Iraq

Country Overview

Since 1991, Iraqis have endured ongoing air strikes and a regime of US-led economic sanctions that resulted in the deaths of over five hundred thousand children.¹ In 2003, the US invaded Iraq in violation of the UN Charter and has continued to defy international law and violate the human rights of Iraqi women and families. ² The invasion has resulted in the deaths of more than 650,000 Iraqis, empowered right-wing, religious extremists, and spawned a refugee crisis and a civil war.

Women's Human Rights in Post-invasion Iraq

Iraqi women cite the lack of personal security as the biggest threat they face since the US invasion. According to the Hague and Geneva Conventions, the US, as an occupying power, was responsible for the human rights and security of Iraqi civilians6 But US forces have utterly failed to live up to this responsibility.

Rape and abductions of women have risen sharply since the invasion, making many women afraid to leave their homes. ³ So have "honor killings," in which rape survivors and women who violate conservative social mores are murdered by male family members to restore the family's "honor." Caught in the social void created by the overthrow of the Ba'ath regime, many Iraqi women are fighting simultaneously against the US occupation and the rising tide of Islamism, which seeks to monopolize interpretations of Islam in pursuit of a reactionary social and political agenda.

Iraqi women say that the gains won by the Iraqi women's movement in the first half of the 1900s—maintained to a large extent through 1990—are being rolled back. Since 2003, the US has strengthened conservative Islamic forces in Iraq both directly, by appointing reactionary clerics to the Iraqi Governing Council in 2004, and indirectly, by creating an atmosphere of chaos where such reactionary forces thrive.

Food, Water and Basic Services

Obtaining adequate food, water, healthcare and education is difficult for most women and families in US-occupied Iraq. Over half of the entire Iraqi population was dependent on food aid before the invasion, as a result of 13 years of US-led economic sanctions. Within the first six months of US occupation, acute malnutrition in Iraq doubled from four to eight percent as food supplies were disrupted by fighting and ongoing lack of security. ⁴

The Economic Front

Despite their rhetoric about a free market in Iraq, the US has regularly bypassed competitive bidding and distributed billions of dollars in government contracts—paid for by US taxpayers—to companies with close ties to members of the Bush Administration. ⁵

Iraqi sovereignty is further undermined by far-reaching economic orders established by the US. The Iraqi interim government was denied the power to overturn orders, which include:

• 100% Privatization: US Orders effectively put Iraq up for sale. Corporations can now buy everything from Iraq's factories, farms, telecommunications, media outlets, banks, transportation and infrastructure, to schools, prisons, hospitals and utilities. Trade Liberalization: In June 2003, the US issued a six-month suspension of all tariffs and trade restrictions.⁶ The immediate effect was to ruin Iraq's poultry and textile industries by forcing local producers to compete with large US corporations that easily undercut their prices, thanks to the massive US government subsidies enjoyed by these industries. Trade liberalization in Iraq is a pilot for the region-wide Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA) announced by Bush in May 2003. ⁷
• WTO Entry: The US prepared Iraq for a speedy entry into the World Trade Organization by simply scrapping Iraqi laws that contradict WTO rules while enforcing Saddam Hussein's 1987 ban on labor organizing, which will benefit corporations buying up Iraqi assets: without basic labor rights such as collective bargaining and contracts, Iraqi workers have little legal recourse to resist the massive layoffs that are expected with privatization.
• National Treatment: Iraq's new government is not allowed to favor Iraqi industries or investors over multi-national corporations; for example, by insisting that foreign corporations hire Iraqi workers. The provision also contains a legal loophole allowing corporations to ignore national regulations protecting workers, consumers and the environment.
• Unrestricted Repatriation of Profits: Foreign investors can pocket 100 percent of their profits, with no obligation to reinvest anything in Iraq. Investors can pull their money out of the country at any time with no warning. This rule triggered the economic crises in East Asia in the 1990s and Argentina in 2000.
• Flat Tax: The US lowered Iraq's highest tax rate from 45 percent to 15 percent.⁸ Both corporations and individuals will pay the low 15 percent rate, regardless of whether they earn a dollar a day or millions annually. The flat tax vastly reduces taxes paid by the rich, especially corporations, and badly squeezes the middle class. It thereby undermines prospects for Iraq's economic future by further burdening the country's beleaguered middle class.

End Notes

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1. Matawi, Abdullah, "UN Sanctions on Iraq lead to deaths of 500,000 Children," OneWord, May 17 , 1996, http://www.oneworld.org/news/reports/may96_iraq2.html
2. The United Nations Charter states unequivocally that only the Security Council can authorize the use of military force. Articles 41 and 42 of the UN Charter state that no country has the right to unilaterally enforce UN resolutions. See Tearing up the Rules: The Illegality of Invading Iraq by the Center for Economic and Social Rights
3. Article 43 of the Hague Convention, which obliges the occupying power to restore and maintain public order and safety; and Articles 29 and 47 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, under which US authorities in Iraq must respect the fundamental human rights of the inhabitants of the occupied territory.
4. "More than 400 Iraqi Women Kidnapped, Raped in Post-war Chaos: Watchdog," ReliefWeb, August 24, 2003, (August 24, 2004).
5. "Iraq 'Faces Severe Health Crisis,'" BBC News, November 11, 2003, (January 9, 2004)
6. For more information on these companies and their ties to members of the Administration, see "Reconstructing Iraq — the Contractors" at http://www.opensecrets.org/news/rebuilding_iraq/index.asp.
7. "Uproar Over Iraq Contracts: Interviews Available," Institute for Public Accuracy, 11 December 2003, (11 December 2003).
8. Antonia Juhasz, "Ambitions of Empire: The Bush Administration Economic Plan for Iraq," 20 January 2004, LeftTurn Magazine, Occupation Watch, (21 January 2004).