In her opening statement at the 24th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, she said: “In Iraq, human rights are under assault from a new wave of violence. The resurgence in the indiscriminate sectarian targeting of civilians is deeply alarming.
“I call on the authorities to do the utmost to protect all people in Iraq, and urge it to ensure the investigation it has announced into the recent deplorable killing of at least 52 people in Camp Ashraf is fully independent, thorough and transparent.
“The authorities must take extra steps to guarantee the protection of the residents in both Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty.”
On September 1, the Iraqi forces of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki attacked defenceless refugees in Camp Ashraf, Iraq and executed 52 members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) and abducted seven others including six women.
At the time of the attack some 100 residents were staying in the camp based on a quadripartite agreement between the United Nations, U.S. Government, Iraqi Government and the residents.
Navi Pillay also demanded an end to mass executions in Iraq and repeated human rights abuses inflicted on the population by prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government.
She said of Iraq’s widespread use of capital punishment: “Iraq has not yet responded to UN and international calls for a moratorium on the death penalty, and continues to periodically execute people in batches.
“A total of 123 prisoners were executed in 2012, and another 75 so far in 2013, despite the immense risk of miscarriage of justice as a result of systemic weaknesses in the criminal justice system.”
Ms Pillay also expressed her outrage at the death toll of 100,000 in the Syrian conflict, and at the two million refugees who had fled along with four million more displaced families within the regime.
She said: “The suffering of Syria’s civilian population has reached unimaginable levels.
“The use of chemical weapons has long been identified as one of the gravest crimes that can be committed, yet their use in Syria seems now to be in little doubt, even if all the circumstances and responsibilities remain to be clarified.”
She accused Syria of slaughtering its own people and called on the international community to find a way of bringing the conflict to an end.
She added: “This appalling situation cries out for international action, yet a military response or the continued supply of arms risk igniting a regional conflagration, possibly resulting in many more deaths and even more widespread misery.
“There are no easy exits, no obvious pathway out of this nightmare, except the immediate negotiation of concrete steps to end the conflict. States, together with the United Nations, must find a way to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table and halt the bloodshed.”