IRAQ Humanitarian Country Profile

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Background

Last update: February 2007

 

Iraq has had a long, illustrious and often troubled history. Modern Iraq was historically known as Mesopotamia, believed to be the birth-place of civilisation. Here mankind first built settlements, adopted the alphabet, drafted laws and developed a knowledge of mathematics and science. Over the centuries, Mesopotamia has been home to great empires and cultures. In 636AD, the Caliphate seized control of Mesopotamia and built a new Islamic empire. From 762AD, under the Abbasid Caliphate, Baghdad became the hub of a huge dominion extending from North Africa to the Indian subcontinent and an important centre of learning, culture and science.

 

In 1258, Baghdad was destroyed by the Mongols. In 1534, Mesopotamia became part of the Ottoman empire, who lost it to the Persian Safavids in 1509 but regained it in 1632. Mesopotamia became a backwater of the Ottoman empire and went into decline until the beginning of the 20th century. The Ottomans lasted until World War I, when what is now Iraq was taken over by Britain. Iraq gained independence in 1932, but was briefly re-occupied by the UK during World War II.

 

In 1958, the military ousted the monarchy. And in 1968 the Baathists, who promoted the concept of one Arab nation, seized power and Baghdad became a centre of Arab nationalism and attracted Arab and Third World radicals. Saddam Hussein assumed office in 1979. During its rule, the Baathist regime committed human right abuses, including the use of torture, cruel and unusual punishments, political violence, mass murder and genocide. The regime faced successive revolts, in particular in the Kurdish North and the Shia South. It conducted one military operation after the other to brutally suppress the Kurdish struggle for self-rule. Punitive military offensives in the north led to 50,000-100,000 deaths from mass executions in 1988.In the south, the defeat of Iraq in the Gulf War triggered a Shia uprising in 1991, eventually crushed by the army. The regime drained the marshes and forcibly relocated an estimated 500,000 Marsh Arabs from their southern wetland settlements.

 

A similar Kurdish rebellion failed in 1991, sparking the flight of 1.5 million Kurdish refugees to Turkey and Iran, resulting in a major humanitarian crisis.

 

The US, without United Nations approval, launched a war on Iraq in March 2003. Saddam Hussein was quickly toppled and his regime was defeated by 10 April 2003. But Iraq has since descended into crisis and resentment against the occupation and lack of political progress have increasingly fuelled an insurgency, which has continued unabated.

 

Peace and security

 

Since the US-led invasion of 2003, Iraq has been plunged into violence and chaos. It has gone through three governments, all of which have failed to inspire the confidence of the people and improve the security situation. In 2007, the Iraq Study Group described the situation in Iraq as “grave and deteriorating”. Iraqis are caught in a deadly grip of violence, fuelled on the one hand by US and Iraqi military operations and on the other by Sunni insurgents, Shia militias, death squads and criminal gangs. In late 2006-early 2007, the conflict intensified both in its voracity and in the number of lives it claims every day.

 

The latest UN report (January 2007) on the human rights situation in Iraq notes that “extra-judicial executions, rampant and indiscriminate killings of civilians went virtually unchecked" in 2006. According to the report, more than 34,000 Iraqi civilians were killed and another 37,000 wounded in Iraq during 2006.

 

About four million Iraqis are internally displaced or have fled the country. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has described the flight of Iraqis as “the biggest movement of refugees in the Middle East since the Palestinian crisis [of 1948 when millions of Palestinians were forced off their land following the establishment of the state of Israel]”.

 

Saddam Hussein and many of the top-ranking Baathists were put on trial to face charges of crimes against humanity. The trial and the verdicts were mired in controversy. Saddam was sentenced to death by the Iraqi high tribunal on 5 November 2006. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louis Arbour, called on the Iraqi authorities to observe a moratorium on executions and ensure the defendant’s right to a fair trial was guaranteed. The authorities ignored repeated international appeals, and Saddam was executed on 30 December 2006.

 

IDPs/Refugees

 

Iraq continues to experience large-scale displacement. Since 2003, US-led military operations have displaced many Iraqis. These operations, which include blockades of cities or urban settlements as well as intense aerial bombardment of western and central Iraq, have forced residents to leave. According to the UN, more than 200,000 people were displaced during the attacks on Falluja alone during 2004, while hundreds of thousands may have been uprooted in other urban attacks. The majority of the displaced have been unable to return, due to insecurity, the recurrent military offensives, lack of water, electricity and health services, and because their homes have been destroyed.

 

Inter-communal violence, multiple military operations and human rights abuses have uprooted 3.8 million Iraqis. UNHCR estimates that 1.8 million people are displaced in Iraq, while another two million have sought refuge in Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. Iraq is today facing a displacement crisis that has seen up to 50,000 people fleeing their homes each month.

 

During Saddam Hussein’s rule, Iraq was home to a large number of refugees, especially from Palestine and Syria, as well as some Iranians. But since 2003, these refugee communities enjoy no protection and receive no assistance. Palestinians are the most vulnerable. Many face very difficult living conditions and are subject to repeated threats and attacks. More than 164 Palestinians have been killed. Palestinians in Baghdad fear for their lives and wish to leave. But for many, leaving Iraq is not an option, as they have no valid travel documents and nowhere to go.

 

About 700 Palestinians who have fled the violence in Baghdad have been stuck in inhumane conditions on the Iraq-Syria frontier, refusing to return to Iraq and refused entry by the Syrian authorities. Only 15,000 out of an estimated 34,000 Palestinians refugees now remain in Iraq.

 

Democracy and governance

 

Iraq adopted a new constitution in October 2004. The new constitution provides for an executive branch made up of the Presidency Council, consisting of the president and his two vice-presidents, a Cabinet, headed by a prime minister, and Council of Representatives, which is elected every four years. The council elects the president and his two deputies, and the prime minister, who wields executive power, is selected from the largest block in parliament. The 275-member parliament was elected to office in December 2005. It selected Talal Jalabani, leader of the northern Kurdish autonomous region, as president, and Ibrahim Al-Jafari as prime minister. Al-Jafari resigned in April 2006 and was replaced by Nouri al-Maliki.

 

Media

 

The overthrow of the Iraqi regime opened up the country’s media. Hundreds of newspapers, radio and television stations have mushroomed since 2003, although many belong to or are associated with Iraq’s many religious and political groups. Usage and access to the internet has also considerably increased.

 

But despite the semblance of freedom, Iraqi authorities have often intervened and imposed restrictions on the media. The authorities have threatened to close down media organisations they accuse of “inciting violence” or “stirring up religious and ethnic passions”, and have outlawed visuals of “blood and killings” that they fear may amplify “the horror of the violence”.

 

In 2006, the government shut down two TV channels and briefly banned journalists from parliament and the international press centre in Baghdad’s Green Zone. According to, Reporters Without Frontiers Iraqi authorities detained 30 journalists in 2006 who are still being held without charge. Similarly, the US army is still holding four journalists who were arrested last year.

 

Iraq is considered the deadliest place in the world for journalists. According to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), a record 93 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003. Another 37 media support workers have been killed during the same period. In October 2006, masked gunmen stormed the Baghdad office of TV station Al-Shaabiya and killed 11 people, five of them journalists.

 

Economy

 

Saddam Hussein’s 24-year rule was devastating for both the people and economy of Iraq. In 1979, Iraq was in the middle range of economic indicators. Oil made the country rich, accounting for 95 percent of foreign exchange earnings. Thus, Iraq was among the more advanced countries in the Arab world, with a rapidly growing population and economy. After that the economy began to falter and living standards dropped by 90 percent. According to the World Bank, in the 1980s, Iraq’s per capita income was $3,600, but by 2002 it had dropped to $480-$610.

 

The first phase of this decline came with Iraq’s conflict with Iran in 1980 and its eight-year-long war, which has been estimated to have cost Iraq $450 billion and caused one million deaths on both sides. The second phase was Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait and the resulting US-led Gulf War of 1991, which destroyed about $230 billion of infrastructure. International sanctions had a devastating effect on Iraq’s economy and society. In 1991, the UN said Iraq had been reduced to a pre-industrial state; later reports described living standards as at subsistence level.

 

Iraq is potentially a rich country. It is estimated to hold 112 billion barrels of oil - the world's second-largest proven reserves.

 

Population

 

The population is estimated to be 26 million. About 97 per cent of Iraqis are Muslims, while an estimated 80 per cent of the population are Arabs, the rest are Kurds, Assyrians and Turkmen, who mostly inhabit the north and northeast parts of the country. The majority of Arabs are Shias, but there are also significant Sunni populations made up of Arabs, Kurds and Turkomans. There are also sizeable Christian communities mostly comprising ethnic Assyrians.

 

Development indicators

 

Surveys of Iraqi households by UN Development Programme (UNDP) [2005] suggest the Iraqi population at large experiences dismal living conditions because of decades of wars and sanctions and the current conflict. Nearly four years after the fall of the Baathist regime, most Iraqis have limited access to food, health services, education and employment. Many also lack water and electricity.

 

Children

 

The children of Iraq are caught up in war for the third time in 20 years. Almost half the population is younger than 18. Even before the latest conflict, many children were highly vulnerable to disease and malnutrition. One in four under five is chronically malnourished. One in eight children dies before its fifth birthday.

 

Aid agencies estimate that thousands of Iraqi parents do not send their daughters to school for cultural reasons and because of general insecurity. As a result of two decades of war and economic hardship, Iraqi schools have fallen into disrepair, enrolment has dropped, and literacy levels have stagnated.

 

Health

 

Iraq’s health system has collapsed. Medical services, once among the best in the Middle East, have declined to such an extent they can no longer meet the needs of the population. According to the , British Journal of Medicine more than half of those who die in Iraq’s hospitals might have been saved if trained staff had been available and hospital conditions up to the task. Many physicians have left the country due to the security crisis, leaving hospitals under-staffed or staffed with doctors “who do not have the proper experience or kills to manage emergency cases”. According to the Red Crescent, hundreds of doctors have been killed and more than 34,000 have fled the country since 2003. Hospitals and clinics are shortage of basic medical supplies, including equipment and drugs. British Journal of Medicine more than half of those who die in Iraq’s hospitals might have been saved if trained staff had been available and hospital conditions up to the task. Many physicians have left the country due to the security crisis, leaving hospitals under-staffed or staffed with doctors “who do not have the proper experience or kills to manage emergency cases”. According to the Red Crescent, hundreds of doctors have been killed and more than 34,000 have fled the country since 2003. Hospitals and clinics are shortage of basic medical supplies, including equipment and drugs.

 

Food security

 

Nearly half the Iraqi population is dependent on food rations, according to World Food Programme (WFP). Food shortages have been particularly acute where military operations are under way.

 

Gender issues

 

Under the secular Baathist regime, Iraqi women enjoyed considerable privileges and rights. The government enacted laws to equalise women’s rights in divorce, land ownership and suffrage. Women made significant strides in education: attendance in schools went up from 34 to 95 percent between 1970 and 1980. Women also had better job opportunities, and in 2002 comprised 20 percent of the labour force, some working in medicine, engineering, academia and the civil service. Now those gains are threatened by the resurgence of conservative cultural and religious groups and the general lawlessness. According to a recent UN report, the condition of Iraqi women has continued to deteriorate with the erosion of their basic rights and freedoms. Overall, threats and attacks against women have increased. Women are sidelined, discriminated against and excluded from public life. Insecurity, and especially the actual and the perceived dangers of sexual violence, have created a climate of fear that prevents women and girls from participating in public life - going to school, going to work, seeking medical treatment, or even leaving their homes.

 

Human rights

 

Iraq has an appalling human rights record. Iraq (except Kurdistan) has been under a state of emergency since July 2004. It gives the state the power to impose curfews, cordon off towns and cities, and conduct search operations. The latest report of the UN Human Rights Office paints a grim picture of the situation in Iraq. Civilians are the prime victims of the spiralling violence in the country. The report notes "extra-judicial executions, rampant and indiscriminate killings of civilians went virtually unchecked" in 2006. More than 34,000 Iraqi civilians were killed and another 37,000 wounded in Iraq in 2006.

 

The attacks by armed groups, religious extremists, militias and criminal gangs, as well as by US and Iraqi military and security forces, "comprehensively affect the enjoyment of basic rights and freedoms" by the Iraq people. Growing unemployment, poverty and various forms of discrimination and increasingly limited access to basic services are also preventing Iraqis from realising their economic, social and cultural rights.

 

The report said armed operations by US-led forces continued to restrict the enjoyment of human rights and cause severe suffering to the population. The number of people detained in military operations and held without charge has increased considerably. In 2006, the total number of detainees in Iraq was more than 30,000, of whom more than 14,000 were held in US-run detention centres. The current level of violence and the ongoing military operations seriously affect the ability of all Iraqis to exercise their fundamental human rights.

 

Source: IRIN (http://www.irinnews.org/country.aspx?CountryCode=IQ&RegionCode=ME)