According to the Iraqi News Agency, the decree guarantees that Yazidis own their homes and residential lands in the Sinjar district of Nineveh Governorate, in the north of the country, where most of the Yazidis are concentrated.
Correction of a catastrophic error
Dr. Ghazi Faisal Hussein, Director of the Iraqi Center for Strategic Studies, explained to Sky News Arabia the legal and constitutional aspects of this step:
- The rights of the Yazidis as citizens to own property, whether real estate or agricultural lands, or others in order to build homes, are part of the rights of every Iraqi from a constitutional and legal point of view.
- The deprivation that lasted for years is illegitimate and illegal, and violates all constitutions and human rights.
- Even in the interim constitutions until 2003 there is no article related to depriving the Yazidi or other nationalities, religions and sects in Iraq of the right to own property.
- Returning to the legality of the Yazidis owning homes and lands is a correction of a catastrophic mistake made by successive governments towards the Yazidis, who are the original inhabitants of Iraq, and reflects a form of dangerous religious, ethnic and social discrimination.
The decision to prevent the ownership of the Yazidis dates back to 1975, following battles between the government and Kurdish groups seeking self-rule, where the Yazidis are considered to be Kurds, and at that time large numbers of them were deported from the villages they reside in in the Sinjar Mountain area, destroyed, and moved to residential complexes in the north and south of Jabal Sinjar, while preventing them from owning lands and homes.
other decisions
- Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani issued a joint statement with United Nations officials, stating that the decision, which came after 47 years of “depriving” the Yazidi Iraqis of their homes in Sinjar, will be followed by other decisions within the prime minister’s work schedule.
- These decisions are aimed at caring for the rights of the children of these components, and ensuring their rights within the principle of full citizenship, justice and equality, according to the statement.
International praise
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in Iraq, and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, described the decision as a decisive step that provides secure tenure for thousands of Yazidis in housing, land and property, hoping that this will encourage them to return to Sinjar.
Yazidis fled the city of Sinjar, in which they are concentrated, after the massive attack launched by the terrorist organization ISIS on the city in 2014, in which large numbers were killed and captured.
promising step
Maymouna Mohamed Sharif, Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements ProgrammeShe considered the step taken by the Iraqi government promising and encouraging, and described the government decision to own the Yazidis as a great achievement for Iraq, which is making great efforts to protect and respect human rights with regard to adequate housing.
In turn, the United Nations Center for Human Settlements “Habitat” confirmed that it will work closely with the relevant institutions and committees formed by the government to help speed up the process of registering ownership and issuing full title deeds for the homes covered by this decision.
And UN-Habitat (established in the seventies to support urban urban expansion) has been dealing since 2018 with the land and property rights of the Yazidi minority in Sinjar by registering more than 14,500 ownership requests, and issuing land occupancy certificates to prove the rights of works for the Yazidis, using modern digital technologies, with the aim of supporting issues ownership.
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