KHRP strongly condemns the recent gun attack on the Asuda Women’s shelter in Sulemanya, Kurdistan, Iraq.

The shelter, one of only a handful operating in Iraq, came under a hail of gunfire on the night of 11 May 2008 by unidentified gunmen. One woman, a resident of the shelter and mother of three, was seriously injured and remains in hospital following emergency surgery.

Kurdish Human Rights Project is shocked and saddened at the recent deaths of four refugees following their forcible expulsion to Iraq by Turkish police.

The incident took place on Wednesday 23 April at an unpatrolled stretch of the Turco-Iraqi border, near the Habur (Silopi) border crossing in Şirnak province, south-east Turkey. According to reports received by KHRP, four men drowned after a group of 18 refugees was forced by the Turkish police to cross a fast-flowing river at Turkey's south-eastern border with Iraq.

Kurdish Human Rights Project is gravely concerned by news that the death sentence against Hiwa Butimar, a 29-year-old award-winning Kurdish journalist and environmental activist, has been confirmed. As KHRP reported last July, in 2007 Mr. Butimar received his first death sentence along with Adnan Hassanpour, also a Kurdish journalist, having spent 6 months in prison. With only 24 hours notice before the trial, neither was able to be represented by his own lawyer or be present for the trial. Mr. Butimar and Mr. Hassanpour protested their treatment in 2007 by going on hunger strike for over a month, but the sentences against both remain in place.

Mr. Butimar was arrested in 2006 for allegedly supporting a Kurdish armed group.  Legal documents relating the charges against Mr. Butimar and his trial have been kept from his family and the public, and KHRP has received reports that he has been tortured while in solitary confinement for the past year.  Mr. Butimar appealed the initial death sentence handed down by the Revolutionary Court in Mariwan, but the same judge who made the initial decision recently confirmed the sentence.  This is a clear violation of his right to fair trial and judicial review.

KHRP is pleased to announce the publication of the spring edition of our quarterly Newsline newsletter.

Newsline 41 reports on KHRP’s activities in the areas of training, fact-finding, trial observation and litigation at the European Court of Human Rights over the last three busy months.

The edition also tracks developments across the Kurdish regions over the winter/spring season.

Free copies of Newsline may be accessed and downloaded by registered users on KHRP’s website HERE. Printed copies are available on request.

Please note: to download or purchase publications from KHRP’s website you must be registered to our site. Registration is easy and free: click the 'register' link to the right of this page.