The outbreak of large-scale popular protests in Basra and other Iraqi cities from July 2018 has led to a wave of violent repression of civilian activists. In addition to the use of excessive force against protestors on the streets, there has in recent months been a campaign of systematic death threats and premeditated assassinations. A wide range of civilian activists including protestors, media professionals, lawyers, women in public life and other human rights defenders have been subjected to arbitrary detention, torture and summary killings by militias, including those affiliated to the Popular Mobilization Forces, and by the Iraqi Security Forces and police. Scores of activists have been killed and hundreds detained. While the 2005 Iraqi constitution acknowledges the role of civil society and protects freedoms of expression and assembly, relevant legislation in Iraq is outdated and activists remain highly vulnerable. Official investigations announced into the deaths of activists have been seriously deficient, with perpetrators generally described as ‘unknown’. Lawyers representing activists have themselves been targeted for intimidation or attack. The Popular Mobilization Forces were created in 2014 as an umbrella for militias fighting ISIS. One of the justifications for according official status to the PMF’s 140,000 fighters – including the Badr Organization, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq and other powerful militias supported by Iran – was to improve discipline and accountability. It has rather consolidated their power and enabled the constituent militias to detain and assassinate critics with impunity. Widespread protests on the streets and at the ballot boxes in 2018 ensured that corruption and failure to provide basic services in Iraq could no longer be ignored. The disturbing rise in the targeting of civilian activists has led many to fear that it may also be the year that marked the return of the death squads. This report recommends that the Government of Iraq should: • Ensure that all Iraqi Security Forces, Popular Mobilization Forces and affiliated militias fall under unified command and control that is accountable to government; • Disband any other armed militias and implement an effective process of demobilization, disarmament and re-integration (DDR); • Conduct prompt, impartial, independent and effective investigations into all instances of alleged assassinations and other arbitrary killings, make the results of such investigations public, and ensure that the perpetrators are prosecuted; • Strengthen the role of the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights to monitor violations of the rights to free expression and assembly, and attacks on demonstrators, media workers, women’s human rights defenders and other civilian activists. The report also recommends that the UN, donor governments and international development agencies initiate prompt, impartial and effective investigations of corruption in the procurement or delivery of international donor-funded services and development programmes in Iraq.

- United States policy

From the front line of the Iraq War, the book presents gripping personal stories of Reuters correspondents who capture the mood of the soldiers who fought in the conflict and the ordinary people caught up in it. The Reuters journalists include : Luke Baker, Samia Nakhoul, Andrew Gray, David Fox, Matthew Green, Nadim Ladki, Caroline Drees, John Chalmers, Adrian Croft, Sean Maguire, Mike Collett-White, Christine Hauser, Michael Georgy, Saul Hudson, and Rosalind Russell.

Americans are greatly concerned about the number of our troops killed in battle--33,000 in the Korean War; 58,000 in Vietnam; 4,500 in Iraq--and rightly so. But why are we so indifferent, often oblivious, to the far greater number of casualties suffered by those we fight and those we fight for? This is the compelling, largely unasked question John Tirman answers in The Deaths of Others. Between six and seven million people died in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq alone, the majority of them civilians. And yet Americans devote little attention to these deaths. Other countries, however, do pay attention, and Tirman argues that if we want to understand why there is so much anti-Americanism around the world, the first place to look is how we conduct war. We understandably strive to protect our own troops, but our rules of engagement with the enemy are another matter. From atomic weapons and carpet bombing in World War II to napalm and daisy cutters in Vietnam and beyond, our weapons have killed large numbers of civilians and enemy soldiers. Americans, however, are mostly ignorant of these methods, believing that American wars are essentially just, necessary, and "good." Trenchant and passionate, The Deaths of Others forces readers to consider the tragic consequences of American military action not just for Americans, but especially for those we fight against.

First published in 1989, just before the Gulf War broke out, REPUBLIC OF FEAR was the only book that explained the motives of the Saddam Hussein regime in invading and annexing Kuwait. This updated edition relates how the Arab Ba'th Socialist Party has transformed and controlled Iraq with fear since 1968. An important and timely book.

The best country-by-country assessment of human rights. The human rights records of more than ninety countries and territories are put into perspective in Human Rights Watch's signature yearly report. Reflecting extensive investigative work undertaken by Human Rights Watch staff, in close partnership with domestic human rights activists, the annual World Report is an invaluable resource for journalists, diplomats, and citizens, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the fight to protect human rights in every corner of the globe.