Kuwait calls for efforts to support Iraq’s security

GENEVA: Kuwait has expressed hope, before the United Nations Human Rights, yesterday that bringing together international efforts would enable the Iraqi authorities to confront the ISIL militant group, as a joint response against terrorism. Kuwait’s permanent delegate to the UN Ambassador Jamal Al-Ghunaim said that “these efforts should stand in the face of terrorists who wreak havoc in the already deteriorating situation in Iraq to stir up sectarian strife in order to eat away the fabric of Iraqi society.” Ghunaim made this remark at the 22nd special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that tackled the situation of human rights in Iraq in the light of violations carried out by ISIL and its affiliates.

The Kuwaiti diplomat affirmed Kuwait’s support to all efforts made by the international community to combat terrorism in all its forms. “Turning a blind eye to terrorism could be serious and catastrophic for all countries, regionally and internationally.” He stressed that Kuwait strongly condemns “all acts of terrorism in Iraq and violations that affect the Iraqi people which led them to flee their homes by the thousands.” Ghunaim called on all countries to implement UN Security Council Resolution no 2170 on imposing sanctions on ISIS.

UAE condemns terrorist acts in Iraq, seeks global community's intervention

2 September 2014

UAE’s Permanent Representative to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva terrorism has neither religion nor nationality.

The UAE has expressed grave concern over savage acts committed in some parts of Iraq territories by armed terrorist groups, including ISIS.

Addressing the Human Rights Council’s Special Session on Iraq on Monday, UAE’s Permanent Representative to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva Obaid Salem Al Zaabi said the council’s decision to hold this session highlights the international community’s determination to confront such dangerous and irresponsible acts that threaten security and stability of the region and beyond.

Al Zaabi noted that grave and horrific human rights violations are being committed against the people in Mosul and other areas of Iraq including arbitrary and summary executions, torture, sexual violence against women, attacks on civilians on religious and ethnic grounds, destruction of property and forcing thousands to flee their homes.

“The United Arab Emirates strongly condemns these tragic violations and calls on the international community to confront them through all legal means,” he added.

He said that terrorism has neither religion nor nationality and it follows an exclusionist ideology that breeds violence, hatred, revenge and oppression.

Al Zaabi also called for heeding the Iraqi government’s demands for provision of humanitarian aid to enable displaced people to return to their territories and to build capacities in human rights fields in order to restore security and stability in Iraq.

UK unveils powers to strip jihadi suspects of passports      

1 September 2014

LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday he would bring in new laws to give police the power to seize the passports of suspected Iraq and Syria-bound Islamist fighters.

“We will introduce specific and targeted legislation ... providing the police with a temporary power to seize a passport at the border during which time they will be able to investigate the individual concerned,” Cameron told parliament, announcing measures designed to tackle the threat of radicalized Britons fighting alongside Islamic State (IS) militants.

The UN agreed to send investigators to Iraq

The United Nations meanwhile agreed to send investigators to Iraq to examine crimes being committed by IS on "an unimaginable scale", with a view to holding perpetrators to account.

"We are facing a terrorist monster," Iraq's human rights minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani told the UN Human Rights Council, which adopted a resolution tabled by Iraq and France at an emergency sitting of the 47-member state forum in Geneva.

The Council aims to send 11 investigators, with a total budget of $US1.18 million, to report back by March 2015.

IS militants have driven more than 1.2 million people from their homes this year, according to the UN. At least 1,420 people were killed in sectarian violence in Iraq in August alone.

UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Flavia Pansieri said there was "strong evidence" both Islamist fighters and Iraqi government forces have killed civilians and committed atrocities in the past three months of fighting.

"The reports we have received reveal acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale," she said.