Mideast Christians and Yazidis at the UN Security Council seeking international protected area in northern Iraq
New York, NY
3rd of September 2014
In an historic visit to the United Nations Security Council and Secretariat General, the widest coalition of Iraqi Christian and Yazidi and Middle East Christian NGOs and organizations ever assembled to date appealed to the international community not to allow further ethnic cleansing of minorities inside Iraq and their uprooting from ancestral lands for resettlement throughout the world. The joint delegation organized by the Middle East Christian Committee (MECHRIC) and the Yazidi International Human Rights Organization was received on August 22, 2014, at the Secretariat General of the United Nations and at the U.S., Russian, French and UK missions at the Security Council as well as at the Italian mission at the UN, which holds the Presidency of the European Union.
The joint delegation has requested the meetings in implementation of the resolutions of the MECHRIC Conference held at the European Parliament in November 2013 and the Middle East Christian special sessions at the Coptic Solidarity Conference in Washington, D.C., in June 2014. Both conferences tasked MECHRIC leaders to reach out to the United Nations and request an internationally protected area for the Christians of Iraq in the Nineveh plain in northern Iraq. After the barbaric attacks, massacres and ethnic cleansing by the “Islamic State” (Daesh-ISIS) towards the end of June and early July, MECHRIC reached out to the Yazidi community leaders and included them in a joint delegation to the UN.
During the month of July, MECHRIC organized a central demonstration in Washington, D.C., and another rally in August, in coordination with the Yazidis, both in front of the White House, generating a series of demonstrations throughout the world against the massacres perpetrated by the “Islamic State” and coordinated with NGOs to organize demonstrations around the world. MECHRIC and Yazidi leaders met with officials at the White House, the State Department, the U.S. Congress and foundations to address the threat of genocide and ethnic cleansing in northern Iraq against Christian and Yazidi minorities. During the same time, MECHRIC officials reached out to the United Nations Secretariat General and the various missions and obtained meetings for the 22nd of August 2014.
UN responds to Iraqi minorities delegation to UN Security Council last week: “
MECHRIC NEWS
New York, NY
3rd of September 2014
The Human Rights Council of the United Nations has responded to a request by the joint delegation of the Middle East Christian Committee MECHRIC and the Yazidis to investigate the Islamic State for potential war crimes committed in Northern Iraq in particular and throughout Iraq in general, from ethnic cleansing to mass executions to kidnapping, rape and torture. The delegation composed of Yazidi, Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac NGOs was accompanied by Coptic, Maronite and Melkite NGOs as well. It met with the Secretariat General of the UN and was received by the US, French, UK and Russian missions at the Security Council as well as the Italian mission. The delegation expressly demanded the initiation of an international prosecution of the Jihadists of IS and any Terror organization implicated in killing of civilians or of war crimes. The memo presented by the delegation said:
“Article 6.Establishing a special tribunal to indict and bring to international justice those responsible for the atrocities against the population of Sinjar, Nineveh and Mosul’s minorities.”
The delegation included
Mr. William Youmaran, President of Assyrian American National Federation
Mr. Abraham Buyuksal, Bethnahrin National Council (Syriac)
Mr. Medlum Merogi, Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council
David William Lazar, Chairman, American Mesopotamian Organization (AMO)
Mirza Ismail, Chairman, Yezidi Human Rights Organization International
Mr. Magdi Khalil, Coptic Solidarity International
Mr John Hajjar, Melkite Committee
Mr. Eblan Farris, Director of Relations for the World Maronite Union
Mr. Tom Harb, Secretary General of the World Maronite Union
Dr. Walid Phares, Special Advisor
