[JURIST] Iraqi Shiite militia, armed and supported by the Iraqi government, have been committing war crimes and abducting and murdering [press release] “scores” of Sunni men in retaliation for attacks by the Sunni-led Islamic State (IS) [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive], Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] said Tuesday. In a briefing [text, PDF] AI reports that the militia face complete impunity for their actions over the last few months. “Absolute Impunity: Militia Rule in Iraq,” depicts accounts of civilians taken from their homes, workplaces and at checkpoints, later found to be bound and shot, mostly execution-style and often after the victim’s family paid a hefty ransom. According to AI many of the abductees are still unaccounted for, months after their disappearance. AI holds the Iraqi government responsible for the “serious human rights abuses, including war crimes, committed by these militias.”

The UN and human rights organizations have consistently been calling on the international community to end the human rights abuses occurring in Iraq [JURIST news archive]. Earlier this month the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [official websites] jointly released a report [JURIST report] detailing the staggering amount of human rights abuses committing by IS. The report examined human rights violations that had occurred over a nine-week period and was released less than a week after the newly appointed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights decried [JURIST report] IS for its recent killings and human rights violations of women in IS-controlled areas in Iraq. Last month the UN General Assembly [official website] met [JURIST report] to discuss “the responsibility to protect” adopted by world leaders in 2005, stressing the urgency to protect civilians in several countries, including Iraq, as crises rage around the world.