Title: From Crisis to Catastrophe:
the situation of minorities in Iraq
Publisher: Minority Rights Group
Release date: 2014

The situation of Iraq’s minorities is one of unfolding catastrophe, say Minority Rights Group International (MRG) and the Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights, in the first comprehensive report on religious and ethnic minorities published since the advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in the country.

In the first nine months of 2014, over 12,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq, and minorities – including Chaldo-Assyrian and Armenian Christians, Turkmen, Yezidis, Kaka’i, Shabak, Sabean-Mandaeans, Baha’i, Faili Kurds, Black Iraqis and Roma - have been among the primary targets, say the rights organisations.

In areas controlled by ISIS, minorities have been subject to summary executions, forced conversions, kidnappings, torture, sexual violence and destruction of property. At least half a million have been forced to flee Ninewa, home to minority communities for thousands of years, with little more than the clothes on their backs.

‘With terrifying speed, ISIS is completing a process of ethnic cleansing that has been underway for years. Many minority communities have been reduced in size by emigration and killing to the point that they are now in danger of extinction,’ says Mark Lattimer, MRG’s Executive Director.

However, 2014 did not mark the beginning of the crisis for Iraq’s minorities. For years MRG has been documenting assassinations, torture, kidnappings, armed robberies, and bombings targeting their religious rituals.[1]