Immediate Release
10 years after the war, Innocent New Lives are Still Dying and Suffering In Iraq.
Human Rights NGO publish the Report of a Fact Finding Mission on Congenital Birth Defects in Fallujah, Iraq in 2013
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War. After the war, particularly in the most recent few years, a deeply troubling rise in the numbers of birth defects has been reported by doctors in Iraq, leading to suspicions that environmental contamination from the war may be having a significant negative effect on the health of local people, and in particular infants and children. For instance in Fallujah, the city heavily attacked by the US twice in 2004, the data of Fallujah General Hospital shows that around 15% of babies of all births in Fallujah since 2003 have some congenital birth defect.
Human Rights Now (HRN), a Tokyo based international human rights NGO in consultative status with the UNEconomic and Social Council, conducted a fact-finding mission in Fallujah, Iraq in early 2013 to investigate thesituation of the reported increasing number of birth defects in Iraq.
Today, HRN published a report over 50 pages entitled
"Innocent New Lives are Still Dying and Suffering in Iraq" on this investigation.
Full Report:
http://www.brussellstribunal.org/article_view.asp?id=1016#.VNO61Z3F-Yc
Iraq Report April 2013.pdf
Appendix:
Appendix1 Iraq.pdf
Appendix2 Iraq.pdf
This is the first investigation conducted by an international human rights NGO on the congenital birth defect issue in Iraq since 2003. Despite the gravity of the situation, there has not been a sufficient investigation of the health consequences associated with toxic munitions in Iraq by the US, UK or any independent international organization such as a UN body.