Repertoires of Punishment: How is Enemy Membership Defined in the Detention and Punishment Regime of ‘Post-ISIL Iraq’

Abstract

Human rights abuses at the hands of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) need no introduction; the mass atrocities carried out by the terrorist organisation have been documented at lengths. With the highly publicised defeat of ISIL in Iraq, the issue of punishing those with affiliation to the group has emerged, though behind closed doors. Western countries such as the United Kingdom (UK) have stripped their citizens accused of joining the group, while others, such as France, that have outlawed capital punishment are tacitly encouraging Iraq to eliminate their jihadi citizens. While many journalists have travelled to north-eastern Syria to document the plight of those detained in Al-Hol camp run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who have been asking for support in bringing those affiliated with ISIL to justice, the case in Iraq is quite different. Governmental forces, including the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), are detaining families of ISIL members in prisons, camps and detention centres all over the country, lacking proper vetting systems. Journalists and humanitarian aid workers, even those working for the United Nations (UN) are denied access to these sites, with mounting fears that the Government of Iraq (GoI) and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) too are engaging in outright human rights abuses. This research therefore aims to look at the ‘repertoires of punishment’ in post-ISIL Iraq where many feel that the ‘enemy’ has been defeated, while seeking to address the question: ‘How is enemy membership defined in the detention and punishment regime of ‘post-ISIL Iraq’? In doing so, this research will also seek to analyse how ‘enemy membership’ is defined, who are the penholders of these definitions, what are immediate repercussions of having been labelled as affiliated with the ‘enemy’, and what repertoires of punishment are exercised on those who fall into this ‘enemy’ category.