Iraq is a Multinational, multilingual and multi-religious country.
The national and ethnic communities of Iraq are Arabs (70 to 75%), Kurds (15 to 20%), Turkmen, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Armenians, Chechens and Circassians. Ethnic minorities make up up to 5% of the population.
Islam is the official religion of Iraq. According to official figures, 95-98% of the population is Muslim (about 64-69% Shia and 29-34% Sunni). It is estimated that about 1 percent of the population is Christian of various faiths, including Chaldean Catholic, Syriac Catholic and Orthodox, Protestant and Eastern Assyrian.
The Iraqi Personal Status Law recognizes the following religious groups: Islam, Chaldean, Assyrian, Assyrian Catholic, Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholic, Armenian Apostolic, Armenian Catholic, Roman Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Latin-Dominican Rite, National Protestant, Anglican, Evangelical Assyrian Protestants, Adventists, Coptic Orthodox, Yazidis, Sabaeans, and Jews.
The Iraqi constitution guarantees freedom of religious belief and practice for Muslims, Christians, Yazidis, and Sabaean-Mandi, but not for followers of other religions or atheists. Furthermore, the Constitution guarantees the absence of religious coercion and provides that all citizens shall be equal before the law, irrespective of religion, sect or belief.
The laws of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region recognize the rights of ethnic communities (Turkmen, Chaldeans, Syrians, Assyrians and Armenians) and religious and sectarian groups (Christians, Yazidis, Saba’is, Kakais, Shabaks, Failis, etc.). and they are respected.
Ethnic and religious minorities are given official shares in both the Iraqi and Kurdistan parliaments. While shares granted are limited to a certain number, some minorities have no quota.
The constitutional recognition in 2005 of the ethnic and religious diversity of Iraq was possible following the military defeat of the Socialist Arab Resurrection Party (Ba’th) government in 2003. In the case of Iraq, Ba’ath hegemony meant domination of society by the Sunni component of Saddam Hussein’s ally country, with severe repression of all other ethnic and religious actors. This repression took the form of ethnic cleansing against the Kurdish people with Operation Anfal and the Halabja massacre (1988), two facts recognized in the preamble to the 2005 constitution.
The new Iraqi constitution was an opportunity to end systematic violations and the domination of one party over the other. Unfortunately, due to political competition and external interference, the Iraqi constitution has not become the basis for resolving the problems. The current political situation in Iraq has led to a violation of the multicultural spirit of the 2005 Constitution and as a result, Iraq is subject to continuous violations of its constitution.
Centre Zagros pour les Droits de l’Homme, which is concerned about the unconstitutional situation in Iraq, in collaboration with Maloca International and several other organizations active in the field of human rights, on July 15, 2022 at the UN headquarters. peace and coexistence under the Iraqi constitution. Representatives of the Iraqi and Kurdistan communities participated in the one-day conference. Although the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations did not respond to the invitation to participate in the conference, but the representation of the Iraqi government in Switzerland, and representatives of the Kurdistan Regional Government participated in the conference.
The conference participants openly spoke about the failure to implement the constitutional provisions related to the rights of minorities and local governments and called for the implementation of these constitutional articles.
Some participants spoke about the dangers of systematic opposition to minorities and called for international and domestic support for their rights.
A number of minority representatives, while appreciating the efforts of the Kurdistan Region to guarantee the rights of minorities and other communities, called on the Iraqi central government to use the experiences of the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Zagros Human Rights Center and Maloca International, while supporting the rights of minorities and various communities in Iraq, call on Iraqi politicians to:
- Removing political problems and providing the ground for the formation of the government;
- Increase the number of quotas for all minorities and ensure equal participation in political and social life;
- Implementation of the unenforced provisions of the Iraqi Constitution;
- Solving the problems of the central government and the Kurdistan Region.
