Date: September 15, 2009
No.: PRe.25-I1509
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was created by the UN General Assembly on 15 March 2006 to provide a regular review of the human rights records of UN member states through a common mechanism.
Once a state comes under review, it may prepare its response to a background note and initial questions raised by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The UNHRC should then engage in a dialogue with the state under review to examine how well it is meeting its human rights obligations and implementing recommendations for improvement from special procedures or treaty bodies.
Iraq is included in the eighth group of states to have their human rights records reviewed under the UPR process during the seventh session of the UNHRC that begins in February 2010.
SOITM has compiled a report for submission to the UNHRC under sections B, C, and D of the Information and Guidelines for Relevant Stakeholders on the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism:
ü In Section B, SOITM focuses on the normative and institutional framework of the state, placing particular focus on:
· The undemocratic drafting process of Iraq’s constitution;
· Discrepancies in the Iraqi Constitution;
· Discrimination in the Iraqi Constitution
· The ongoing deadlock over issues of federalism
ü In Section C, SOITM comments on the implementation and efficiency of the Iraqi normative and institutional framework, drawing attention to the following in the north of Iraq
· Inefficiencies in administration
· Lack of human rights monitoring and evaluation
· Demographic changes
· Imbalance in standard of living
· Incidences of ethnic cleansing
ü In Section D SOITM issued a number of recommendations to:
· Iraqi National Assembly
· Iraqi Government
· UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and international human rights organizations
· Members of the United Nations
Eight annexes were attached to SOITM’s submission to the UNHRC:
· Statements submitted by SOITM to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
· Satellite maps of Kerkuk of 2002 compared with maps of 2007
· Official documents about the population of Kerkuk city before and after occupation
· Official documents about the complaint cases in the Propriety Claim Commission of Kerkuk
· Ethnic allocations of high-ranking posts in Kerkuk
· Lists of Turkmen who had been intimidated, arrested, kidnapped or assassinated