Citizenship: Minority Rights Group

Minority Rights Group International (MRG) works to secure the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide, and to promote cooperation and understanding between communities. They have just published a study about minorities in Irak.

Since 2003, the civilian population of Iraq has been subjected to horrific levels of violence and terror. But for Iraq’s minority communities, caught between the warring factions, the crisis is particularly acute. So much so that the very existence of some of these groups in their ancient homeland is now under threat. Ten per cent of Iraq’s population is made up of minority communities. They include Armenian and Chaldo-Assyrian Christians, Bahá’ís, Faili Kurds, Jews, Mandaeans, Palestinians, Shabaks, Turkomans and Yazidis. Some of these groups have lived in Iraq for two millennia or more. There is now a real fear that they will not survive the current conflict and their unique culture and heritage in Iraq may be extinguished forever. A huge exodus of these communities is now taking place. The Iraqi Ministry for Migration and Displacement in Iraq has estimated that nearly half of the minority communities have left the country. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, minorities make up approximately 30 per cent of the 1.8m Iraqi refugees now seeking sanctuary in Jordan, Syria and across the world.

All of Iraq’s minority communities have suffered violations since 2003 which include:
• destruction and defacement of religious buildings
• mass murder of congregations gathered in and around them
• abduction, ransoming and murder of religious and civic leaders and individuals including children
• forced conversion to Islam using tactics such as death threats, rape and forced marriage.

> read more here.