[JURIST] The UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights Office (OHCHR) [official website] announced [press release] on Friday that it has received reports that human rights violations against Sunni Arab communities by Iraqi and Kurdish security forces are increasing in parts of Iraq that were reclaimed from the Islamic State (IS). Spokesperson Cécile Pouilly [official Twitter] stated that the security forces and their militias have been responsible for looting, destruction of property, forced evictions, abductions, illegal detention and extra-juridical killings. Reports indicate that the Sunni Arab communities face limited access to basic goods and services such as “water, food, shelter and medical care,” and that 16 mass graves containing IS victims have been discovered.

We urge the Government of Iraq to investigate all human rights violations and abuses, including those committed against the Arab Sunni communities, to bring the perpetrators to justice and to ensure that victims have access to appropriate remedies. We also call upon the Iraqi authorities to ensure that the return of internally displaced people to their places of origin is carried out in accordance with humanitarian principles…and that they are guaranteed access to essential services.

The UN is especially concerned for the Sunni Arabs stuck in the “no-man’s-land” between Kurdish forces forces and IS.

The Islamic State (IS) [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] has caused international alarm over its human rights abuses since its insurgence into Syria and Iraq in 2013. Earlier this week UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned [JURIST report] rights violations against children in Iraq by IS, reporting that children are being subjected to killing and maiming, recruitment as child soldiers, sexual violence and abduction. In October Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] reported [JURIST report] that IS militants carried out mass executions of Shiite inmates from a seized Iraqi hospital. In September, members of Iraq’s Yazidi community met with International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and urged [JURIST report] the court to open an investigation into genocide in Northern Iraq.