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OHCHR / IRAQ MINORITIES
STORY: OHCHR / IRAQ MINORITIES
TRT: 02:45
SOURCE: OHCHR
LANGUAGE: NATS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
DATELINE: 14 MARCH 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
14 MARCH 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, Special Rapporteur walking
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues:
“Unfortunately, often crisis, humanitarian crisis affects minorities in a more disproportionate way than others. Of course when there is a humanitarian crisis such as conflict, violence, whether manmade or natural hazards, everybody is affected but what I experienced is that minorities are always harsher hit. And it is because of their pre-existing precarious social and economic and political position and the lack of access to justice and decision making processes. It is important to acknowledge how they are affected by conflict and sometimes they might even be targeted as we experienced during my latest visit to Iraq for example. It was for the very identity of minorities that they were targeted.”
2016, KHANKE IDP CAMP IN DOHUK, IRAQ
3. Zoom in, still photo, Izsák-Ndiaye visiting camp
14 MARCH 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues:
“What happened to the Yazidi’s and the Christians and the Kakais and other minorities, we know the number of Christians in Iraq has shrunk from 1.5 million to 200 - 300 thousand. This is something absolutely terrible. And if you look into the situation of Yazidi’s, I had the chance to interview some Yazidi women who were abducted by ISIS, who were raped by ISIS. And their testimonies really left a mark in my heart and I feel that we must do our utmost best to make sure that there is accountability and that there is no impunity for all those who commit these extreme crimes. And that the possibility of genocide must be persecuted and must be examined by an appropriate court. And these are situations that are test cases today. If we let the perpetrators of these crimes go, what can we tell the others – that this world has mechanisms that are put in place to protect them? If these test cases fail, then it is just another generation, us, who unfortunately fail.”
5. Close up, eyes
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues:
“In my report I have quite a few recommendations that are concrete and that are also overarching in many countries. One of them is that we need clear and unequivocal political will. It is very important for our leaders to acknowledge that diversity is here and it will not go away. Even if they wish to have a monolithic, mono-religious, and mono-linguistic country, which may seem a bit easier to them to manage, it is not like that. The world is not like that. Unfortunately, we can move, we are mobile, we can interact with each other, we can intermarry with each other, so the world is a beautiful diverse place and we must safeguard like that.”
7. Wide shot, Special Rapporteur walking away
A report by a United Nations independent expert on the rights of minorities indicates that crimes against minorities in Iraq must be investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice, or risk sending a message of failure to future generations.
Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, who presented her last report to the Human Rights Council last week, said: “what happened to the Yazidi’s and the Christians and the Kakais and other minorities. We know the number of Christians in Iraq has shrunk from 1.5 million to 200- 300 thousand. This is something absolutely terrible. And if you look into the situation of Yazidi’s. I had the chance to interview some Yazidi women who were abducted by ISIS. Who were raped by ISIS and their testimonies really left a mark in my heart and I feel that we must do our utmost best to make sure that there is accountability and that there is no impunity for all those who commit these extreme crimes. And that the possibility of genocide must be persecuted and must be examined by an appropriate court. And these are situations that are test cases today. If we let the perpetrators of these crimes go what can we tell the others – that this world has mechanisms that are put in place to protect them if these testimonies fail, then it is just another generation us- who unfortunately fail:”
Izsák-Ndiaye, called for leaders to show political will to safeguard the rights of minorities.
She said:“in my report I have quite a few recommendations that are concrete and that are also overarching in many countries, one of them is that we need clear and unequivocal political will. It is very important for our leaders to acknowledge that diversity is here and it will not go away. Even if they wish to have a monolithic, mono-religious, mono-linguistic country which may seem a bit easier to them to manage, it is not like that. The world is not like that. Unfortunately, we can move, we are mobile, we can interact with each other, we can intermarry with each other, so the world is a beautiful diverse place and we must safeguard like that.”
After almost six-years as Special Rapporteur for Minority Issues, she presented her last report to the Human Rights Council on 15 March 2017.
In her report, the Special Rapporteur reflected on her six-year tenure and challenges for minority rights protection. She raised concern that with increasing hate speech, xenophobic rhetoric and incitement to hatred against minorities, coupled with the rise of extremism and far-right political parties, the progress achieved during the past decades in the field of minority rights protection was under threat.
She also stressed that minorities remained among the poorest and the most socially and economically excluded and marginalized communities globally.
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