The UN on Friday called on the Iraqi government to halt “imminent” forced evictions of many people suspected of having ties to Islamic State from the city of Mosul.
Hundreds of families have received threatening letters laying down a deadline for leaving, mainly under tribal agreements, which amount to “acts of vengeance”, UN human rights spokesperson Rupert Colville said.
“We urge the Iraqi Government to take action to halt such imminent evictions or any type of collective punishment, and to reinforce the formal justice system to bring perpetrators to justice,” he told a Geneva news briefing.
Colville said the rights office had received reports of “so-called night letters left at families’ houses or distributed in neighbourhoods,” typically warning people to leave by a particular date or face forced expulsion.
He said these threats were often linked to tribal agreements demanding that any families affiliated with IS be excluded from specific areas.
“People are at real risk of forced eviction from their homes and losing access to basic necessities, including adequate housing, food, access to health services and education,” Colville said.
He stressed that “illegal forced evictions and forcible displacement may amount to collective punishment and are in clear contravention of the Iraqi constitution, international human rights and international humanitarian law.”
“Criminal liability is strictly personal to the individual involved in the commission of the crime for which she or he has been convicted by a court of law,” he said.
The UN, he said, is calling on the Iraqi government to “take action to halt such imminent evictions or any type of collective punishment.”
“Illegal forced evictions are acts of vengeance that are detrimental to national reconciliation and social cohesion,” he said.
The post UN urges Iraq to halt ‘forced evictions’ from Mosul appeared first on Vanguard News.
No comments:
Post a Comment