Hate speech, forced displacement, and the weak enforcement of legislation are among the most pressing issues confronting these communities. As a result, minority groups are increasingly calling for concrete guarantees to ensure their safety, political representation, and the conditions necessary for their long-term survival and development.
These concerns were highlighted during two dialogue sessions held in Erbil on December 10, marking International Human Rights Day, where representatives of religious and ethnic communities discussed the obstacles they continue to face.
While Muslims make up the majority of the population in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, it is also home to Christians, Ezidis (Yazidis), Kakais, Shabaks, and other religious groups. Ethnically, alongside Arabs and Kurds, there are Chaldeans, Syriacs, Assyrians, Armenians, and Turkmen. Although national and regional laws formally guarantee their rights, many community members argue that the lack of implementation remains their greatest challenge.
Jabbar Awaid al-Karbouli, head of the Erbil office of the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, told KirkukNow that the failure to enforce existing legislation affects all communities in Iraq. “The laws guarantee rights, but they are not applied,” he said. He also pointed to the lasting impact of the Islmic State of Iraq and Syria ISIS, noting that attacks on religious sites and shrines have left minorities living in constant fear of renewed violence.
Al-Karbouli believes this has led to "the continued fear in the hearts and minds of members of these communities that they will once again become victims of these groups' brutality."
In April 2015, less than a year after ISIS invaded Iraq, the Kurdistan Parliament passed a law to protect the rights of communities in the Kurdistan Region, coinciding with the targeting of some communities, including Yazidis, Christians, and Kakais, who were subjected to kidnapping, murder, and displacement.
The law generally grants communities the right to practice their beliefs and religious and fundamental freedoms, as well as the right to education in their mother tongue, to establish associations, and to preserve their identity. The Iraqi Constitution, adopted in 2005, also guarantees all of these rights.
Article 3 of the Law on the Protection of the Rights of Minorities stipulates that "the government guarantees to every individual belonging to a minority the right to equality and equal opportunities in political, cultural, social, and economic life through effective policies and legislation. It also guarantees their right to participate in decisions that concern them."
The same article states, "All forms of discrimination against any component of Kurdistan-Iraq are prohibited, and violators shall be punished according to applicable laws."
"The current problem for minorities lies in the violation of laws. If the laws were fully implemented by the executive authority and the courts, and if perpetrators of violations against minorities were punished, the situation would be different than it is now," Al-Karbouli added.
Regarding what he meant by the situation being different, Al-Karbouli explained, "I mean that we would not see some people attacking minorities publicly on social media platforms and satellite channels by broadcasting hate speech."
He emphasized that "hate speech is one of the biggest challenges to protecting the rights of minorities."
Hate speech is one of the Biggest Challenges to Protecting the Rights of Minorities
Mikhail Benjamin, a minority rights activist working with the Components Alliance Network, stated that "demographic change represents another challenge facing minorities in Iraq, and this is not limited to Christians and Yazidis, but includes all components."
Article 3 of the Law on the Protection of the Rights of Components stipulates the prohibition of any action or negative policy that would alter the original conditions of areas inhabited by a specific component, in addition to "prohibiting any acquisition that aims to or leads to demographic change of the historical and cultural character of a specific area, for any reason whatsoever and under any pretext."
Although the laws in force in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have implemented a quota system to guarantee the political participation of components in elections—for example, allocating five quota seats in the Kurdistan Parliament and nine seats in the Iraqi Parliament—Mikhail Benjamin said that "there is much interference by influential parties that buy people from these components to represent them, not the components themselves."
"The laws themselves are fine, but they have not succeeded in protecting the components," he added.
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "All human beings are born free." They are equal in dignity and rights. They have been endowed with reason and conscience, and they must treat one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
Shro Ibrahim, a Yazidi religious scholar working for Baba Sheikh, the spiritual leader of the Yazidis, said during his participation in a dialogue session held in Erbil on International Human Rights Day, “The main challenge facing the Ezidis is that they are displaced within their own land, living in camps. If the rights of minorities were protected, would it be reasonable to remain displaced in your own country for 11 years?”
The executive authority is primarily responsible for implementing the laws
According to the Law of the Protection of the Rights of Minorities, “the government is working to encourage the return of individuals belonging to minority groups who were formerly residents of Iraqi Kurdistan region and were forced to migrate, and to guarantee their due rights.”
“The executive authority is primarily responsible for implementing the laws,” Al-Karbouli believes. “The state is now very strong, but we cannot say that hate speech against minorities has ended. Hate speech against minorities is still ongoing. You must also know that ISIS began with hate speech, considered the greatest threat to the minorities.”
The Law on the Protection of the Rights of Minorities prohibits any religious, political, or media incitement, whether individual or collective, direct or indirect, to hatred, violence, intimidation, exclusion, or marginalization based on national, ethnic, religious, or linguistic grounds.
Tavga Omar Rashid, Director General of Legal and Human Rights Protection at the Independent Human Rights Commission in the Kurdistan Region, stated, the current situation of religious and ethnic minorities is not like the period of ISIS.
“The situation has returned to normal. What they are suffering from now are the repercussions of the war against the organization.
The commission records daily violations committed against minorities, such as damaging their gravestones and desecrating their holy sites.
“In my opinion, the existence of the law is not enough to protect them; it must be implemented,” according to Tavga.
However, Benjamin believes that the core of the problem lies in the absence of a legal and political environment with an open understanding of the rights of minorities.
“It would be better for international and local organizations to shift their focus from issuing recommendations to compelling both the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Iraqi government to implementing laws related to the rights of constituents.”
