Resolution to Declare that Massacres and Persecution of Iraqi Kurds were Crimes ofGenocide and Crimes Against Humanity

The International Association of Genocide Scholars,

Recognizing the prohibition of genocide in the Convention on the Prevention andPunishment of the Crime of Genocide (hereinafter Genocide Convention), customaryinternational law, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court;

Recognizing the prohibition of crimes against humanity in customary international law andthe Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court;

Recognizing that hundreds of thousands of Kurds in Iraq, including the Feyli, Barzani,Christian, Yazidi, Kakai, Badinan, Shabak and Shi'a Kurdish groups, were subjected to crimesagainst humanity such as mass killings, torture, chemical warfare, forced displacements,mass rapes, arbitrary detention, forced labor, and the destruction of their villages;

Recognizing that stripping the citizenship, deportation to Iran of more than 300,000 to500,000 Feyli Kurds, and mass killings of thousands of Kurds between 1970 to 2003constituted genocide and the crime against humanity of forced displacement;

Recognizing the 1983 genocide against the Barzanis wherein Saddam Hussein regimeforcefully resettled thousands of Barzanis, killed 8,000 Barzani Kurds, and put many of theseBarzani Kurds in mass graves;

Recognizing the 1988 Anfal genocide from February to September 1988 wherein SaddamHussein's regime killed 182,000 Kurds in eight comprehensive stages, destroyed 4,500villages, and engaged in the worst chemical attack since World War II in Halabja;

Recognizing the genocide by ISIS (ISIL) (Da'esh) between 2014 and 2018 against the Yazidis,Shi'a, and Christians wherein ISIS subjected Yazidi women to rape and sexual slavery, killed5,000 Yazidi men, forced the deportation of approximately 50,000 Yazidis, killed myriadChristians, raped numerous Christian women, forcedly deported between 100,000 to200,000 Christians, executed 1,700 Shi'a army cadets, and forcedly displaced tens ofthousands of Shi'as;

Recognizing the acts by ISIS (Da'esh) between 2014 and 2018 against the Kurds and religiousgroups in the Iragi Kurdish region were crimes against humanity wherein ISIS engaged inmass killings, deportations, mass rapes, kidnappings, disappearances, among others;

Recognizing that on June 23, 2007, the Iraq Special Court held that the Barzani, Anfal, andHalabja massacres constituted genocides against the Kurds in Iraq;

Recognizing that on April 14, 2008, the Iraq Parliament deemed the Anfal campaign agenocide against the Kurdish people;

Recognizing that in 2008, the Iraq Presidential Council approved Parliamentary Resolution26, which declared Saddam Hussein's campaign against the Kurds to be genocide;

Recognizing that in March 2010, the Iraq Supreme Court held the Anfal campaign was agenocide and also included crimes against humanity;

Recognizing that by 2010, the Iraq Supreme Court, the Iraq Council of Representatives andthe Iraq Parliament acknowledged that the Barzani massacres were acts of genocide andcrimes against humanity;

Recognizing that in March of 2011, the Irag Parliament voted to acknowledge that thedeadly chemical attack on Halabja constituted genocide;

Recognizing that in August of 2011, the Iraq Supreme Court, Iraq Council of Representatives,and the Iraq Parliament officially determined that the Fayli killings constituted genocide;

Recognizing that on November 21, 2012, the Norwegian Parliament formally acknowledgedthe Anfal campaign as genocide;

Recognizing that in December 5, 2012, the Swedish Parliament adopted a resolution toofficially acknowledge the Anfal campaign as genocide;

Recognizing that on March 1, 2013, the British Parliament formally acknowledged the Anfalcampaign of Saddam Hussein's Iraq government against the Kurdish population as the"Kurdish genocide;"

Recognizing that on June 13, 2013, the South Korean Parliament adopted a resolution that

formally acknowledged the Anfal campaign to be genocide;

Recognizing that on March 14, 2016, the United States Congress determined that the massmurders, destruction of living conditions, causing of serious mental and bodily harm, massrapes, abductions of women and children, and prevention of births against the Yazidis,Christians, and Shi'a Muslims and other groups by ISIS (Da'esh) were acts of genocide;

Recognizing that in 2016, the United States Department of State formally acknowledged thedestruction of Yazidi, Christian, Shi'a and other religious minorities by ISIS (Da'esh) as acts ofgenocide;

Recognizing that on April 20, 2016, the United Kingdom House of Commons declared thatthe treatment of the Yazidis and Christians by the Islamic State (ISIS) amounted to genocideand referred the issue to the United Nations Security Council;

Recognizing that the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt, Germany convicted Taha Al J., amember of the armed group Islamic State (ISIS), of genocide and crimes against humanity;

Recognizing that on October 25, 2016, the Canadian House of Commons formallyacknowledged that ISIS (Da'esh) was committing genocide against the Yazidi people;

Recognizing that on December 6, 2016, the French Senate unanimously approved aresolution stating that acts committed by the Islamic State (ISIS) against "the Christian and Yazidi populations, other minorities and civilians" constituted "war crimes," "crimes againsthumanity," and "genocide;"

Recognizing that on March 23, 2017, the Scottish Parliament adopted a statement that thebrutal acts by ISIS (Da'esh) against the Yazidi people constituted genocide;

Recognizing that the Scottish Parliament also welcomed the actions of the EuropeanParliament and the United Nations formally acknowledging the genocide against the Yazidinpeople;

Recognizing that in January 2018, the Armenian Parliament formally acknowledged andcondemned the 2014 genocide of Yazidis by the Islamic State (ISIS), and called on theinternational community to conduct an international investigation;

Recognizing that on March 1, 2021, the Iraq Parliament passed the Yazidi [Female] SurvivorsLaw which provides assistance to survivors and determined that the atrocities perpetratedby ISIS (Da'esh) against the Yazidis, Turkmen, Christians and Shabaks to be genocide andcrimes against humanity;

Recognizing that on June 30, 2021 the Foreign Relations Commission of the Belgian Chamberof Representatives unanimously approved a resolution to formally acknowledge ISIS'sAugust 2014 massacre of thousands of Yazidi men and enslavement of thousands of Yazidiwomen and children as genocide;

Recognizing that on July 6, 2021 the House of Representatives of the Netherlandsunanimously passed a motion that formally acknowledged the crimes of the Islamic State(ISIS) against the Yazidi population as genocide and crimes against humanity;

Recognizing the research and findings by numerous human rights organizations, includingHuman Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and many genocide scholars that crimesagainst humanity and genocide have been committed against the Kurds in Iraq;

Recognizing that Iraq is a state party to the Genocide Convention and thereby hasobligations to prevent and punish genocide;

Therefore, the International Association of Genocide Scholars:

1. Declares that the atrocities perpetrated by the Irag government of Saddam Hussein andby ISIS (Da'esh) against the Kurds constituted genocide and crimes against humanity;

2. Condemns the genocides and crimes against humanity committed by the Irag governmentof Saddam Hussein and by ISIS (Da'esh) against the Kurds and other groups in the IraqiKurdish region;

3. Calls Upon the government of Iraq to fully implement the Yazidi Survivors Law and carry

out the process of reparations to the survivors and victims of the Yazidi genocide;

4. Calls Upon the United Nations, national governments, and international human rightsorganizations to recognize the atrocities perpetrated against the Kurds and other Iraqiminority groups by the Saddam Hussein regime and by ISIS (Da'esh) as genocide and crimes against humanity, and to take appropriate measures to prevent future genocide and crimesagainst humanity in Iraq;

6. Recommends appropriate measures, including, but not limited to:

Nations with universal jurisdiction and nations whose citizens or corporations aidedand abetted or were complicit in genocides by the Saddam Hussein regime and ISIS(Da'esh) should prosecute such persons or corporations in their national courts.

Nations with universal jurisdiction for the crimes of genocide and crimes againsthumanity committed by the Saddam Hussein regime and ISIS (Da'esh) shouldprosecute persons accused of committing such crimes who are resident in or arecitizens of such countries.

The government of Iraq and other governments that were complicit in or aided and

abetted these genocides should pay reparations to survivors and victims of the

genocides of Kurds by the Saddam Hussein regime and by ISIS (Da'esh).

The United Nations Security Council should refer jurisdiction for the genocides andcrimes against humanity by ISIS (Da'esh) in Iraq to the International Criminal Court.