On 16 July 2020, Muhammad Karim Jabbari, a member of the Kurdistan Teachers’ union (KTU) and a teacher from Kirkuk, Iraq, was arrested by the local police for calling on the Kirkuk governorate to investigate allegations of corruption in the local health department and non-provision of health care.
Right to trade union activities
Since 2020, all independent unions in Iraq are unable to operate. On 12 October 2020, the Iraqi Ministry of Labour published letter No. 11367 imposing a trade union monopoly in Iraq and instructing government administrative bodies not to deal with any union other than the officially recognised General Federation of Iraqi Workers.