In the News
News & Updates
For Iraq's displaced Yazidis, the genocide is ongoing | The New Arab
“It’s quite unfortunate that the Yazidis, which are our neighbours…they will become very few in Iraq just like us,” said Wansa Shamoon, from the Jiyan Foundation for Human Rights in Duhok, which promotes the mental well-being, physical rehabilitation, and social reintegration of survivors and their families.
She herself is a Christian whose family also fled IS in 2014. Not only IS, but recurrent violence and pervasive discrimination have pushed a dramatic emigration of Christians out of Iraq in the past two decades.
The decline of both the Christian and Yazidi communities follows a pattern of minority expulsion. In the 1940s and 50s nearly all Iraq’s Jewish population left the country.
“My grandmother was always saying: ‘the Jewish told us when they left Iraq, Sunday is just after Saturday,’” Shamoon recounts.
She believes the Christians and Yazidis share a mutual story in many ways, both enduring repeated genocides over the generations, both ancient religions born in the region and faced with losing their roots.
“[Iraq] is their country, it’s their soul, it’s everything culturally, emotionally connected to them, but they have to choose between having safety without home, or living in your home while it’s not safe.”
Read the full story: For Iraq’s displaced Yazidis, the genocide is ongoing (alaraby.co.uk)
Iraq must identify way to provide justice for victims of ISIS: C4JR | Kurdistan24
The Coalition for Just Reparations (C4JR), an alliance of Iraqi non-governmental organizations (NGOs), in a position paper on Monday called on the Iraqi government incorporate genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes into national law and prosecute ISIS fighters for their crimes.
Moreover, it called for the establishment of a “survivor-friendly criminal accountability mechanism meeting international standards with jurisdiction over international crimes committed by ISIL (ISIS).”
“This unique position paper on a survivor-centered ISIL accountability mechanism in Iraq is an excellent opportunity for the Iraqi government and the international community to achieve justice for survivors of ISIL violence,” Wansa Shamoon, the spokesperson for Coalition for Just Reparations, told Kurdistan 24.
“The C4JR and its member organizations invite interested parties and stakeholders to consider the principles and suggestions outlined in this position paper on a Survivor-centered ISIL Accountability Mechanism.”
Read the full story: Iraq must identify way to provide justice for victims of ISIS: C4JR | kurdistan24.net)
Petition calls on Iraq to construct monument for Yezidi genocide victims | Kurdistan24.net
Sixty-five individuals and organizations on Monday called on the Iraqi Government to construct a monument of remembrance for the victims and survivors of the ISIS genocide against the Yezidis.
“Memorials and monuments of the kind we are requesting preserve historical memory, educate future generations, and provide a basis for ensuring that past atrocities do not repeat themselves,” reads the petition on the website Coalition for Just Reparations (C4JR), an alliance of Iraqi NGOs.
“Solidarity is the message we want to send. This petition was requested by the Yazidi community, and the input from so many organizations demonstrates that people in the region want to support each other,” Joshua Governale, Head of PR and Development at the Jiyan Foundation US, told Kurdistan 24.
Moreover, Wansa Shamoon, the spokesperson for Coalition for Just Reparations, said the organizations “hope that this petition may put the focus back on survivors of atrocities and give voice to disenfranchised groups like the Yazidi.”
Read the full story here: Petition calls on Iraq to construct monument for Yezidi genocide victims | Kurdistan24.net