Category: Report

KDPI’s human shield: the families of militia members

The Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, which has repeatedly used children as an armed force, violated international rights and children’s rights, and has also deployed women in armed operations, is now effectively using women and children that reside in their camps as human shield. Local sources and journalists in Iraq-Iran border region explained to IKHRW […]

Europe or Turkish prison; Parviz Ghobadi’s PKK membership experience

"My son was 17 years old when he was deceived by the PKK in 2004. They promised him Europe. But after years of ignorance, worry and stress, we just found out that he was imprisoned in Turkey. We were told the reason was his membership in the PKK.

IRGC intelligence foils PAK militant group’s attempt to recruit three underage girls (aged 14, 16 and 16)

IRGC intelligence forces tracked down three teenage girls, 16-year-old Tara Ahmadi, 14-year-old Sonia Karimi and Parya Fathi, in Javanrood, Kermanshah province that were about to be smuggled out of the country on request of their families.

Four family members killed in Turkish bombardment against northeast Syria village

Four members of the same family were killed during a Turkish bombardment near the northern Syrian town of Ain Issa this week, the Iraqi Kurdish news agency Rudaw reported late on Thursday. Early on Wednesday, Turkish forces bombed a Christian house in Safawiyah village near Ain Issa. The attack left Zidan Khalaf al-Issa and his three children […]

Al Monitor reveals crimes of Turkish mercenaries against the women of Afrin

Al-Monitor reports on women from Afrin, imprisoned by Turkish mercenaries, and who have witnessed torture, rape and harassment every day.

Iraq’s Kurdish region is not a model for free speech

The continuing crackdown on press freedom in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is threatening its democratic future.

KDPI militia admits violating Children’s Rights by flaunting its child soldiers publicly

IKHRW calls on the international community to break the silence, and report on violations of human rights and child recruitment in Kurdistan. Institutes can contact IKHRW for extensive reports, equipped with testimonies, proof and images that are not fit to show online.

Kurdish children continue to die in the fruitless war between the PKK and Turkey / This episode: Abdullah Ismaili

Apparently, the sad story of Kurdish children in the Middle East is not over yet… Underdevelopment, Kolberi [cross-border smuggling], civil wars, and four decades of fruitless war between Turkey and the PKK, have become the leading causes of death for Kurdish children. Thousands of Kurdish children have been recruited, abducted, or deceived by the PKK […]

If Iraqi Kurdistan leaders are serious about transparency, publish tax returns

Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani likes to promise transparency. In a December 2019 speech marking his first hundred days in office, he declared, “Kurdistan is stronger, more transparent and more secure today than it was when I spoke to you at my inauguration. Dear citizens, first of all, a government that serves the people […]

The Turkish justice system is overwhelmed with thousands in prison for such dubious crimes as texting about weddings.

Amberin Zaman Justice remains elusive for Metin Kilicaslan, a wedding singer from the mainly Kurdish province of Siirt in southeast Turkey who’s been languishing in a Turkish prison since 2015 on charges of membership of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). He tracks his days spent in jail by his daughter’s birthdays. She was newly […]