Religious Freedom Challenges in Iraq 10 Years after ISIS’s Genocide

This report provides an overview of ISIS’s genocide and other crimes against Iraq’s religious minorities beginning in the summer 2014. ISIS used mass execution, forced conversion to Islam, abduction, rape, and slavery against Iraqi and Syrian Yazidis; Assyrian-Syriac-Chaldean and other Christians; Shi’a Muslims of a variety of ethnic backgrounds, such as Shabaks, Turkmens, Arabs, and Kurds; and other religious groups. The report highlights ongoing religious freedom challenges facing these communities 10 years later and identifies ways the United States can encourage Iraq’s federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to improve religious minority groups’ security and freedom of religion or belief today.