Our Stakeholder report to Iraq’s Universal Periodic Review, led by Dr Amna Nazir, makes specific recommendations to the government on the issue of capital punishment.
Researchers
Consultancy background
In July 2024, the UPR Project at BCU submitted a Stakeholder Report to Iraq’s fourth UPR cycle, led by Dr Amna Nazir. This submission focuses on domestic abuse. We make recommendations to the Government of Iraq on this issue, implementation of which would also see the country moving towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 16 which aims for peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice for all and effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
On 06 November 2024, the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights published its Stakeholder Summary Report for Iraq, which cited the Stakeholder Report submitted by UPR Project at BCU:
“UPR BCU recommended Iraq to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.” (para 2)
“UPR BCU recommended that, whilst Iraq retained the death penalty, ensure that it complied with the ‘most serious crimes’ principle under Article 6 ICCPR, restricting punishment to crimes of intentional killing only.” (para 3)
“UPR BCU recommended Iraq to develop, in consultation with civil society and relevant regional bodies, a comprehensive action plan to work towards an official moratorium, with a view to abolition, within the next four years.” (para 13)
(Outcome of the review yet to be published)
About the UPR Project at BCU
The Centre for Human Rights (CHR) has been engaging with the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) since 2016. Under the auspice of the Human Rights Council, the UPR is an intergovernmental process providing a review of the human rights record of all Member States.
Through the UPR Project at BCU, the CHR we engage with the UPR through taking part in the UPR Pre-sessions, providing capacity building for UPR stakeholders and National Human Rights Institutions, and the filing of stakeholder reports in selected sessions. The UPR Project is designed to help meet the challenges facing the safeguarding of human rights around the world, and to help ensure that UPR recommendations are translated into domestic legal change in member state parliaments.
We fully support the UPR ethos of encouraging the sharing of best practice globally to protect everyone's human rights. The UPR Project at BCU engages with the UPR regularly as a stakeholder, having submitted numerous reports and been cited by the OHCHR.