2.3.2 Treatment of ethnic and religious minorities

Table of contents

2.3.2 Treatment of ethnic and religious minorities

Decades of conflict and violence have weakened Iraq’s historical ethnic and religious diversity, particularly affecting ethno-religious minorities.550 This has led to demographic shifts in areas such as the Ninewa Plains551 and an overall significant decline in minority populations across Iraq,552 although reliable data are lacking.553 Iraq’s minority communities, including Yazidis, Chaldeans and Assyrians, Sabean-Mandaeans, Shabak, Turkmen and others, continued to face significant challenges,554 including in the KRI.555 Notwithstanding the recognition of freedom of religion and belief enshrined in the Iraqi Constitution, legislative framework and customs reportedly favour the Muslim majority.556 Iraq’s northern Kurdish governorates host the country’s largest, though decreasing, minority communities, including Christians, Kaka’is, Shabak, Turkmen and Yazidis. Many reside in disputed territories along the Kurdistan Region’s western and southern borders.557 PMF-linked militias continued to target religious minorities with checkpoint harassment, property appropriation, extortion, detention, and torture.558 Hate speech and dissemination of negative stereotypes targeting ethno-religious minority groups (including Roma), people of African descent, stateless persons and non-citizens, both in the media and on the social media, persisted.559 Concerns have also been raised about inadequate political representation in both Iraq and the KRI,560 including within transitional justice institutions.561 Reports also indicate persistent discrimination in education, employment562 and health services.563

Yazidis

Ten years after the ISIL’s genocide against the Yazidi community in Sinjar, approximately 2 500 Yazidis remain unaccounted for.564 Despite the 2023 federal budget allocating 25 billion Iraqi dinars [approximately EUR 16.4 million] to support the Yazidi Female Survivors Act (also known as Yazidi Survivors Law – YSL),565 effective disbursement remains limited566 due to difficulties stemming from missing documentation, lack of identification papers, and logistical barriers.567 Although over 600 Yazidis returned to Sinjar from Duhok governorate in May 2025, most have not received the promised return grant of 4 million dinars [approximately 2 624 EUR] nor the household items pledged by the government.568 Following the recognition by the Iraqi government of the Yazidi land rights in 2022,569 in April 2025 the Real Estate Registration Department authorities in Sinjar launched the distribution of 1 338 ownership letters and issued approximately 100 title deeds to Yazidi residents in Dugrey and Tel Uzair Mujama’at (Sinjar).570 As a result, Yazidi beneficiaries, who were historically denied the right to register land in their names, are now officially recognised as landowners.571 However, Yazidis still face systemic discrimination572 and stigmatisation.573 In August 2024, a new campaign of hate speech574 prompted a renewed wave of displacement.575 According to several scientific reviews, Yazidis genocide survivors, especially women, suffer from mental health issues such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression and increased suicide and attempted suicide rates.576 Under the 2016 National Card Law,577 children born of rape in ISIL captivity by Yazidi mothers are considered Muslim, thus resulting in an ‘insurmountable’ barrier to reintegration and a limited community acceptance for survivors.578 This remains a deeply contentious issue within the community579 (See section 2.7 on Children).

Christians

Despite the establishment of committees tasked with restoring Christian-owned property,580 Christians in the KRI and disputed territories continued to report unresolved property claims, particularly where KRG officials or private individuals are alleged to have appropriated abandoned properties.581 While the presence of Christians in Ninewa Plains continued to decline, Shabak community continued to expand, with Shia Shabak occupying key roles in the area.582 The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ)583 reported that Iraq’s blasphemy laws have been reportedly used to arrest and intimidate individuals for their religious beliefs, including Christians.584 In April 2025, an individual armed with an axe attacked a parade celebrating the Akitu (Assyrian New Year) in Duhok, resulting in two casualties. According to the Kurdistan Region’s Security Council, initial information indicated that the suspect was a Syrian national who allegedly endorsed the ideology of ISIL.585

Turkmen

The Iraqi Turkmen faced mounting political, social, and institutional setbacks. Once considered Iraq’s ‘third nationality’, their political standing weakened significantly after the Supreme Court abolished their minority quota in the Kurdistan Regional Parliament in February 2024, reducing their seats from five to two. Efforts to gain a guaranteed share in state institutions have largely failed.586

Sunnis

Sunni Arabs returnees faced discrimination and social friction upon return, particularly from minority communities who perceived them as associated to ISIL. Some Sunni families reported fear of stigmatisation and obstacles to reintegration into diverse communities.587

Other minorities

People of African descent face marginalisation and stigmatisation,588 living in informal settlements with no proper infrastructure or basic services.589 Roma and people of African descent face discrimination in accessing labour market, health services and education.590 Additionally, they are not included under the quota system and are not represented in the Council of Representatives.591 In the Ninewa Plains, Assyrians experienced restriction of movement and arbitrary treatment at checkpoints by the PMF-affiliated 30th Brigade. The rapid shift in the demographic change caused tensions between Assyrian and Shabak communities in the Ninewa Plains.592 Feyli Kurds in Mandali (Diyala governorate) have voiced grievances about neglect and marginalisation, decades after the genocidal campaigns they suffered under Saddam Hussein.593

Converts and atheists

For background information on the treatment of converts, including converts to Christianity in Iraq, see the EUAA Country Focus, May 2024, section 1.6.2. Atheists in Iraq reportedly face systemic discrimination. When accessing public services, citizens are often obliged to disclose their religious affiliation.594

Inter-sect marriages

Conflict and rising sectarian tensions have led to a sharp decline in inter-sect marriages, a rise in divorces among mixed-sect couples and a growing preference for intra-sectarian marriages.595

  • 550

    MEI, Addressing challenges to tolerance and religious diversity in Iraq, 5 July 2023, url, RFI, Country Overview Iraq, March 2023, url, p. 4; USCIRF, Issue Brief: Religious Freedom Challenges in Iraq 10 Years After Isis’s Genocide, September 2024, url, p. 7

  • 551

    Nirij, Investigative Reports: The Demographic Change Haunts Minorities in the Nineveh Plain, 3 February 2025, url; Ali O.O. et al., Demographic Change and Social Cohesion In Post-Islamic State Iraq, 24 November 2024, url

  • 552

    Shafaq News, Sanctuary under strain: Minorities hold on in Iraq’s Kurdistan, 22 March 2025, url

  • 553

    Tadros M. et al., The Handbook of Iraqi People's Heritage, 20 February 2025, url, p. 3; Shafaq News, Sanctuary under strain: Minorities hold on in Iraq’s Kurdistan, 22 March 2025, url

  • 554

    USIP, Minority Rights in Iraq, 3 July 2025, url

  • 555

    Rodgers W., Iraqi Kurdistan’s Ethnic Minorities Are Under Attack, Foreign Policy, 1 May 2024, url

  • 556

    MEI, Addressing challenges to tolerance and religious diversity in Iraq, 5 July 2023, url

  • 557

    Amwaj, How Iraq’s minorities became political pawns for both Kurds and Arabs, 5 July 2024, url

  • 558

    USCIRF, Issue brief: religious freedom challenges in Iraq 10 years after isis’s genocide, September 2024, url, p. 5; Open Doors, Iraq: Persecution Dynamics, December 2024, url, pp. 18-19

  • 559

    UN ICERD, Concluding observations on the combined twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh periodic reports of Iraq*, 18 September 2024, url, para 14 (b)

  • 560

    USCIRF, Issue Brief: Religious Freedom Challenges in Iraq 10 Years After Isis’s Genocide, September 2024, url, p. 6; UN ICERD, Concluding observations on the combined twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh periodic reports of Iraq*, 18 September 2024, url, para 22 (a)

  • 561

    UN ICERD, Concluding observations on the combined twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh periodic reports of Iraq*, 18 September 2024, url, para 18 (d)

  • 562

    UN ICERD, Concluding observations on the combined twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh periodic reports of Iraq*, 18 September 2024, url, paras 24, 28, 30; USIP, Minority Rights in Iraq, 3 July 2025, url

  • 563

    UN ICERD, Concluding observations on the combined twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh periodic reports of Iraq*, 18 September 2024, url, para 26

  • 564

    Rudaw, More than a decade on, 2,500 Yazidis still missing after ISIS attack, 11 May 2025, url

  • 565

    UNSG, National report submitted in accordance with Human Rights Council resolutions 5/1 and 16/21* - Iraq, 30October 2024, url, para 26

  • 566

    USCIRF, Issue Brief: Religious Freedom Challenges in Iraq 10 Years After Isis’s Genocide, September 2024, url, p. 3

  • 567

    C4JR, Coalition for just reparations, More than “ink on paper”, 1 March 2024, url, p. 13

  • 568

    Rudaw, Over 600 IDPs return to Shingal from Duhok: Migration ministry, 19 May 2025, url; Rudaw, Most Yazidis returning to Shingal have not received promised cash: Official, 18 January 2025, url

  • 569

    UN Habitat, Iraq Country Office, Issue December 2022, url

  • 570

    UN in Iraq, Recognition of Yazidi Land Ownership in Sinjar A Historic Achievement underscoring UN and Iraqi

  • 571

    UN in Iraq, Security Council Briefing Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq Dr. Mohamed Al Hassan, 10 June 2025, url; UNSG, Implementation of resolution 2732 (2024) Report of the Secretary-General, 30 May 2025, url, para 37

  • 572

    Yazda, Under Constant Threat: Yazda Launches Report on Hate Speech Targeting the Yazidi Community in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, Urging Action from Both Governments and the International Community, 9 December 2024, url, p. 20; LSE, Ruptured Atlas, A Trauma-Informed Approach To Spatial Storytelling For Survivors Of Genocide (The Case For Yazidis In Iraq), July 2025, url, p. 6

  • 573

    New Humanitarian (The), 10 years into genocide, Yazidi survivors continue to demand their rights, 5 August

  • 574

    Yazda, Under Constant Threat: Yazda Launches Report on Hate Speech Targeting the Yazidi Community in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, Urging Action from Both Governments and the International Community, 9 December 2024, url

  • 575

    LSE, Ruptured Atlas, A Trauma-Informed Approach To Spatial Storytelling For Survivors Of Genocide (The Case

  • 576

    Lobanov-Rostovsky S, Kiss L. The mental health and well-being of internally displaced female Yazidis in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq: a realist review of psychosocial interventions and the impact of COVID-19. Glob Ment Health (Camb), November 2022, url; Kizilhan JI, Mental Health and Collective Trauma among Yazidi Genocide Survivors. J Ment Health Disord, 2025, url; Kizilhan JI, Berger T, Sennhauser L and Wenzel T, The psychological impact of genocide on the Yazidis. Front. Psychol, 2023, url; Shafaq News, Yezidi woman's testimony haunts 10th anniversary of genocide: two daughters chose suicide over enslavement, 3 August 2024, url

  • 577

    Iraq, National Card Law No. (3) of 2016, url

  • 578

    Xiao Liu, M., The Enduring Genocide against The Yazidis: How Iraq's Law on Religious Identity Violates the Human Rights of Yazidi Survivors of ISIS Captivity and Their Children Born of Sexual Violence, 2 April 2025, url pp. 82, 88, 89, 92-93

  • 579

    C4JR, More than “Ink On Paper’, Third Yazidi Survivors’ Law Monitoring Report, 28 February 2025, url

  • 580

    UNGA, Human Rights Council, Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review* - Iraq, 27 March 2025, url, para 9; USDOS, 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom: Iraq, 15 May 2023, url, p. 17; Rudaw, Sadr-led committee returns at least 200 occupied properties to their Christian owners, 17 December 2022, url

  • 581

    USCIRF, Issue brief: religious freedom challenges in Iraq 10 years after isis’s genocide, September

  • 582

    Nirij, The Demographic Change Haunts Minorities in the Nineveh Plain, 3 February 2025, url

  • 583

    ECJL is an international, non-governmental organisation dedicated to promoting and protecting human rights around the world, url , n.d.

  • 584

    ECJL, Christians in Iraq: From 1.5 million in 2003 to 150,000 today, 3 September 2024, url

  • 585

    EPIC, ISHM: March 27 – April 3, 2025, 3 April 2025, url

  • 586

    Al Majalla, How Arabs and Kurds are sidelining Iraq's Turkmen community, 10 October 2024, url; New Arab (The), Iraq's top court declares Iraqi Kurdistan parliament's minority quota seats 'unconstitutional', 23 February 2024, url

  • 587

    USCIRF, Issue Brief: Religious Freedom Challenges in Iraq 10 Years After Isis’s Genocide, September 2024, url, p. 4

  • 588

    UN ICERD, Concluding observations on the combined twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh periodic reports of Iraq*, 18 September 2024, url, para 28

  • 589

    UN ICERD, Concluding observations on the combined twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh periodic reports of Iraq*, 18 September 2024, url, para 28

  • 590

    UN ICERD, Concluding observations on the combined twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh periodic reports of Iraq*, 18 September 2024, url, paras 24, 26

  • 591

    UN ICERD, Concluding observations on the combined twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh periodic reports of Iraq*, 18 September 2024, url, para 22 (b)

  • 592

    Ali O.O. et al., Demographic Change and Social Cohesion In Post-Islamic State Iraq, 24 November 2024, url

  • 593

    Rudaw, Faili Kurds in Mandali lament neglect decades after genocide, 6 April 2025, url

  • 594

    CFI (Center for Inquiry), CFI Challenges Iran and Iraq on Blasphemy Laws at UN, 7 July 2025, url

  • 595

    Jad, I. et al., The State of Marriage in the Arab Mashreq: Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon, 30