UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
in mind when assessing crimes committed during the 1991 Shi’ite and Kurdish<br />
Uprisings. 761<br />
Acts committed during later periods of non-international armed conflict in Iraq may give<br />
rise to exclusion under Article 1F(a) as “war crimes”, provided the above-mentioned<br />
requirement of the nexus with the armed conflict is met. This could be the case, in<br />
particular, for crimes committed during the Kurdish Civil War (1995–1998) 762 and the<br />
armed conflict between the ISF/MNF and armed insurgent groups following the handover<br />
of sovereignty to the Iraqi Interim Government on 28 June 2004. 763 Acts of violence<br />
between the Sunni and Shi’ite communities, which began with tit-for-tat killings in mid<br />
2005 and escalated into brutal violence after the February 2006 Samarra bombing, should<br />
be assessed within the context of this armed conflict and may constitute war crimes, if the<br />
nexus requirement with the armed conflict is met and if the acts in question meet the<br />
definitions under the relevant legal provisions. 764<br />
c) Crimes Against Humanity<br />
Crimes against humanity involve the fundamentally inhumane treatment of the population<br />
in the context of a widespread or systematic attack directed against it. Such crimes include<br />
murder, extermination, deportation or forcible transfer of population, imprisonment in<br />
violation of fundamental rules of international law, torture, rape, persecution on political,<br />
racial or religious grounds, and other inhumane acts (see also Article 7 of the ICC Statute).<br />
The act in question, however, only becomes a crime against humanity if it is part of a<br />
761 For an overview of the kinds of violations of international humanitarian law committed in this context,<br />
see HRW, Endless Torment – The 1991 Uprising in Iraq and its Aftermath, June 1992, http://www.hrw.org/<br />
reports/1992/Iraq926.htm.<br />
762 On 31 August 1996, the Iraqi troops at the request and with the assistance of the KDP first shelled and<br />
then captured the city of Erbil Kurdish self-administrated zone. According to the Special Rapporteur of the<br />
Commission on Human Rights, large-scale human rights violations took place, including the excessive use of<br />
force, summary executions and arbitrary arrests; UNHCHR, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on<br />
Human Rights, Situation of human rights in Iraq, A/51/496, 15 October 1996, paragraph 95,<br />
http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/e9032b67acacaeb68025670e0036ca50?Opendocu<br />
ment; see also UNHCHR, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, Situation of human<br />
rights in Iraq, A/51/496/Add.1, 8 November 1996, http://www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/TestFrame/<br />
272b2c48b9147de58025671200517701?Opendocument.<br />
763 As noted earlier in these Guidelines (see above footnote 14), the hostilities between the MNF/ISF and the<br />
armed insurgency following the hand-over of sovereignty on 28 June 2004 to the Iraqi Interim Government<br />
have been qualified by the ICRC as a non-international armed conflict. See: ICRC, Iraq post 28 June 2004:<br />
protecting persons deprived of freedom remains a priority, 5 August 2004, http://www.icrc.ch/Web/Eng/<br />
siteeng0.nsf/iwpList322/89060107D77D7299C1256EE7005200E8. For a discussion of whether the conflict,<br />
or “conflicts”, could be considered as an “internationalized internal armed conflict”, see the sources cited in<br />
the above footnote 14.<br />
764 See also the summary of a press briefing by the ICRC on 30 November 2006, in which the ICRC<br />
reminded all parties engaged in the violence that<br />
“regardless of the complexity of the issues at stake in the Iraqi conflict, it is unacceptable and contrary to the most<br />
basic principles of humanity and law to target persons not participating in the hostilities. State and non-State actors<br />
are equally bound by these rules. The ICRC calls again upon all parties to the conflict to respect the rules of<br />
international humanitarian law and to spare civilians and civilian property. In addition, it urges all those who can<br />
make use of their moral and political influence on the ground to call for respect of human life and dignity.”<br />
See ICRC, Iraq: civilians continue to pay the highest price in the conflict, Press Briefing, 30 November 2006,<br />
http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/iraq-briefing-301106.<br />
145