Written Declaration of members of Human Rights Council Advisory Committee
Geneva – February 24, 2012
A few days after the transfer of 400 Ashraf residents to Camp Liberty, it appears that the new camp is in fact a prison with very high security.
Asylum seekers who accepted to move to Camp Liberty do not enjoy freedom of movement; have no free access to lawyers or to medical services. In the new camp, which is surrounded by high concrete walls, Iraqi armed forces have a central station with three subsidiary stations and have also put up machine guns. There are eavesdropping devices in the vicinity of the camp and numerous espionage cameras are installed at various points inside the camp. There is no doubt that the output of these devices are provided to the Iranian regime; a matter with obvious perils for the residents and their families. The transfer process for residents has been very humiliating and they were treated like prisoners of war. They were searched during eleven hours to complete.
On January 31, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General declared that the infrastructure of Camp Liberty fulfills humanitarian standards, but this seems not to be the reality.
The Iraqi government deprives the asylum seekers from access to potable water and electricity. Open sewage tanks produce intolerable odor and pollution and seriously threaten the health of the people. The tanks cannot be emptied. Trailers are filthy, dilapidated and most are unusable.
We call on the UN Secretary-General, the U.S. Secretary of State, and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs to:
 strongly condemn the illegal actions of the Iraqi government which constitute an evident  violation of the most basic human rights of the asylum seekers Camp Liberty;
 call on the Special Representative of Secretary-General to defend the human rights of the Iranian asylum seekers and to speak the illegal actions of the Iraqi government
 provide the minimum assurances for the asylum seekers and in particular persuade the Iraqi government to move all Iraqi forces to the outside of Camp Liberty perimeter walls; as it is today, Camp Liberty is a prison which in no way fulfills the basic material requirement and the humanitarian and human rights standards of a refugee camp.
This situation seems to be detrimental to the ongoing process which tries to find a sustainable solution for the 3’400 asylum seekers of CampAshraf.
Signatures :
José Antonio Bengoa Cabello (Chile);
Laurence Boisson de Cazournes (France);
Chung Chinsung (Republic of Korea)
Alfred Ntunduguru Karokora (Uganda)
Obiora Chinedu Okafor (Nigeria)
Anantonia Reyes Prado (Guatemala)
Shigeki Sakamoto (Japan)
Ahmer Bilal Soofi (Pakistan)
Jean Ziegler (Switzerland)
Mona Zulficar (Egypt)