There is an urgent need to protect human rights in Iraq. Although major combat operations appear to have ended, violence, killings, destruction of property and widespread insecurity continue, and the humanitarian emergency remains. Amnesty International calls on the occupying powers, and all others exercising authority in Iraq, to commit themselves publicly to ten principles, derived from obligations under international humanitarian law, in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, and from international human rights standards.
