After the number of our souls in Iraq in the 1987 census counted one million and 200 thousand in Iraq,
meaning 5% of the inhabitants of Iraq, today, after 30 years, we don’t exceed 200 thousand of the Iraqi
population, which reaches more than 30 million people, meaning 0.05% of the inhabitants of Iraq. This
alarming decline is caused by killing, displacement, and operations of demographic change in the regions,
as well as by the intimidation the sons of our people faced in Baghdad and the acquisition of their
properties and buildings [in the capital] at the cheapest prices. [Another cause is] the operations of
appropriation of Christian properties, which take place today. The failure of the Iraqi state to protect its
citizens is based mainly on sectarian grounds far away from the respect of human rights and Iraq’s
commitment on its day of independence to the protection of the rights of minorities in 1932. Iraq as a state
also committed to the protection of minority rights of the United Nations’International Conventions on the
Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1965, which was adopted in January 1970.
It should be noted that Iraq was one of the first countries in the world to ratify the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights in 1966, which was approved by Iraq in January 1971.
We must emphasize that the Article 26 of the International Covenant stipulates the following: “the law
shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against
discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national
or social origin, property, birth or other status", as well as in Article 27, devoted to the rights of minorities,
which Iraq as a country signed, affirms that “In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic
minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the
other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to
use their own language”. Today, Iraq violates all these articles and texts through its legislative authority,
and the Iraqi parliament issued [a law] in November 2015, which makes the conversion to Islam of minors
of Christians, Yazidis, and Sabean Manadean mandatory in case one of the parents converts to Islam,
despite them being children.
The resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations in September 2007 must be noted and
recalled in regards to the rights of native peoples in Article 8/II, which states that states shall put [in place]
effective mechanisms to prevent the following:
A. Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or
of their cultural values or ethnic identities;
B. Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, territories or
resources;