A/HRC/38/44/Add.1 I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnès Callamard, visited Iraq from 14 to 23 November 2017. She examined the multiple violations of the right to life perpetrated, in particular in the context of the conflict that opposed the Iraqi authorities to the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) 1 and other armed groups. Since 1 January 2014, an estimated 30,000 civilians have been killed and another 55,000 injured.2 She also focused on official responses to these and other violations of the right to life and steps taken - judicial measures, policies and action implemented - to hold all parties to account for massive and grave violations. 2. The Special Rapporteur expresses her appreciation to the Government for its invitation to visit the country, and in particular the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Mission of Iraq to the United Nations in Geneva for their full cooperation in the preparation of and during the visit, and to the officials she met with for their availability and open and frank discussions. She would also like to thank the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and its Human Rights Office for the invaluable support provided, as well as all the individuals whom she met for sharing their experiences, testimonies and other vital information. 3. During the visit, the Special Rapporteur travelled to Baghdad, Erbil, Najaf and Fallujah. She conducted in situ visits and met with government authorities, including the Prime Minister and representatives of the President of Iraq, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Justice; members of the parliament, including its Human Rights and Legal Committees; members of the Judicial High Council; representatives of the Kurdistan Regional Government; as well as political leaders, religious leaders, members of international organizations, legal and medico-legal professionals, journalists, civil society representatives, internally displaced persons and survivors of human rights violations. 4. The Special Rapporteur expresses her deepest condolences to all Iraqis who have lost loved ones and sympathy to all those who have been subjected to other forms of violence. Over the course of the visit, she came to admire the strength and resilience that the Iraqis have shown in the face of severe adversity, including atrocious human rights violations. II. Historical and political context 5. Iraq has an extremely complex recent and longer history. Iraqi society eludes simple description, with ethnic, tribal and religious identities intersecting and interweaving in complex ways. Over the last 15 years alone, the country has experienced a series of violent conflicts along political and sectarian lines and involving foreign countries and their troops. Regional and international conflicts continue to play out in the country. With the military defeat of ISIL, announced by the Prime Minister on 9 December 2017, a range of challenges overshadowed by the conflict re-emerged. They include long-standing issues resulting from the 1980-1988 war with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the Saddam Hussein regime and its overthrow by the United States-led invasion of 2003, followed by increasingly sectarian conflicts. 6. The country is embarking on a very sensitive transitional phase, with democratic parliamentary elections held on 12 May 2018. Transitional phases, such as the present one, are invariably both complex and fragile. They present an opportunity to break with the past but also pose many risks. Old tensions may arise where they have not been mended, 1 2 Or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Islamic State (IS) or its Arabic acronym “Daesh”. See www.uniraq.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&layout=category&task= category&id=159&Itemid=633&lang=en. 3