A/HRC/34/53/Add.1 Kurds, Jews, Kaka’e, Palestinians, Badawiyin (including the so-called Bidoon 1 ), SabeaMandeans, Shabaks, Turkmen, Yazidis, Zoroastrians and Roma. Some groups have historically lived throughout Iraq, while minority groups, including Christians, Shabaks, Yazidis and Turkmen, live primarily in northern Iraq and areas south of and bordering the Kurdistan region of Iraq, including the Ninewa plains region. Large Christian communities have historically also been found in Baghdad and Basra. 7. Regions with large or predominantly minority communities have been heavily affected by the insurgency of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as Daesh. ISIL captured Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq and historically home to many minorities, in June 2014 and took control of large swathes of territory in the governorates of Ninewa, Salah al-Din, Diyala, Kirkuk and Anbar. While all communities have suffered under the criminal brutality of ISIL, minorities have been particularly targeted as a consequence of its extreme doctrine and interpretation of Islam and its view of religious minorities as infidels or heretics. Hundreds of thousands of members of minority groups have been displaced or killed, and historic cities have been destroyed along with the cultural and religious sites that they were home to. 8. In their joint reports on the protection of civilians in the armed conflict in Iraq, OHCHR and UNAMI have documented violence against ethnic and religious groups. ISIL imposed on Christians and Sabea-Mandeans the choice of converting to Islam, paying jezyah (protection money), expulsion, or death; and for Yazidi, Kaka’e and other faith communities, conversion or death. According to a 2015 report, “ISIL continues to target members of different ethnic and religious communities, intentionally depriving them of their fundamental rights and subjecting them to a range of abuses under international human rights and humanitarian law. These acts appear to form part of a systematic and widespread policy that aims to suppress, permanently expel, or destroy many of these communities within ISIL areas of control.” 2 The evidence and information gathered by UNAMI and OHCHR concerning gross abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law support the conclusion that ISIL committed crimes in a systematic and widespread manner, targeting and seeking to destroy Yazidis in whole or in part. UNAMI-OHCHR noted that crimes committed by ISIL may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and, possibly, genocide. This remains subject to the determination of an independent and competent court. 3 9. While the actions of ISIL constitute the most recent and brutal assault upon the existence of minorities, many diverse ethnic and religious groups have suffered from decades of marginalization, discrimination, lack of access to basic services and insecurity. It was emphasized by community representatives that their problems did not begin with ISIL and would not end with its defeat and return to their homes. Many described a reality of widespread and long-standing anti-minority sentiment that is deeply entrenched and would remain to be confronted in the post-ISIL era. The Special Rapporteur heard testimonies from persons who had lived peacefully alongside neighbours of different religions and who found themselves attacked by them or denounced to ISIL. 10. Under the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein, discrimination and a campaign of persecution of ethnic and religious groups, including the Kurds, was pursued. The Anfal campaign waged from 1986 to 1989 targeted Kurds and other groups, resulting in the 1 2 3 Bidoon is Arabic for “without”, meaning people who are without identity documents. The term is applied to pastoralists who live in the desert areas between Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Many of them may identify as Badawiyin. See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IQ/UNAMIReport1May31October2015.pdf. Conclusion by UNAMI and OHCHR as well as of the OHCHR fact-finding mission (A/HRC/28/18). 5