Bakhtiar Amin (born 1959) is a Kurdish Iraqi politician who was the

Human Rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

Minister in the

Iraqi Interim Government The Iraqi Interim Government was created by the United States and its coalition allies as a caretaker government to govern Iraq until the drafting of the new constitution following the National Assembly election conducted on January 30, 2005. T ...

from June 2004 to May 2005.

Background

Amin was born in Kirkuk. He went to university in Sweden and the Sorbonne in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

, where he received a master's degree in international affairs and a doctorate in political geography.

Exile

, Amin was the secretary general of the Kurdish Institute and active in the ''International Alliance for Justice'' group that campaigned against

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

's human rights violations. In 2001 he was invited to give evidence to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adop ...

's Committee on Foreign Affairs and Human Rights as an expert on the political and human rights situation there. He condemned

for creating a "''museum of crimes, land of sorrow and hopelessness''" and said that there will be "generations" of "genetic mutations suffered by the survivors of his chemical, biological and radiological attacks" in

Halabja Halabja ( ku, هەڵەبجە, Helebce, ) is a city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the capital of Halabja Governorate, located about northeast of Baghdad and from the Iranian border. The city lies at the base of what is often referred t ...

. He called for the creation of an International Court for Iraq, along the lines of the

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars, war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try ...

. Amin then went on to be the director of the Human Rights Coalition in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

Iraq: The interim government leaders
''

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is a nonprofit organization that is independent and nonpartisan. CFR is based in New York Ci ...

'', 2004-06-02, accessed on 2009-08-15 He went on to found the ''Iraqi Democracy Institute'' in the US.

Interim government

Amin returned to Iraq following the 2003 invasion of Iraq and overthrow of

. In September 2003 he was quoted supporting the decision to sanction

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazee ...

and

Al Arabiya Arabiya ( ar, العربية, transliterated: '; meaning "The Arabic One" or "The Arab One") is an international Arabic news television channel, currently based in Dubai, that is operated by the media conglomerate MBC. The channel is a ...

, saying they were "''spreading sectarian and racial hatred''" and saying a "''western democracy would not allow masked gunmen to appear on TV and make direct threats against government officials''" In November he was quoted calling for a

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of ...

to decide whether the death penalty should be restored. Amin was appointed as the Human Rights Minister in the

Iraqi Governing Council The Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) was the provisional government of Iraq from 13 July 2003 to 1 June 2004. It was established by and served under the United States-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). The IGC consisted of various Iraqi pol ...

in May 2004, following the resignation of his predecessor,

Abdel Basset Turki Abdel Basset Turki al-Hadithi was Minister of Human Rights in the cabinet appointed by the Iraq Interim Governing Council in September 2003. He resigned in April 2004 in protest at the deaths of over 600 Iraqis during the siege of Falluja. In N ...

. He was reappointed to the

when that was formed in June 2004. In September 2004 he was quoted saying that conditions at the

Abu Ghraib Abu Ghraib (; ar, أبو غريب, ''Abū Ghurayb'') is a city in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq, located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000 (2003). The old road ...

prison had "''immensely improved''" since the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal. In May 2005, following the

Iraqi legislative election of January 2005 Parliamentary elections were held in Iraq on 30 January 2005 to elect the new National Assembly, alongside governorate elections and a parliamentary election in Kurdistan Region. The 275-member legislature had been created under the Transiti ...

and the formation of the

Iraqi Transitional Government The Iraqi Transitional Government was the government of Iraq from May 3, 2005, when it replaced the Iraqi Interim Government, until May 20, 2006, when it was replaced by a permanent government. On April 28 it was approved by the transitional Ir ...

he was replaced by Narmin Othman. Amin's wife,

Safia Taleb Ali al-Suhail Safia Taleb Ali al-Suhail is an Iraqi Shi'aa Muslim politician who currently serves as an Ambassador of Iraq to Italy September 2020. She was appointed the first female ambassador of Iraq in Oman in 2004, and she held important political and dip ...

, is a prominent female Iraq politician who was appointed as Ambassador to Egypt in 2004 and elected to the

Council of Representatives of Iraq The Council of Representatives ( ar, مجلس النواب, Majlis an-Nuwwāb al-ʿIrāqiyy; ku, ئه‌نجومه‌نی نوێنه‌ران, ''Enjumen-e Nûnerên''), usually referred to simply as the Parliament is the unicameral legislature o ...

in December 2005.

After government

In February 2006, Amin was asked, with two other Muslim former politicians, to select the board of directors for the Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative's "''Foundation for the Future''".Bourqia, Amin, and Ibrahim to Assemble Board of Directors for the Foundation for the Future
''

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...

'', 2006-02-02

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amin, Bakhtiar Iraqi Kurdistani politicians Living people Human rights ministers of Iraq Members of the Council of Representatives of Iraq 1959 births