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June 30, 2014

Compliance of Iraq’s Anti-Terrorism Law (2005) with International Human Rights Standards

At the request of the Iraq National Commission on Human Rights, the American Bar Association (ABA) Center for Human Rights reviewed Iraq’s primary counter-terror law for compliance with international standards and best practices. The review determined that the law is vague and overly broad and thereby criminalizes otherwise lawful activities that are unrelated to deterring or punishing terrorism. 4 The law should be revised to prevent misapplication and applied carefully by the courts to avoid arbitrarily detaining and punishing individuals engaged in lawful activity, including those exercising their basic rights to freedom of expression and opinion and freedom of association and assembly.

View report in English and بالعربية