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The UNESCO Chair of Dialogue at Kufa University, in cooperation with the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Karbala and under the auspices of the International Information Centre of Imam Hussain Holy Shrine, held a symposium on the Speicher crime in the conference room of the Syed Al-shahadah compound, in Karbala.

Dr. Alaa Shatnan, the Director of the UNESCO Chair for Dialogue, who conducted the symposium: “This symposium is being held in recall of the Speicher crime that took place in June 2014, during which the focus was on the legal, social and political aspects of the pre-and post-crime”.

He added: “The symposium dealt with the Speicher crime from two points of view. The first is the legal and criminal aspects of the crime and the legal characterization of the crime. followed up on the latest findings of the domestic and international investigations and where the efforts of the International Investigation Team have arrived. UNITY, established by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, is in accordance with Security Council resolution 2379 (2017) to support Iraqi efforts to hold ISIL elements accountable.

The second focus of the symposium dealt with the humanitarian, psychological, and social aspects that led to the massacre, the social and psychological consequences that followed the massacre, the consequences of the so-called  Posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD), the measures taken by the Iraqi Government, and the various local institutions of the families of the victims, and the prospects for preventing the commission of other, similar massacres, in accordance with the so-called “conflict prevention and post-conflict peacebuilding” part of the United Nations, peacebuilding projects.

Dr. Mohamed Al-Qureshi, UNESCO Chair Advisor at Kufa University Participated in the symposium, and Dr. Mohamed Jabbar Abdali, Faculty of Political Science at the University of Kufa, a specialist in international law, and researches of the Speicher crime, and Majid Masaudi, Director of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Karbala.

The symposium made a number of recommendations, including the need to follow up on the Speicher massacre and to complete its legal aspects with a view to transferring it to the criminal court and  Urge the Iraqi Government to renew the mandate of the United Nations International Investigation Team formed by the Security Council, whose mandate expires next September, in order to continue to investigate, criminalize, arrest, and prosecute the perpetrators of the Speicher massacre “

Translated into English by shaima adnan