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Abuses against children suspected of ISIS affiliation in Iraq

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Abuses against children suspected of ISIS affiliation in Iraq

Abuses against children suspected of ISIS affiliation in Iraq

6th March 2019

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Nasim” grew up in Mosul, Iraq, and attended school for five years until the Islamic State (ISIS) took control of the city in 2014. Nasim, who was 13 at the time, didn’t like the curriculum ISIS imposed in his school, so he dropped out and started working with his father, selling groceries. During the battle for Mosul, he said, the family moved from neighborhood to neighborhood, trying to avoid airstrikes by the US-led coalition.

After Iraqi forces retook the city in July 2017, Nasim said there was “nothing” in Mosul, so he and his brother went to Erbil, in the semiautonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, looking for work. At a checkpoint entering Erbil, Asayish (the Kurdistan Regional Government’s security forces) officers told him his name was on a list of ISIS suspects, and arrested him. Nasim said neither he nor any members of his family had been part of ISIS. “I was shocked when I was arrested,” he said. “I always wonder why my name was on the list.”

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After Nasim’s arrest, he said Asayish officers interrogated and threatened him. He said, “They told me that if I didn’t confess to joining ISIS, that they would send me to the Hashad [Popular Mobilization Forces, military units under the Iraqi prime minister’s command] and they would kill me. I agreed to admit that I had been with ISIS for 15 days. They said that wasn’t enough, so I said 30 days.” After a week, he was taken to an investigative judge, who asked if his confession was correct. Nasim said it was. “I was afraid if I didn’t, they would torture me.”

When Human Rights Watch interviewed Nasim, now 17, in November of 2018, he was in detention, awaiting trial on charges of terrorism. “I always wonder why I am here,” he said. “I miss my family a lot. I think about them every day, every second.”

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Since re-taking control over large portions of Iraqi territory that ISIS had captured in 2014, Iraqi and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) authorities have arrested thousands of children on suspicion of ISIS membership. Based on information from multiple sources Human Rights Watch estimates that at the end of 2018, Iraqi and KRG authorities were detaining approximately 1,500 children for alleged ISIS affiliation. Hundreds of children, including at least 185 foreign children, have been convicted on terrorism charges and sentenced to prison terms in Iraq.

International law prohibits any recruitment or use of children by non-state armed groups. According to international standards, children who are recruited in violation of this principle are primarily victims who should be provided with assistance for their rehabilitation and reintegration. If the children committed crimes, international standards on juvenile justice require national authorities to seek alternatives to prosecution and to prioritize rehabilitative measures with the aim of reintegrating children into society. Authorities should detain children only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.

In Iraq, however, children with any association with ISIS are treated as criminals. Security officers often torture them to coerce confessions—regardless of their actual involvement—and courts in the KRG and federal Iraqi territory prosecute and sentence them to prison as terrorists.

Report by the Human Rights Watch

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