Duhok: Experts gather to report atrocities against Kurds

Shafaq News – Duhok

The Fifth International Scientific Conference on Genocide Against the Kurds opened on Tuesday in Duhok province to document crimes and violations committed against the Kurdish people throughout modern history.

The conference also focuses on documenting the atrocities committed against Yazidis and Christians during ISIS’s control of Sinjar and the Nineveh Plains, where the group’s attacks killed or displaced thousands and inflicted severe damage on the social and economic fabric of those communities.

Organizers said the event includes academic sessions and specialized research presentations by historians, legal scholars, and human rights experts. The discussions seek to examine the legal, political, and social dimensions of these crimes and explore ways to incorporate them into the international framework for recognizing documented acts of genocide.

Participants, according to Nafsar Nouri, Deputy Minister of Martyrs and Genocide Affairs in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), are expected to present a set of recommendations to both the Iraqi and Kurdish governments, outlining practical steps to strengthen legal and historical documentation of genocidal crimes, ensure the rights of victims and their families, and prevent similar atrocities in the future.

The Iraqi High Criminal Court previously recognized the Anfal campaign against the Kurds as genocide, in line with the 1948 Genocide Convention.

Fadhel al-Gharawi, head of the Strategic Center for Human Rights in Iraq, said the military operation in the Kurdistan Region, conducted under the former Baathist regime, led to the deaths of an estimated 180,000 Kurdish civilians through mass executions, chemical attacks, forced displacement, and destroyed more than 4,000 villages.