Democracy in Iraq
[3] Numerous wars, corruption, and civil and ethnic conflict in Iraq have made it difficult for a stable democratic government to emerge.
Numerous people were killed in the coup, including King Faysal II, Prince Abd al-Ilah, and Nuri al-Sa'id.
[21] The new regime modernized the countryside and rural areas of Iraq, mechanizing agriculture and establishing farm cooperatives.
[23] Hussein, a Sunni Arab, brutally repressed a Kurdish uprising during the Iran-Iraq war using chemical weapons and other indiscriminate means that killed 100,000-200,000 Kurds.
[26][27] According to historian Charles R. H. Tripp, the treaty upset "the US-sponsored security system established as part of the Cold War in the Middle East.
"[27] A U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 ousted Saddam Hussein's administration, for the purpose of eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
Until (at least) 2008, parliamentary elections in Iraq were generally free and fair, with a high voter turnout, but were frequently marred by violence.
[31] The president of the republic, who has little real powers but can function as an informal mediator between different political groupings, is also chosen by the parliament.
[35] Nevertheless, hundreds of protesters gathered in several major Iraqi urban areas on 12 February (notably Baghdad and Karbala) demanding a more effective approach to the issue of national security and investigation into federal corruption cases, as well as government action towards making public services fair and accessible.
[39] ISIL executed up to 1,700 Shia Iraqi Air Force cadets from Camp Speicher near Tikrit on 12 June 2014.
[41] According to Newsweek, Amnesty International claimed that "Iraqi government forces and paramilitary militias have tortured, arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared and executed thousands of civilians who have fled the rule of the Islamic State militant group".
[42] The report, titled Punished for Daesh's crimes', alleges that thousands of Sunni men and boys have been forcibly disappeared by Iraqi government forces and militias.
[44] It started on 1 October 2019, a date which was set by civil activists on social media, spreading mainly over the central and southern provinces of Iraq, to protest corruption, unemployment, political sectarianism, inefficient public services and interventionism.
Nationwide demonstrations persisted in Iraq throughout the first quarter of 2020,[46] but momentum began to wane as exhaustion set in, and finally, the COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdown measures brought the movement to an end.
Nonetheless, the protestors' key demands (improved governance, public services, and job prospects) have mostly remained unmet.
Security personnel and armed militias, in particular, have been accused of employing oppressive techniques to quell protests, including the use of live bullets.
[48] After Iraq's October 2021 parliamentary elections, it took twelve months to form a new Iraqi government: the longest such impasse since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The conflict was between the Sadrist Movement, supporters of the Shia religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr,[49] and the Iran-backed Coordination Framework Alliance led by Nouri al-Maliki.
[53] On 27 October 2022 though, the government of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani, from the party 'Coordination Framework', was approved by the Council of Representatives.
Also very low was Iraq's score on 'civil liberties' (1.18), due partly to arbitrary detentions, allegations of torture in prisons, and violent repression of demonstrations by security forces.
On indicator 'Safety/security', the RWF report over 2022 stated: "…Journalists in Iraq face threats from all sides and come up against the weakness of the state, which is failing in its duty to protect them (…) In recent years, many journalists in Iraq have been killed by armed groups (…) Such killings rarely lead to investigations (…) Death threats and abduction are also often used to terrorise and silence journalists.
[62] Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based non-governmental organization, is also closely criticizing the lack of engagement of Iraqi governments in safeguarding journalists and media organisations, who regularly report to have been attacked or threatened, even by state forces.
