Conditions in Iraq Are Still Getting Worse

After a few tumultuous years involving multinational coalitions, interim governments, and insurgencies, the Iraq War finally ended. The U.S., having led the initial invasion in 2004 with the U.K., pulled out the last of its troops in December, 2011.

Nonetheless, this does not mean that the unrest among the Iraqi population is over. According to a report that came out today from the Human Rights Watch, the situation in Iraq is worse than it was one year ago. People are still being tortured in a secret prison called Camp Honor, which the Justice Ministry promised to close down – but hasn’t yet.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki denied that Camp Honor exists, or that prisoners in Iraq are being tortured. He did, however, say that there could be individual cases of torture unrelated to the government, and that they will be responsible for human rights violations.

Human Rights Watch claims that this is “a routine process” that recurs in Iraq, and peaceful protestors are being violently treated by the government forces. Journalists are being abused and even murdered, and women and children are consistently the targets of violence.

This worsening situation only shows that, even though the war in Iraq may be over, and the country established an “elected” government, the struggle to establish a true liberal democracy is far from ending. The Iraqi government needs to actively seek out violent crimes and tortures and make the people understand that human rights violations is not acceptable. Without any effort on its part, Iraq may just be slipping further away from achieving a democratic system of government.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/22/world/meast/iraq-human-rights/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn