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

Human Rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

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 ...

from June 2004 to May 2005.

Background

Amin was born in

Kirkuk Kirkuk (; ; ; ) is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of the Kirkuk Governorate. The city is home to a diverse population of Kurds, Iraqi Turkmen, Iraqi Turkmens and Arabs. Kirkuk sits on the ruins of the original Kirkuk Cit ...

. He went to university in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and the Sorbonne in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, 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 (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

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

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two 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 ...

'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 (, ) 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 to as the greater Hewraman re ...

. 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 tr ...

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

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Iraq: The interim government leaders
''

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...

'', 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 Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

and

Al Arabiya Arabiya (, transliterated: '; meaning "The Arabic One" or "The Arab One") is a Saudi state-owned international Arabic news television channel. It is based in Riyadh and is a subsidiary of MBC Group. The channel is a flagship of the media c ...

, 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, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

to decide whether the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

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 ...

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 prison Abu Ghraib prison (, ''Sijn Abū Ghurayb'') was a prison complex in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, located west of Baghdad. Abu Ghraib prison was opened in the 1960s and served as a maximum-security prison. From the 1970s, the prison was used by Saddam Hus ...

had "''immensely improved''" since the

Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse During the early stages of the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency were accused of a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These abuses ...

scandal. In May 2005, following the Iraqi legislative election of January 2005 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 ...

he was replaced by

Narmin Othman Narmin Othman (born c.1948, Arabic: نيرمين عثمان; Kurdish Nermîn Osman) is the Iraqi Minister for the Environment in the government of Nouri al-Maliki, a post she also held in the Iraqi Transitional Government. She was Minister of Wom ...

. Amin's wife, Safia Taleb Ali al-Suhail, 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 is the ''de facto'' unicameral legislature of Iraq. According to the Constitution of Iraq, it is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of the country. As of 2020, it comprises 329 seats and meets in Baghdad ...

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 simply the 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 o ...

'', 2006-02-02

References

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