UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...

a) Before the Fall of the Former Regime
- The systematic persecution of the Kurdish people (including through the Anfal
campaign in 1988 and the gassing of civilians in Halabja in 1987, forced resettlement,
destruction of villages and confiscation of properties) 745
- The forced expulsion of non-Arab citizens from Kirkuk and other oil-rich areas as part
of the Arabization campaign 746
- The forced deportation and denaturalization of Feili Kurds in 1980
- The systematic drainage of the marsh areas (along with bombing raids, torture,
disappearances and mass executions) and the consequent destruction of the economic,
social and cultural base of the Marsh Arabs after the 1991 Gulf War 747
- Acts of violence committed by Shi’a opposition groups and the Government throughout
the 1990s until the fall of the former regime;
- The Government’s repression of the Shi’ite population including “systematic
assassinations, attacks and threats carried out against the Shi’ite leadership” 748
- Systematic persecution by the former regime of (perceived) political opponents,
including through summary and arbitrary executions, torture and other forms of cruel
and inhuman treatment or punishment (for example amputations and mutilations for
ordinary criminal offenses), and enforced or involuntary disappearances. 749
Crimes committed by various political groups and in particular their armed wings involved
in violent resistance against the previous regime of Saddam Hussein (e.g. Kurdish
Peshmerga, 750 Badr Corps, Dawa Party) and mostly directed against government officials
and institutions would also need to be assessed in the light of the exclusion clauses, in
particular Article 1F(b), as the acts in question may have been disproportionate to the
alleged political objectives. Similar considerations would apply with regard to serious
human rights violations against civilians as well as KDP and PUK military and political
officials reportedly committed by several Kurdish Islamist groups such as the Islamic
745
See, for example, HRW, Genocide in Iraq – The Anfal Campaign Against the Kurds, July 1993,
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/iraqanfal/.
746
See “De-Arabization”.
747
See, for example, HRW, The Iraqi Government Assault on the Marsh Arabs, January 2003,
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/mena/marsharabs1.htm.
748
See, for example, UNHCHR, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of
human rights in Iraq, The Situation of Human Rights in Iraq, E/CN.4/1999/37, 26 February 1999, para. 20-23,
http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/5d0983c1727027ac8025673f0056c924?Opendocu
ment.
749
See, for example, Indict, Crimes committed by the Iraqi regime, http://www.indict.org.uk/crimes.php; UN
Commission on Human Rights, Report of the Special Rapporteur, Andreas Mavrommatis, on the situation of
human rights in Iraq, E/CN.4/2002/44, 15 March 2002, available in UNHCR’s Refworld at:
http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/refworld/rwmain?docid=3caaffc42; USDOS, Bureau of Democracy,
Human Rights and Labor, 2001 Country Report on Human Rights Practices – Iraq, 4 March 2002,
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/nea/8257.htm; various reports by AI, http://web.amnesty.org/library/
eng-irq/index; and various reports by HRW, http://www.hrw.org/doc?t=mideast&c=iraq.
750
For an overview on the Peshmerga and its role throughout the various conflicts, see Michael Garrett
Lortz, Willing to face Death: A History of Kurdish Military Forces – The Peshmerga – From the Ottoman
Empire to Present-Day Iraq, Master of Arts Thesis in International Affairs, Florida State University,
14 November 2005, http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11142005-144616/.
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