ILGA Asia Statement for the Iraqi Kurdistan Region: Widespread Violence Against LGBTIQ+ Citizens By The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Must Be Condemned
Detainees report severe restrictions on movement, torture and death threats.
Kurdistan
April 1, 2021
The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) must end the arbitrary detention targeting LGBTIQ+ citizens and immediately release the detainees. The security police of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government - Asayîş - arrested several citizens, including people under 18 years of age, in the city of Sulaymaniyah. In his first briefing broadcasted on the TV, the operation commander of the police Pshtiwan Bahadin said that the operation was targeting LGBTIQ+ people in public places of Sulaymaniyah, which would continue in the coming days. On the following day, he corrected in an official statement that the operation aimed to combat prostitution.
According to the local sources, this operation is an excuse to cover up the repression of the LGBTIQ+ community in Kurdistan and silence the international community in the face of such systematic violent acts against LGBTIQ+ people in Sulaymaniyah. Reports of Kurdish human rights defenders and LGBTIQ+ activists confirm that detainees are subjected to sexual and physical harassment and involuntary exposure of their identity using different brutal torture methods during the interrogation. Due to these recent arrests and police threats, many members of the LGBTIQ+ community in Kurdistan, especially in Sulaymaniyah, are at risk of detention and are in fear of appearing in public. Particularly, the Kurdish LGBTIQ+ activists’ lives are in grave danger.
Article 14 of the Iraqi Constitution states that every Iraqi “are equal before the law without discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, origin, color, religion, sect, belief or opinion, or economic or social status.” The arbitrary actions of the KRG should not supersede the constitutionally protected rights of the detainees.
As a member state of the United Nations (UN), party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and signatory to the Convention Against Torture (CAT), the Iraqi government should also urge the KRG to uphold and protect Iraqis’ right to freedom of expression and prevent torture and other acts of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment and punishment against its citizens.
ILGA Asia stands in solidarity with human rights defenders in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region and condemns all forms of intimidation and prosecution against LGBTIQ+ people in Kurdistan.
We urge the KRG to immediately release the detainees, end the repression and detention policies against the LGBTIQ+ community. We call upon the KRG to enact laws to prevent systematic state-sponsored harassment and violence of LGBTIQ+ people, protect their rights and ensure their safety and security in Kurdistan in accordance with international laws.
ILGA Asia is the Asian Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, representing more than 170 LGBTI organizations in East, South, Southeast, and West Asia, with the administrative office in Bangkok, Thailand.
Media contact
Numan Afifi - Communications Officer
media@ilgaasia.org
