This report was prepared by an Iraqi colleague who attended the conference:

Swiss Police intervened to end the conference after chaos erupted before its end

The conference was held in one of the side halls of the Headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, with a total boycott by diplomatic corps and non-governmental organizations.

It lasted for 4 hours and was attended by Iraqis, together Arabs and Kurds; most of them came with the four ministers and other from those who live in Switzerland. The preparation and the planning for this conference did take a long time. A huge amount of money spent which comes at the expense of the Iraqi people’s poverty and absence of the basic social services. A special committee underlining a strategic planning was set up to advertise for it. The Under Secretary of the Ministry of Human Rights along with a large delegation was sent to Geneva 20 days prior to the conference. All diplomatic corps, the media and journalists were invited. According to the government announcements, the conference goal was to bring about international resolutions against the former regime. But in fact, their actual aim is to conceal their own committed crimes against human rights of the Iraqi people.

On the other hand, however, intensive attempts were made by NGOs to bring this conference to a halt. The attempt succeeded by turning this conference into an occasion revealing the violations and the crimes which have been committed by the occupier and the current government since the invasion 2024.

A letter signed by almost three hundred NGOs addressed to the United Nations’ High Commissioner for the United Nations, all diplomatic missions and the journalists condemning this conference. The letter asked the High Commissioner to focus on the violations and the crimes that took place since the invasion and a called to appoint a special rapporteur for human rights situation in Iraq. Then, these NGOs, issued a press release in the Human Rights Council expressing its position (see below).

Eventually, there was no one diplomat attended the conference, no one from the civil society and there were no journalists.

One representative from the Office of High Commissioner attended the opening of the conference, she delivered few oral remarks reminding the delegation of the current violations especially the executions campaign, and she left the meeting immediately after that.

This conference, however, was a mere shamble. In the beginning, Al Maliki delegations and the Barazani ones got engaged in claims of heading the conference and its idea.

The continuation of the arguments among the Iraqi delegations all along has forced the United Nations police to intervene and ask the attendances to leave the hall. The lights went off when they (among them the ministers) ignored the warning. They had to leave eventually. The conference failed regardless the claims from the part of the government that it was a success. Worse than that, their press conference was a shamble as the conference was.

The film below highlights the failure of the conference, as you will see the United Nations police in Geneva ended the so called conference by putting the lights off. The action took place with the presence of the four ministers. Needless to say it is rather a rare act regarding the protocol rules. The interference by the police came about as to stop the heated arguments which arose between the organizers and the attendees as some of them were asking regarding the current violations, other arguments erupted over allocation of money to a number of participants…. It is a new Iraqi scandal at the United Nations.

See the film which shows the chaos inside the conference