Mass accusations of the government being unfair!

• Demonstrations in Al-Qadisiyah Governorate 07-02-2023

Where he indicated that everyone who has an administrative order to work in the form of a contract before this date is subject to the provisions of Resolutions 130 and 315, and everyone to whom the clauses of the two previous resolutions apply is covered in the confirmation decision, but what happened was that they found that their names were not found in the list of those appointed to permanent staffing. So they reached out directly to the government agencies in the Ministry of Education to intervene to solve this issue. They also asked them to correct any error in the absence of their names in the data of the Ministry of Education. They also asked them to publish a link to their names to see if there were errors in the names available in the database.

Mr. Aqeel Al-Jubouri,Director of Diwaniyah Education, stated that he had submitted a letterdated 8/18/2022 to the Ministry of Education, explaining that the names of alllecturers and workers under contracts with the Directorate of DiwaniyahEducation had not been registered, due to the difficulty of the process of listingall the names, and the names of the lecturers were added again. They have theright to transfer them to permanent staff since they are still employed by theDirectorate of Educational Personnel.

On the government side, MP-Mohammed Nouri - from the city of Diwaniyah responded to these protesting crowds, and after this demonstration, a number of deputies met with the minister of Education-Ibrahim Al-Jubouri, whose most significant output was the Ministry of Education's unwillingness to include the contracts of the Diwaniyah Education Supplement in the provisions of resolution (315). The local government will also seek to approve the transfer of Annex contracts subject to the approval of the Council of Ministers. We will continue to work on obtaining the approval of the prime minister to include them fairly in this key segment. In contrast, Mrs. MP- Nour Nafi - from the city ofDiwaniyah - announced her solidarity and full support for the demonstrators.

The demonstration ended afternegotiations with the local police chief and government agencies. They obtainedpromises to deliver the protesters' votes to the Council of Ministers. He alsowarned the demonstrators that they would resume demonstrations if the centralgovernment failed to respond to the demonstrators' demands. The role of themedia was limited to social networking sites, as no TV channel was monitored tocover the event.

• Demonstrations in Sulaymaniyah Governorate (Darbandikhan District) 02-11-2023

Ten days have passed since the sit-ins of the people of the city of Darbandikhan, without any significant 

basic services, which prompted them to announce a general sit-in until their demands are met. Where the people of Darbandikhan began their open sit-in to demand basic services, represented in:

1- Completion of the water treatment project

2- Paving roads in Darbandikhan.

3- Provision of drinking water

4- Increased electricity hours.

One of the protesters indicated that the sit-ins have continued since the beginning of February, and that the lack of response to their demands prompted us to erect tents and establish an open sit-in

to demand our legitimate rights,and that these sit-ins would continue as long as they were not met with a realresponse, such as implementing service projects in the judiciary. He added thatthe water project for the purification of drinking water had reached anadvanced stage of completion. However, it was not completed.

This negativelyaffected the lives of citizens in the district, as many residents of thedistrict fell ill due to the failure to complete this project.

 It is noteworthy that anumber of activists gave government agencies one week on the 24th of January torespond to their demands of providing water and electricity and restoring theroad linking Sulaymaniyah Governorate, but there was no real response fromgovernment agencies, which prompted the people of the district to announcesit-ins again.

Governmentally, no officialstatement was issued by the government to respond to the demonstrators'demands. As for security, no presence of security forces was detected in thearea, and despite that, the demonstrations continued as planned until theyended late at night. It was noted that there are a number of media channels,including SPEDA, NRT, IKNN, Rudaw, as well as social networking sites.

The reasons for the demonstrations / the demands of the demonstrators

By reviewing the demonstrations and events in a number of Iraqi governorates, it becomes clear that the most prominent reasons that led to their launch are as follows:

• Appointment to permanent staff in the government sector.
• Low basic services.
• Provide safe drinking water
• Saving electrical energy
• Addressing corruption

Notes on the security authorities' handling of gatherings:

The issue of the lack of security forces at the demonstration sites has become a negative indicator of the seriousness of government agencies in dealing with the issue of freedom of expression, and signs of violence by security forces are once again used to suppress demonstrations. After that, it was on its way to extinction. This could result in undesirable results if protesters collide. The indicator of the use of violence raises the issue of democratizing the security forces and professionalism in dealing with demonstrations into question. Especially, after the remarkable progress of the security forces' dealings with demonstrators over the past years. As a result of the declining work and professionalism of the security forces, the issue of human rights, in particular the right to express one's opinion, will return to its beginnings, negatively affecting the entire democratic process in Iraq.