International amnesty calls Iraqi government to end "collective punishment" on women
Amnesty International called on Iraqi government to put an end to the abuses committed against women and relatives of ISIS and whom living in the camps and hold all perpetrators accountable and to prevent all armed men from entering camps for internally displaced persons.
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In a report published on Tuesday, Amnesty International condemned Iraqi authorities for "collective punishment" of women and children suspected of being in connection with ISIS, and noted that such punishment included denial of humanitarian assistance, denial of refugee camps and sexual violence against women.
"Women and children are isolated, trapped and exploited in Iraq," the organization said in a report. "It monitored" widespread discrimination against women in IDP camps by security forces, camp administration officials and local authorities who believe these women belong to Islamic state organization.
"Sexual exploitation was occurring in each of the eight camps visited by human rights researchers," Amnesty International's Middle East Research Director Lynn Malouf said in the report. "The war against ISIS in Iraq may have ended, but the suffering of Iraqis is not still far from being completed.
"These families, who are expelled from their communities, have no place to go, they are stuck in camps, deprived of food, water and other essentials."
"This humiliating collective punishment involves the risk of establishing future violence and can not establish a just and lasting peace that the Iraqis who need it," she said.
"Women are being discriminated against and dehumanized by armed men who work in the camps because of their alleged affiliation to Islamic state," said Lynn Malouf, "and the people who are supposed to protect them are turning into predatory monsters."
"The Iraqi government must show its seriousness in putting an end to the abuses committed against these women by holding all perpetrators accountable and preventing all armed men from entering IDP camps," she said.
United Nations announced in February that about 2.5 million people were still in IDP camps, after Iraqi forces, backed by International Alliance, expelled ISIS from the vast areas they controlled in 2014 in north and west of the country.
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