Section 8: Include all Forms of Redress

Published:December 24, 2019

Include all Forms of Redress i.e. Reparation Measures Falling Under the Following Heads:

8.1       Restitution

Undertake measures with the principal aim of restoring the victim, as far as possible, to a position occupied before the violations of international human rights or humanitarian law occurred. These measures should include but are not limited to:

• Removing mines and explosive devices from living areas
• Rescuing/determining whereabouts of all missing individuals
• Taking appropriate measures to protect their security upon return
• Facilitating the safe return of internally displaced persons to their place of residence
• Return of land and other property unlawfully confiscated or de facto taken from individuals and families forced to flee conflict zones
• Restoration/rebuilding of private property destroyed in the conflict
• Restoration of public infrastructure to ensure the delivery of public services
• Reinstatement to previously held post (or if this is not possible securing a similar job) in case of wrongful termination of employment

8.2       Compensation

Compensate victims for any economically assessable harm caused by violations of human rights and humanitarian law including physical and mental harm, lost opportunities, material damages, loss of earnings (including the loss of earning potential and moral damages) to the maximum of available resources. The amount of compensation should reflect the gravity of violations.

The designated sum is to be allocated primarily through a pension scheme. Depending on specificities of cases at hand other methods of compensating victims such as providing micro-financing opportunities and granting one-time lump sum should be made use of, taken alone or in combination.

8.3       Rehabilitation

Provide a range of rehabilitation services to victims and, if required, their family members, meeting relevant quality standards and within physical proximity to those areas where victims reside. These services should go beyond medical and psychological care to encompass at least:

• Social services (include various services to reduce the sense of marginalization that many victims experience. Victims should have access to, at least, a minimum of basic services, including housing, health care, etc.)
• Legal assistance (should include any legal issues stemming from or touching upon their victim status such as access to other services, pursuing compensation before courts, participating in criminal proceedings against the alleged perpetrators etc.)
• Provide support to mothers of children born of rape to, if they wish so, live independent lives together with their children outside of their native communities
• Education opportunities for victims and/or scholarships for their children
• Family counselling (a program of providing information and professional guidance to members of a family on how to overcome a specific traumatic event)
• Amend relevant personal status legislation (National Identity Card Law) to allow women with  children conceived from rape to determine their religious affiliation
• Vocational training (training designed to enable victims to secure and retain suitable employment)

8.4       Satisfaction

Offer a range of non-monetary or symbolic measures specifically designed to afford satisfaction to the victims such as:

• Ensuring adequate participation of victims in any criminal proceedings relating to violations committed against them
• Identifying remains of all deceased persons and delivering them to the next of kin for proper burial
• Recognizing that certain events amounted to international crimes (war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide)
• Issuing an official apology and accepting responsibility for human rights violations committed by State agents and/or for failing to prevent human rights violations committed by non-state actors
• Create a database of available personal information on disappeared women and girls and all necessary personal information, and DNA samples of the next of kin of the disappeared so that the State could help locate disappeared persons
• Memorialization efforts (construction of memorials, monuments, and  establishing a day of commemoration to remember and to pay tribute to the victims)
• Including in educational materials at all levels an accurate account of the violations, and circumstances that led to them, with a view of preventing future violence by promoting accountability, fostering understanding for the victims and bridging the ethnic and religious divide in the Iraqi society
• Satisfaction measures should be implemented in accordance with the traditions and sacred rituals of affected communities

8.5       Guarantees of non-Repetition

Undertake a range of measures aimed at making sure that similar crimes will not happen again such as:

• Ensuring that all the perpetrators of gross human rights violations are prosecuted and adequately sentenced
• Stop extrajudicial punishment and discrimination of individuals and families with alleged ISIS ties
• Acceding to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC)
• Redefining the crime of rape as well as criminal procedure requirements for prosecuting alleged rapists in accordance with international standards
• Introducing guarantees/mechanisms that will improve physical safety of minorities (mandatory quota in security forces etc.)
• Introducing/improving mechanism ensuring political participation of minorities on municipal/regional and federal level
• Removing outdated provisions in the Iraqi Penal Code allowing people who commit sexual assault to avoid punishment if they marry their victims, and removing the husband´s prerogative to discipline (punish) his wife
• Criminalizing marital rape
• Removing the reservation entered to Articles 2 (f, g) and 16 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) mandating States to repeal discriminatory laws and practices and ensure equality in all matters related to family and marital relations
• Accepting individual application procedure under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Convention Against Torture (CAT) and CEDAW
• Bringing Iraqi legislation in line with one´s right to freely adopt and manifest a religion or belief of his choice