Ahead of the meeting of heads of state at the Arab League Summit in Baghdad tomorrow (29 March), Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s interim Middle East and North Africa Director, is available for interview from London.

Amnesty is calling on the Arab League, together with the UN Security Council, to ensure that any UN mission deployed to Syria as part of the Kofi Annan six-point plan includes human rights monitors who would be able to pass vital information to investigators, including at the independent international Commission of Inquiry on Syria.

Philip Luther said:

“The Syrian government has continued to block the entry of human rights investigators into the country - both from international organizations and from the Commission of Inquiry.

“The Arab League must use this summit to help put that right.”

Amnesty’s Iraq researcher Said Boumedouha is also available for comment on the state of human rights in Iraq. Yesterday Amnesty published its annual death penalty report, showing that executions in Iraq rose dramatically last year, from one execution recorded in 2010 to 68 in 2011.