Investigators have uncovered more than 200 mass graves containing thousands of bodies in areas of Iraq formerly controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh), according to a United Nations human rights report out on Tuesday.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) said the 202 mass grave sites were found in governorates of Nineveh, Kirkuk, Salahuddin and Anbar in the north and western parts of the country – but there may be many more.

In the joint report, Unearthing Atrocities, the UN entities said the evidence gathered from the sites “will be central to ensuring credible investigations, prosecutions and convictions” in accordance with international due process standards.

Ján Kubiš, the top UN official in Iraq and the head of UNAMI, said that the mass grave sites “are a testament to harrowing human loss, profound suffering and shocking cruelty.”

“Determining the circumstances surrounding the significant loss of life will be an important step in the mourning process for families and their journey to secure their rights to truth and justice,” he added.

These graves contain the remains of those mercilessly killed for not conforming to ISIL’s twisted ideology and rule, including ethnic and religious minorities – UN rights chief Bachelet

Between June 2014 and December 2017, ISIL seized large areas of Iraq, leading a campaign of widespread and systematic violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, “acts that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possible genocide,” the report states.

Traumatized families have the ‘right to know’

The UNAMI-OHCHR report also documents the “significant challenges” families of the missing face in trying to find the fate of their loved ones.

At present, they must report to more than five separate authorities, a process that is both time-consuming and frustrating for traumatized families.

Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, underscored that the families “have the right to know.”

“ISIL’s horrific crimes in Iraq have left the headlines but the trauma of the victims’ families endures, with thousands of women, men and children still unaccounted for,” she said.

“Their families have the right to know what happened to their loved ones. Truth, justice and reparations are critical to ensuring a full reckoning for the atrocities committed by ISIL.”

Source: UNAMI-OHCHR report

The report documents 202 mass grave sites across Iraq, amid fears that there could be more.

Victim-centred approach needed

Among its recommendations, the report calls for a victim-centred approach and a transitional justice process that is established in consultation with, and accepted by, Iraqis, particularly those from affected communities.

It also urges a multidisciplinary approach to the recovery operations, with the participation of experienced specialists, including weapons contamination and explosives experts and crime scene investigators.

Alongside, it also calls on the international community to provide resources and technical support to efforts related to the exhumation, collection, transportation, storage and return of human remains to families, as well as their identification, particularly by helping strengthen the national Mass Graves Directorate.

Technological advances are happening “at a warp speed,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday in Lisbon, Portugal, as a major three-day Web Summit got underway.

He pointed out more than “90 per cent of the data that exists today in the world was created in the two last years,” noting that what while it used to cost $1 million to store a megabyte of data, the current price tag is less than two cents.

Technologies like blockchain – digital records linked together using encryption – or gene testing are now common technologies, he continued.

“Artificial intelligence is everywhere, helping to buy and sell shares, helping police surveillance and even helping people to choose their soul mates,” he said. 

He asserted that technology is yielding enormous benefits, providing cures for disease, fighting hunger, boosting economic development and growth globally, and effectively addressing world problems.

However, acknowledging that globalization is imbalanced and unequal, the UN chief cited the 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the UN’s blueprint to help reverse inequality.

Machines that have the power and the discretion to take human lives are politically unacceptable, are morally repugnant and should be banned by international law – the Secretary-General  said to thunderous applause

He said the speed of cutting-edge technology was essential to achieving the SDGs: “UNICEF is now able to map the connections between schools in remote areas”, he asserted, adding that the World Food Programme (WFP) is using blockchain to track payments to aid recipients and the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is using biotechnologies in identification, to better support and protect refugees.

Mr. Guterres cautioned that the world is not preparing for the social impact of the “fourth industrial revolution”, which includes new job creation but also redundancy for some jobs made obsolete by technology, saying that it would result in unemployment and societal disruption.

He stressed that while “a massive investment in education” and “a new generation of safety nets” will be needed, more must be done to address this challenge.

Turning to the question of artificial intelligence he said machines were doing more and more tasks formally reserved for humans, and increasingly do them better, like medical diagnosis and police surveillance.  

However, “the weaponization of artificial intelligence is a serious danger,” spelled out the UN chief, cautioning against the impact of technology on warfare.

“With the weaponization of artificial intelligence, the prospect of autonomous weapons that can select and destroy targets will make it very difficult to avoid escalation of conflicts and to guarantee the respect of international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” he underscored.

To thunderous applause, the Secretary-General stated that: “Machines that have the power and the discretion to take human lives are politically unacceptable, are morally repugnant and should be banned by international law.”

Because tech moves so fast, new platforms need to be created to address these problems he said emphasizing that he wanted the UN to be a platform, where various groups can come together to discuss and agree on protocols and other mechanisms that allow for cyberspace, the internet and AI “to be essentially a force for good.”

Across its various offices, agencies, and partner organisations implementing its programmes, the United Nations received 64 new allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), involving 77 victims, between July and September, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Monday.

“Please note that not all the allegations have been fully verified and many are still in the preliminary assessment phase,” he told journalists at UN Headquarters in New York, adding that these quarterly updates are part of the Secretary-General’s initiative to “increasing transparency” on this issue.

Of those 64 allegations, six involved peacekeepers, 33 involved personnel from UN agencies, funds and programmes and another 25 concerned non-UN staff working with organisations implementing UN programmes.

Most of the reported incidents – 30 of them – allegedly took place in 2018; another 15 are said to have happened in the years going back to 2015. The date is unknown for 19 of the allegations reported.

Out of 77 reported victims, the overwhelming majority are women (42) and girls (24), while two men and one boy also report having suffered from SEA. The age or gender of the remaining eight survivors is unknown.

The vast majority of them, 55, suffered from what is categorized as sexual exploitation, defined as “any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another”.

Another 16 are considered to have suffered from incidents categorized as sexual abuse, defined as “the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions”.

Another four were classified as of an unknown nature, and two were unsubstantiated following an investigation.

The alleged perpetrators are 66 men, one woman, and two individuals whose gender is unknown.

Of the 39 allegations related to UN personnel, one was not substantiated, 22 are at various stages of investigation, and 16 are under preliminary assessment to determine whether there is sufficient information to investigate.

Regarding the 25 allegations relating to non-UN implementing organisation staff, two have been substantiated through an investigation and the perpetrators were dismissed by their employer. One allegation was not substantiated, 14 are at various stages of investigation, seven under preliminary assessment and one allegation was closed at the request of the victim.

“The efforts to implement the Secretary-General’s strategy to combat sexual exploitation and abuse continue to be strengthened,” said Spokesperson Dujarric.

In September, a Circle of Leadership, embodying world leaders’ commitment to eradicating SEA across the UN system was launched. As of today, 49 heads of State and Government, 22 heads of UN entities and 72 global leaders have joined the movement. 

In addition, over the past few weeks, an electronic tool called “Clear Check,” developed to screen UN staff dismissed as a result of substantiated SEA allegations, or who resigned or were separated during an investigation, started being rolled out across the entire UN system.

Some 5,000 seedlings of trees indigenous to South Sudan are being distributed to schools, sports centres and other public meeting places by the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, UNMISS, as part of its commitment to countering climate change.

UNMISS/Eric Kanalstein

Mango, lemon, guava, and teak trees were planted by school children in October at the Exodus Junior Academy in the capital, Juba.

The headmaster of the school, Sokiri Ambamba George, said the trees will enhance his students’ understanding of the environment.

Some of South Sudan’s natural habitat has been damaged during the 5-year long civil conflict there, but it’s hoped a commitment to peace by warring parties will enable the environment to recover as more tress are planted.  Those trees will help to reduce the harmful greenhouse gasses that are causing climate change.

On the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict which is marked annually on 6 November, read more here about the green shoots of peace in South Sudan.

The planned prosecution of Supreme Court judges who acquitted 11 peasant farmers jailed over the death of police officers during a violent land eviction in 2012, known as the Curuguaty Massacre”, could undermine the rule of law, a UN expert said on Monday.

“These are fundamental elements in the full enjoyment of human rights,” UN Special Rapporteur on independence of judges and lawyers, Diego García-Sayán, said in a press release.

“It is the obligation of the State to ensure judges be allowed to decide the case before them impartially,” he added. 

No judge should be removed, or be subject to judicial or disciplinary proceedings as a result of exercising their judicial responsibilities – Diego García-Sayán 

In June 2012, according to news reports, more than 300 police officers took part in an operation to remove a group of farmers and their families who were living on State-owned land in Paraguay’s Curuguaty district.

The eviction order was reportedly issued after a prosperous family, who said they had been gifted the land by former dictator, Alfredo Stroessner, alleged that the “campesinos”, or peasant farmers, were in fact living on private property.

Media reports said that 18 campesinos were convicted on murder charges, while no police officers stood trial for the farmers’ deaths. The massacre occurred at a time of political change, with the election of Paraguay’s first progressive president in 60 years.

In July, Paraguay Supreme Court Justices acquitted 11 people, and ordered the release of four campesinos who remained imprisoned, after judges agreed the trial failed to prove them guilty of the crimes for which they were charged. The 2012 trial was reportedly marred with irregularities, including allegations of violations of due process and the right to defense.

In August this year, the Prosecutor-General filed a case against the three judges who acquitted the campesinos: Cristóbal Sánchez, Arnaldo Martínez Prieto and Emiliano Rolón Fernández.

Mr García-Sayán said in his statement on Monday that “no judge should be removed, or be subject to judicial or disciplinary proceedings as a result of exercising their judicial responsibilities.”

The entire investigation process has caused uproar, ignited local human rights protests, and brought the country’s long history of unfair land distribution and peasant prosecution to the surface once more.

A 2018 World Bank census shows that more than 70 percent of land in Paraguay is occupied by just one percent of farm businesses, making it the country with the highest level of land inequality in the world.