Iraq’s central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government should protect besieged minorities in the disputed territories of Nineveh province.

Human Rights Watch documented attacks by Sunni Arab extremist groups targeting Yazidis, Shabaks, and Assyrian Christians, and intimidation by Kurdish forces against minority political and civic associations resisting Kurdish efforts to incorporate the area into the autonomous territory the regional government controls.

The Human Rights Watch report, “On Vulnerable Ground: Violence against Minority Communities in Nineveh Province’s Disputed Territories,” calls on the regional government to grant legal recognition to Shabaks and Yazidis as distinct ethnic groups instead of imposing Kurdish identity on them and to ensure that they can participate in public affairs without fear of retribution. The report also calls on the central government in Baghdad to protect minorities at the local, provincial, and national levels, and to investigate killings and displacement of Assyrian Christians and deadly attacks against other minorities.

Link to HRW