraq and Syria as two Mashriq countries. The AIJ asked the European Commission to rethink its strategies towards Iraq based on the recommendations adopted by the latest European Parliament Report and Resolution "Iraq Eleven Years After the Gulf War". The European Commission, the Council and the state members of the European Union should adopt this report as basis for their foreign policy and to support a free democratic Iraq and assist the Kurdish experiment.

The AIJ made general recommendations to the European Commission and the various participants on the need to support the Kurdish administration; the civil society in Iraqi Kurdistan; the Iraqi Diaspora NGOs; the 4 million Iraqi refugees; the one million internally displaced persons and the establishment of an International Ad hoc Tribunal for the Iraqi leadership's crimes against humanity.

The AIJ asked the EC to add Iraq on its list of the 29 focus countries. In Saddam Hussein controlled Iraq civil society organizations are absent but in the North of the country under the Kurdish control there is an emerging democracy and civil society institutions and various NGOs in Diaspora should be assisted by the European Union institutions.

It is noteworthy that the European Union has spent 270 million euros on Iraq since 1991. For the last three years the EU has spent 12 million euros in humanitarian aid to Iraq. This year the EU supposed to spend 13 million euros in Iraq. Almost all the EU money is spent through the Iraqi government. It is to be recalled that the Iraqi government is spending just in the region more than the European Union and the US aid jointly on its propaganda machine. The Iraqi government except for its own people has money to buy journalists, politicians, ministers, MPs, intellectuals, singers, artists, academics, writers, political parties, trade unions, family members of high level officials, tribal chieftains and pay suicide bombers.

Also, at the conference the AIJ stressed the need for the establishment of an Arab Human Rights Commission and Court like the European Human Rights Court, the African Human Rights Commission and the American States Organization. The Arab and Islamic regional institutions don't have any legal mechanisms for their citizens to seek justice when their states violate their rights.

Moreover, the AIJ suggested parallel NGO forums during the Arab League summits, the Organization of Islamic Conference's summits and the GCC meetings like when the OSCE, OAS and UN meetings are taking place in order to integrate a human rights agenda to these meetings.

The AIJ is concerned about restrictions on freedom of association and foreign finance for NGOs of the region. Many Arab governments of the region are recipients of Foreign Aid. The double standards practiced by certain governments of the region in criminalizing human rights defenders in this regard are despicable. The AIJ brought up the issue of two eminent human rights defenders and supporters of AIJ's campaign in Egypt Dr. Saaddadin Ibrahim and Mr. Hafiz Abu Saada. They are facing difficulties in Egypt as a result of restrictive Association and financing laws. The NGO community's difficulties are almost similar in the entire region in this regard. The AIJ asked the EC and the conference to express their solidarity with them and to do their utmost to support their cases.

Given that Syria as a Mediterranean country is in the process of signing a Euro-Med partnership convention with the European Union. The AIJ recommended that the European Union put pressure on Syria to make human rights and democratic reforms, respect the rights of two million Kurds and resolve the problem of 300000 Kurds from the Northern province of Djezira deprived of their citizenship since the beginning of sixties. EU economic assistance to Syria should be conditional upon these issues. The AIJ called upon the EC to pay a special attention to the situation of minority groups, indigenous peoples and women in the area and the need to address their issues, support their NGOs and including them to the European sponsored regional programs and initiatives. The Middle East remains as one of the less touched areas by the wind of democracy and human rights. The international community has a moral and security responsibility in bringing peace, stability, democracy, human rights and social justice to this area.

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