USCIRF Solemnly Commemorates the Tenth Anniversary of ISIS’s Genocide Against Iraqi and Syrian Religious Minorities

Washington, D.C. – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) this week commemorates the tragic tenth anniversary of the onset of the genocide and crimes against humanity perpetrated against Iraqi and Syrian religious minorities by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

"USCIRF solemnly marks ten years since ISIS began its campaign of religious and ethnically based crimes against humanity and genocide against Iraqi and Syrian Yazidis, Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Christians, Shi’a Muslims, and other religious and ethnic minorities,” stated USCIRF Chair Stephen Schneck. “While the resilience of the survivors is inspiring as they try to rebuild their communities, we remain deeply concerned over ongoing threats to their human rights and religious freedom. As Yazidis around the world memorialize the August 3, 2014 start of the Yazidi Genocide, USCIRF calls on the U.S. government to urge Iraq’s federal government and the KRG to remove systemic legislative and political obstacles to the rights and representation of the religious minorities that survived ISIS’s onslaught.”

In early August 2014, ISIS laid siege to Sinjar, the ancestral region of Iraq’s Yazidis, executing, kidnapping or driving out almost all of Sinjar’s 400,000 Yazidi residents. In March 2016, the U.S. Department of State determined that ISIS had committed genocide and crimes against humanity against multiple religious minority communities, including indigenous Christians, Yazidis, Shi’a Muslims, and other groups. In 2019, the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS—including the United States and its local partners—achieved its territorial defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

“In Iraq today, non-state actors and government-affiliated militias continue to perpetrate serious abuses against religious minorities already vulnerable after ISIS’s genocide against them,” said USCIRF Vice Chair Eric Ueland. “The United States must continue to raise religious freedom concerns with Iraq’s federal government, urging it to limit the power of the abusive Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) brigades and to work with the KRG to fulfill the terms of the Sinjar Agreement, in consultation with Yazidi communities. USCIRF also advises the U.S. government to encourage its allied local forces in northeast Syria, the KRG, and the government of Iraq to continue urgently pursuing rescue efforts for abducted Yazidi and Assyrian women and girls.”

USCIRF continues to highlight the aftereffects of ISIS’s genocide against Iraq’s religious minorities, including threats to their administrative autonomy and political representation. Today, USCIRF releases the first in a series of podcasts addressing ongoing religious freedom concerns for Iraqi and Syrian religious minority survivors of the genocide.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. To interview a commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected]. 

Ten years ago, the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) launched a campaign of mass atrocities to achieve the religious and ethnic cleansing of Yazidis, Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Christians, Shi’a and Sunni Muslim Turkmens, Shabaks, and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria. In 2016, the U.S. State Department determined ISIS’s atrocities against Yazidis, Christians, and Shi’a Muslims constituted crimes against humanity and genocide. In 2019, an international coalition defeated ISIS’s last territorial hold in Iraq and Syria. However, ten years on, survivors face multiple threats to their religious freedom, security, and existence within their homelands.

Jamileh Naso, President, Canadian Yazidi Association; Nadia Cavner, Philanthropist and Advocate for Assyrians; and Dr. Ali Akram Albayati, Co-Founder, Turkmen Rescue Foundation join USCIRF Senior Policy Analyst Susan Bishai to discuss religious minorities’ ongoing struggles to rebuild in the region.

Read USCIRF’s 2024 Annual Report Chapter on Iraq and view USCIRF's Hearing on Religious Minorities & Governance in Iraq.

USCIRF Releases New Report on Religious Freedom in Saudi Arabia

Washington, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today released the following new report:

Saudi Arabia Country Update – This report provides an overview of the situation of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in Saudi Arabia and is largely informed by an official USCIRF trip to the country in March 2024. While identifying FoRB-related government reforms that have been implemented gradually in recent years, the report addresses key issues that emerged in consultations with civil society and Saudi government officials during the trip. These issues include: the changing role of religion and national identity; systematic barriers to religious freedom in the judicial system; education curriculum reform; the Saudi legal apparatus; and the targeting of religious minorities, women, and other vulnerable groups on the basis of religion. It encourages U.S. leaders to center religious freedom as an essential component of the U.S.-Saudi bilateral relationship and the implementation of Vision 2030.

In its 2024 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended that the U.S. State Department re-designate Saudi Arabia as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, and lift the national security waiver releasing the administration from taking otherwise legislatively mandated action as a result of the designation.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected].