Endnotes

 1 See Global Protection Cluster (2016) Working Together for Protection (accessed 14 November 2016).

 2 See Annex III.

 3 Wilton Park (13–15 January 2016) Protecting the Rights of Ethnic and Religious Minorities: Global Challenges.

 4 Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language (1994) Random House.

 5 UN (1992) Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. New York: UN General Assembly Resolution 47/135.

. For an overview of the international provisions for protecting minority rights, see Annex I.

 6 Wilton Park (2016); FGDs and interviews in the Kurdistan region and Lebanon, Sep. 2016.

 7 FGDs and interviews in the Kurdistan region and Lebanon, August and September 2016. A few members from these communities also added a theological reason: it is a pejorative term reflecting the fact that God creates all people equal. But it appears from FGDs that this is a marginal concern.

 8 The term is used in the Constitution of Iraq adopted in 2015.

 9 While efforts have been made to cross-check demographic information, its accuracy is hampered by the absence of reliable sources, sensitivities around data on minority groups, and the pace and scope of movement of populations as a result of the ongoing conflicts and subsequent humanitarian crises.

 10 US State Department (2015) International Religious Freedom Report for 2015 – Iraq. US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

 11 IILHR et al. (2015) Between the Millstones: The State of Iraq’s Minorities Since the Fall of Mosul. Brussels, Belgium: IILHR, p4; Puttick, M (2014) From Crisis to Catastrophe: The Situation of Minorities in Iraq. London: MRG and Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights, p5, cross-checked against figures from religious institutions in the region.

 12 USCIRF (2013) Annual Report 2013, p88.

 13 US State Department (2015).

 14 Congressional Research Service (2016) Iraq: Politics and Governance; MRG website accessed on 16 June 2016

 15 University of Texas at Austin (2003) Map of Iraq. General Libraries, cited in International Crisis Group (2013) Make or Break: Iraq’s Sunnis and the State. Middle East Report 144, p4.

 16 Estimates of the total 2016 population in Iraq range from 29–37 million. To calculate the relative size of different groups, the estimate by the Minority Rights Group (33 million) is used here.

 17 University of Texas at Austin (2003).

 18 Unless otherwise stated, information on minorities in Iraq is based on information on the MRG website accessed on 16 June 2016 and cross-checked against information gathered from religious institutions in the region.

 19 Puttick (2014); Sceats, S (2005) The Trial of Saddam Hussein. Chatam House. IL BP 05/02.

 20 Preti, T (2007) Assimilation, Exodus, Eradication: Iraq’s Minority Communities since 2003. London: MRG.

 21 MRG (undated) World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples: Turkey – Assyrians. minorityrights.org/minorities/assyrians (accessed 16 June 2016).

 22 HRW (2004) Claims in Conflict: Reversing Ethnic Cleansing in Northern Iraq (accessed 23 August 2016); AINA (undated)‘Assyrian Human Rights Report’, AINA (accessed 1 November 2016).

 23 MRG (undated) World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples: Azerbaijan – Kurds minorityrights.org/minorities/kurds (accessed 16 June 2016).

 24 Interviews conducted by NCA in the Kurdistan region, Iraq, February 2016.

 25 Pew Research Center (2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014) Restrictions in Religion. The Government Restrictions Index “measures government laws, policies and actions that restrict religious beliefs and practices – i.e. efforts by governments to ban particular faiths, prohibit conversions, limit preaching or give preferential treatment to one or more religious groups”.

 26 Lalani, M (2010) Still Targeted: Continued Persecution of Iraq’s Minorities. MRG.

 27 Pichon, E (2015) Minorities in Iraq: Pushed to the Brink of Existence. Briefing, European Parliamentary Research Services, European Parliament.

 28Iraq Body Count Database. (accessed 14 November 2016).

 29 Fraser, G (16 June 2015)‘A Cross to Bear: The Vanishing Christians of the Middle East’, The Guardian (accessed 14 November 2016).

 30 FGD with Yezidi representatives, NCA, Erbil, Kurdistan region, Iraq, September 2016.

 31 FGD with Kaka’i representatives, NCA, Erbil, Kurdistan region, Iraq, September 2016.

 32 FGD with Shabhak representatives, NCA, Erbil, Kurdistan region, Iraq, September 2016.

 33 Interviewed by NCA, Erbil , the Kurdistan region, Iraq, September 2016.

 34 FGD with Iraqi refugees and displaced people conducted for NCA in Amman, Jordan (June 2016) and the Kurdistan region, Iraq (February and September 2016); Preti (2007), p23.

 35 See: Al Jazeera (24 October 2010) ‘How suicide bombings shattered Iraq. The secret files catalogue thousands of suicide attacks’ Al Jazeera (accessed 14 November 2016) and Reuters (9 September 2007)‘Mastermind of Iraq Yazidi attack killed: US military’ Reuters (accessed 14 November 2016).

 36 See: Shadid, A (1 November 2010)‘Church Attack Seen as Strike at Iraq’s Core’ The New York Times (accessed 14 November 2016). Lalani (2010).

 37 Lalani (2010).

 38 Assyrian Council of Europe (2011) The Exodus from Iraq. Human Rights Report on Assyrians in Iraq.

 39 Society for Threatened People (2006) Mandaeans in Iraq. (accessed 2 November 2016); Preti (2007), p22.

 40 Kikoler, N (2015) Our Generation is Gone: The Islamic State’s Targeting of Iraqi Minorities in Ninewa. Bearing Witness Trip Report, New York: Simon Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, p8.

 41 FGD with Kaka’i representatives, Erbil, Kurdistan region, Iraq, September 2016.

 42 Interview with a Christian key informant from the Kurdistan region, October 2016.

 43 Preti (2007), p22.

 44 See: Alsumaria and AL Monitor (November 2010) ‘Statements on forming new Iraqi provinces cause uproar’ AL Monitor (accessed 14 November 2016).

 45 Dodge, T (2015) ‘The Future of Iraq and the Fight Against ISIS’. Presentation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

 46 See: K24 (6 January 2016) ‘Kurdistan: 700 Tuz Khurmatu Citizens Joined IS’ K24 (accessed 14 November 2016).

 47 HRW (2015) Iraqi Kurdistan: Arabs Displaced, Cordoned Off, Detained: Harsh Restrictions in Northern Iraq While Kurds Move Freely.

 48 IILHR et al. (2015)

 49 As classified by Abu Hanifah. See also Friedman, Y (2010) The Nusayri-Alawis, An introduction to the Religion, History and Identity of the Leading Minority in Syria. Brill, 85.

 50 The Shia Ayatollah Hakim is reported to have passed a fatwa in 2003 concluding that the Sabean-Mandeans were not ahl al-kitab, and would therefore be classified as mushrikun.

 51 Break the cross. Dabiq. Issue 15 Shawwal 1437, p63. (accessed 28 September 2016).

 52 US State Department (2014) 2014 Human Rights Report: Iraq. US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.

 53 IS statement, 17 July 2014. Focus group in Erbil, Kurdistan region, Iraq, September 2016.

 54 Slave-girls or prostitutes? Dabiq. Issue 9, Shaaban 1436, pp44–48 (accessed 28 September 2016).

 55 IILHR et al. (2016) No Way Home: Iraq’s Minorities on the Verge of Disappearances, p18.

 56 UNHCR (13 March 2015) Report on the human rights situation in Iraq in the light of abuses committed by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and associated groups. UN Doc. A/HRC/28/18.

 57 Yazda (28 January 2016) Mass graves of Yezidis killed by the Islamic States or Affiliates on or after August 3 2014.

 58 Human Rights Council (HRC) (2014), UN Permanent Commission of Inquiry for Syria “Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic – Rule of Terror: Living under ISIS in Syria.” 19 November 2014., paragraph 57; UNHCR (2015).

 59 European Parliament (4 February 2016) Systematic Mass Murder of Minorities by ISIS. European Parliament Resolution (2016/2529(RSP)), P8_TA-PROV(2016)0051.

 60 See:114th Congress (2015-2016) ‘Resolution 75 – Expressing the sense of Congress that the atrocities perpetrated by ISIL against religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq and Syria include war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide’ (accessed 23 August 2016).

 61 Human Rights Council (HRC) (2016a)UN Permanent Commission of Inquiry for Syria “Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic” .15 June 2016

 62 Amnesty International (2016) Amnesty International Report 2015/2016: The State of the World’s Human Rights; European Parliament (2016); HRC (2016)a; IILHR et al. (2016).

 63 See: Gatestone Institute (accessed 18 October 2016).

 64 Mellen, R (11 April 2015) ‘ISIS is Making Millions From the Art Market. Here’s How Congress Wants to Stop That’, Huffington Post (accessed 12 July 2016); Yoon, S (29 June 2015) ‘Islamic State is Selling Looted Art Online for Needed Cash’, Bloomberg (accessed 12 July 2016).

 65 HRW (2015) After Liberation Came Destruction: Iraqi Militias and the Aftermath of Amerli.

 66 Amnesty International (2016).

 67 HRC (2015) Alawites, a Religious Minority in Syria, a Community in Danger of Extermination. HRC. New York: UN General Assembly, paragraph 60.

 68 US State Department, (2015), Syria, ”International Religious Freedom Report for 2015”.

 69 US State Department (2015), Syria.

 70 Unless otherwise stated, information is based on the MRG website minorityrights.org (accessed 16 June 2016).

 71 Estimates of the total 2016 population in Syria range from 18–25 million. This overview uses the Minority Rights Group estimate – 19 million.

 72 The Alawites split from Shia Islam in ninth-century Iraq and are branded as a heterodox movement by the Sunnis and most Shias. Dolan, PT (undated) The Alawites: An Ethnographic Analysis; Goldsmith, L (16 April 2012) ‘Alawites for Assad. Why the Syrian Sect Backs the Regime’, Foreign Affairs.

 73 8% in 2011 (1.7 million). Around 300,000 of these people have left since war started.

 74 UNRWA (2016) The Syria Crisis (accessed 16 June 2016).

 75 Lesch, DW (2012) Syria: the fall of the House of Assad. Padstow: Yale University Press.

 76 ICRC (August 2012) Syria, ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent Maintain Aid Effort Amid Increased Fighting. UN General Assembly (August 2012) Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. UN Doc. A/HRC/21/50.

 77 Mob or sectarian violence, crimes motivated by religious bias, physical conflict over religious conversions, harassment over attire for religious reasons, and other religion-related intimidation and violence, including terrorism and war.

 78 Meeting with Syrian civil society, Geneva, May 2016.

 79 Percentages are very close to those from a similar survey conducted by NCA in Lebanon. To the same question, 93% of Syrians said that insults or attacks to do with someone’s religion were not common prior to the crisis, with 75% saying that they almost never happened. These findings should be read with caution, though: the current war and displacement experience has undoubtedly affected people’s recollection of events in the past. At the same time, people might be reluctant to speak about this kind of discrimination due to prolonged regime-led practices of suppression.

 80 However, religious denomination was not statistically significant in predicting a respondent’s need to hide their religion. Once again, the percentage is almost identical to that from the survey NCA carried out in Lebanon, in which only 3% of Syrians – mostly Armenian and Greek Orthodox though this was not statistically significant – reported feeling that they needed to hide their religious affiliation.

 81 FGDs conducted for NCA in Syria and Lebanon, February to April 2016. Caution should be exercised in interpreting this, as present opinions are tainted by recent experiences and the current situation.

 82 FGDs conducted for NCA in Lebanon, February to April 2016.

 83 FGDs with Christian youths from Syria in Beirut, Lebanon, February 2016.

 84 ICG (2011), cited by Cockburn, P (2015) The Rise of Islamic State: ISIS and the New Sunni Revolution. London and New York: Verso, p83; FGDs conducted for NCA 2016.

 85 The Day After (2016) Syrian Opinions and Attitudes Towards Sectarianism in Syria. Survey study. Fieldwork conducted 23 June and 7 September 2015 among 2,498 respondents,1,424 men and 1,074 women.

 86 US State Department (2011) International Religious Freedom Report for 2011. US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, p7.

 87 Thomson, Al (14 December 2012) ‘Was There a Massacre in the Syrian Town of Aqrab? Alex Thomson’s View’. Channel 4 ; The Huffington Post (9 December 2013) ‘Report: Extremists Shoot Dead Women, Children And Elderly Men In Syrian Village’,

 88 UN report (December 2012).

 89 UN Permanent Commission of Inquiry for Syria (2013) Fifth Report, June 2013.

 90 Pew Research Center (2014) Religious Hostilities Reach Six-Year High. Pew Research Center Religion & Public Life Project. (accessed 14 November 2016).

 91 Jasser, Z (June 2013) Religious Minorities in Syria: Caught in the Middle. Expert statement, for Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations and the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa. US Commission on International Religious Freedom, p5.

 92 Forum on minority issues (seventh session, 25–26 November 2014) Preventing and addressing violence and atrocity crimes targeted against minorities. Contribution of the UN Network on Racial discrimination and Protection of Minorities, paragraph 14.

 93 Some estimates are as high as 70,000 Alawite soldiers killed, 120,000 wounded and 10,000 unaccounted for. Stratfor (June 2015) Tartus, the Mother of Martyrs (accessed 14 November 2016)

 94 US Religious Freedom Report (2015).

 95 UN General Assembly (August 2015) Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. A/HRC/30/48.

 96 FGD conducted by NCA, Beirut, Lebanon, September 2016.

 97 FGD conducted by NCA, Beirut, Lebanon, September 2016.

 98 HRC (2014), paragraph 37.

 99 HRC (2014), paragraph 29.

 100 HRC (2015).

 101 Geneva Conventions common article 3, Additional Protocol II article 13(3) and the Rome Statute of the International Court article 8(2) c–e.

 102 UNOCHA (30 September 2016) Syrian Arab Republic: Humanitarian Snapshot (accessed 14 November 2016).

 103 UNOCHA (2016) Humanitarian Response Plan Monitoring Report, January–June 2016 (accessed 14 November 2016).

 104 UNOCHA (9 August 2016) Iraq: Humanitarian Snapshot (accessed 14 November 2016).

 105 UNOCHA (30 September 2016).

 106 UNHCR (2016) Iraq: Mosul Situation Flash Update. Iraqis Registered with UNHCR in Egypt, GCC, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey as of 31 August 2016.

 107 See: http://www.3rpsyriacrisis.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/3RP-Regional-Overview-2016-2017.pdf

 108 UNHCR (2016) 2016 Humanitarian Response Plan – Iraq. (accessed 14 November 2016).

 109 UNOCHA (2016).

 110 The needs in some of these areas (e.g. Aleppo) are likely to have changed significantly since data collection during April and May 2016.

 111 FGDs conducted by NCA, Beirut, Lebanon, February and September 2016.

 112 Syrian faith-based humanitarian organisation registration data.

 113 UN Population Fund, Protection Cluster (2016) Whole of Syria Gender-Based Violence Area of Responsibility – Voices: Assessment Findings of the Humanitarian Needs Overview 2017.

 114 FGDs with Syrians in Beirut, Lebanon, September 2016; interview with a faith-based organisation operating in Syria, November 2016.

 115 UN (April 2016) Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons on his mission to Iraq. A/HRC/32/35/Add.1., p16.

 116 IOM (15 September 2016) Displacement Tracking Matrix. Data from IOM tallies with responses to a survey conducted by NCA in the Dohuk governorate, between March and May 2016: 87.8% of respondents left their home in August 2014 as a result of IS’s Sinjar offensive. An additional 11.5% departed in June and July 2014, with the fall of Mosul.

 117 UNHCR (2016).

 118 UNOCHA (20 July 2016) Iraq: Mosul Flash Appeal. (accessed 14 November 2016).

 119 Total n=933. Christians: 477; Muslim (unspecified): 99; Yezidi: 351; Unspecified religious affiliation: 6; Roughly half of the respondents (48.9%) resided in IDP camps.

 120 Age, previous living conditions and marital status did not play a significant role, nor did a respondent’s previous experience with religiously based insults. Women living in the camps were slightly more positive in their assessment, when controlling for other factors. As educational level increased, so did respondents’ assessment of their living situation, though this is partially due to correlations with employment and income. Unsurprisingly, an increase in access to services is also associated with a more positive evaluation of current conditions.

 121 Taking into account a variety of factors such as current location, area of origin, age, sex, education, socio-economic status and previous experience with religiously based insults, income was the only variable to have a significant effect. Even this positive effect was quite minor, suggesting that other factors were important in how respondents evaluated their comparative living conditions.

 122 FGDs conducted by NCA with Chaldean representatives and Christian organisations. Erbil, Kurdistan region, Iraq, September 2016.

 123 FGDs with Christian representatives from different denominations. Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq, September 2016.

 124 FGDs with Yezidi representatives. Erbil, Kurdistan region, Iraq, September 2016.

 125 MRG (2016).

 126 In the case of Yezidis from Sinjar, Kurdish is the native language and Arabic has been the language used in education for many.

 127 IILHR et al. (2016).

 128 Rasheed, AJ (2015) Social-type Violence in the Ongoing Struggle in Iraq and Methods of Reporting it. Baghdad Women’s Association, p39.

 129 FGDs with two Yezidi groups and Turkmen. Erbil, Kurdistan region, Iraq, September 2016.

 130 Hassan et al (2015) Culture, Context and the Mental Health and Psychosocial Wellbeing of Syrians: A Review for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support staff working with Syrians Affected by Armed Conflict. UNHCR.

 131 Interview with Baghdad Women Association. November 2016.

 132 GBV and CRSV rapid assessment, October 2016.

 133 A woman shared the following testimony: “Even if I’m veiled, I didn’t have this problem [of religious background being a barrier to accessing necessary services] until lately. I was applying for a job as a cleaner and my feeling is that I was refused because of my veil – but it is just a feeling.”

 134 GBV and CRSV Rapid Assessment, October 2016.

 135 However, the desk study found a UNHCR-commissioned study sensitive to religious background that is worth mentioning. Hassan et al. (2015) Culture, Context and the Mental Health and Psychosocial Wellbeing of Syrians: A Review for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support staff Working With Syrians Affected by Armed Conflict. This technical review of secondary sources involved providing individual or group counselling, psychotherapy and/or psychiatric treatment to Syrians, to complement more generic guidance. It is not in itself an assessment or a methodology.

 136 Interviews with the Baghdad Women’s Association and a Lebanese local organisation working on GBV and CRSV.

 137 During April and May 2016, interviews were conducted with 602 respondents living in Beirut, Bekka, Mount Lebanon and North Lebanon. Syrians made up 74% of the total sample and Christians 83%. Women comprised 35% of the sample. This study involved convenience sampling at group level combined with a random selection of individual respondents within the household.

 138 Birchall, J (2016) Gender, Age and Migration: An Extended Briefing. Institute of Development Studies.

 139 Focus groups and interviews in Turkey, June, 2016; See: Al-Monitor Financial Times

 140 Focus groups and interviews in Turkey, June, 2016.

 141 AINA (October 2016) Turkey Won’t Give Official Status to Yazidi Asylum Seekers.

 142 Jasser (2013), pp4–7.

 143 Jasser (2013), p6.

 144 Eghdamian, K (2015) Religious Minority Experiences of Displacement: Initial Lessons Learnt From Syrian Christian and Syrian Druze Refugees in Jordan. Policy brief, University College London Migration Research Unit.

 145 Jasser (2013); Eghdamian (2015).

 146 FGDs conducted by NCA with Christian Orthodox people from Syria (Beirut, Lebanon, February and September 2016), and Protestants (Beirut, Lebanon, September 2016).

 147 UNHCR stopped registering refugees in Lebanon in 2015.

 148 These organisations include the International Organization for Migration, NCA, the Red Crescent, the Red Cross, World Food Program and Qandil.

 149 NCA survey, Lebanon, 2016.

 150 Interviews with key informants in Lebanon, September and November 2016.

 151 Average, including Alawites. Shia Muslims, 64%; Sunni Muslims, 54%; Alawites, 45%.

 152 Discussions with a Christian-based local organisation providing humanitarian assistance in Syria.

 153 Three different NCA focus groups discussions with Christians from Syria reported this in September 2016.

 154 Faith-based humanitarian actor registration data.

 155 FGDs with Assyrians. Beirut, Lebanon, September 2016.

 156 FGDs and interviews in Turkey, June, 2016. FGDs with a group of Syrians. Beirut, Lebanon, September 2016.

 157 Syrian faith-based humanitarian organisation statistics; Interview with a representative from an international NGO operating in Syria.

 158 IILHR et al. (2016), p28.

 159 FGDs conducted by NCA, Beirut, Lebanon, February and September 2016.

 160 FGDs with Christian Iraqi refugees, Amman, Jordan, June 2016.

 161 FGDs and interviews conducted for NCA in Istanbul, Turks, June 2016.

 162 FGD with Yezidi representatives, Erbil, Kurdistan region, Iraq, September 2016.

 163 VOA (October 2016) Displaced by Islamic State, Yazidis Find Harsh Conditions in Turkey.

 164 See: AL Monitor (2 December 2013) ‘Syrian refugees in Istanbul sent from pillar to post’ AL Monitor (accessed 14 November 2016); Financial Times (October 2013) ‘Syria crisis: Refugees highlight Turkey’s sectarian tension’ (accessed 14 November 2016).

 165 FGD with Kaka’i representatives, Erbil, Kurdistan region, Iraq, September 2016.

 166 Eghdamian, K (2015).

 167 There is no significant variation based on age, sex, marital status, income, area of origin, employment status, length of time in current location or number of dependent children. Feelings of safety increase with educational level, but – when taking into account other demographic factors such as income – this effect is only significant for people with a secondary education.

 168 FGDs and interviews conducted for NCA, Istanbul, Turkey, June 2016.

 169 FGDs and interviews conducted for NCA, Istanbul, Turkey, June 2016.

 170 FGDs in Turkey and Lebanon, May and February 2016; NCA Survey in Lebanon May 2016.

 171 FGDs in Jordan and , location, month, year.

 172 NCA Survey in Lebanon, 2016. Similar reasons have been put forward in FGDs with Syrians.

 173 FGD with Syrians, Beirut, Lebanon. February 2016.

 174 AINA (2 November 2015) ‘Assyrians, Armenians in Syria Protest Kurdish Confiscation of Property’, AINA (accessed 14 November 2016).

 175 FGD in Beirut, Lebanon, September 2016.

 176 UN Habitat, 2015, Emerging Land Tenure Issues among Displaced Yazidis from Sinjar, Iraq.

 177 FGDs in Dohuk, Kurdistan region, September 2016

 178 Interview with a Christian religious leader, Erbil, Kurdistan region, Iraq, September 2016.

 179 Interview with Yazda, Duhok, Kurdistan region, Iraq, September 2016.

 180 UN Habitat (2015) Emerging Land Tenure Issues among Displaced Yazidis from Sinjar, Iraq, p23.

 181 Interviews conducted by WCC in Erbil and Duhok, Kurdistan region, Iraq, August 2014; interviews conducted by NCA in Duhok, Kurdistan region, Iraq, February and September 2016.

 182 Interviews conducted by NCA in Duhok, Kurdistan region, February and September 2016; Pax (2016) Sinjar After ISIS. Returning to Disputed Territory.

 183 Yazda (2016) Report on Humanitarian Aid and Development Opportunities in Sinjar: Caring for IDPs while Rebuilding and Facilitating Returns. Report version 1.3, 8 January 2016, p2.

 184 Interviews and FGDs in Erbil and Dohuk, Kurdistan region, Iraq, August and September 2016.

 185 Interviews and FGDs in Erbil and Dohuk, Kurdistan region, Iraq, August and September 2016.

 186 Focus group discussion in Kurdistan region, Iraq, September 2016.

 187 FGDs with Christian refugees, Beirut, Lebanon, February 2016.

 188 Interview with key informants in Lebanon, September 2016.

 189 NCA survey, Iraq, 2016.

 190 NCA survey, Syria, 2016

 191 NCA survey, Lebanon, 2016.

 192 NCA survey, Syria, 2016..

 193 NCA meeting with Yazda, Dohuk, Kurdistan Region, Iraq, September 2016.

 194 Chaldean Archdiocese of Erbil (2015) Christian ‘IDPs’ in Erbil Today.

 195 FGDs conducted by NCA.

 196 NCA surveys in Iraq and Syria, 2016.

 197 FGD with Kaka’i representatives, Erbil, Kurdistan region, Iraq, September 2016.

 198 Estimates from January 2016 based on the records and statistics of the Archbishopric reported in a need assessments conducted by IOCC.

 199 FGDs with Assyrians conducted by NCA, Bekaa and Beirut, Lebanon, December 2015 and September 2016.

 200 FGD with Assyrians conducted by NCA, Beirut, Lebanon, September 2016.

 201 NCA location , Lebanon, survey 2016

 202 NCA Kurdistan Region, Iraq survey 2016

 203 Pax (2016), p22.

 204 This was observed in both the survey carried out in Lebanon and the study conducted inside Syria.

 205 NCA Lebanon survey, 2016.

 206 FGDs with Assyrians in Bekka (December 2015) and Beirut (February and September 2016).

 207 FGD with Yezidi representatives,Erbil, Kurdistan region, September 2016; Email correspondence with a Yezidi organisation, October 2016.

 208 Email correspondence with an organisation working with Yezidi people, October 2016.

 209 Pax (2016), p26. According to a key informant to this study, for the first year of the crisis, until the international conversation changed, KRG officials only referred to what happened to Yazidis as ‘a Kurdish genocide’. However, this testimony could not be verified with other sources.

 210 FGDs and interviews with Christians, Mandeans and Yezidis, Kurdistan region, September 2016.

 211 FGDs in the Kurdistan region, September 2016.

 212 Global Protection Cluster (2016).

 213 IHL also includes; the 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, plus its two protocols; the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention; 1980 Conventional Weapons Convention and its five protocols; the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention; the 1997 Ottawa Convention on anti-personnel mines; the 2000 Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.

 214 First Geneva Convention, Article 50; Second Geneva Convention, Article 51; Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 147.

 215 Common article 3, Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 27.

 216 Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 27, paragraph 2; First Protocol, Articles 75 and 76.

 217 Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 28.

 218 Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 50.

 219 Fourth Geneva Convention, Articles 58 and 97; First Protocol, Article 25, paragraph 5.

 220 Protocol II, Article 5, paragraph 2a.

 221 Protocol I, Article 76, paragraph 2.

 222 Protocol I, Article 6, paragraph 5.

 223 Protocol II, Article 6, paragraph 2.

 224 Protocol I, Articles 8 and 17.

 225 Fourth Geneva Convention, Article 24.

 226 Elissan, J (2016), cited in Afanasieva, D (22 May 2016) ‘UN Says World Must Stand up for Widely Flouted Humanitarian Law’, Reuters (accessed 17 June 2016).

 227 Vité (2009) in Haider, H (2013) International legal frameworks for humanitarian action: Topic guide. Birmingham, UK: Governance and Social Development Resource Centre, University of Birmingham, p17; ICRC (2015).

 228 Welsh, J (2009) Implementing the Responsibility to Protect. Policy Brief 1/2009, Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, University of Oxford.

 229 HRW (2013) Syria and the International Criminal Court: Questions and Answers; HRW (2016).

 230 Regional instruments include: the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950); the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man (1948) and the Convention on Human Rights (1969); and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1981).

 231 ICRC (2004) What is International Humanitarian Law?, Advisory Service on International Humanitarian Law, ICRC.

 232 See: OHCHR (accessed 23 September 2016).

 233 See: OCHR (undated) The Core International Human Rights Instruments and their monitoring bodies for details of the treaties and their Optional Protocols (accessed 23 September 2016).

 234 The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCS) (1948) prohibits killings and other acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

 235 Haider (2013), p13.

 236 Haider (2013).

 237 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951), Article 1.

 238 UNHCR (2010) Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.

 239 Sadek, G (2013) Legal Status of Refugees: Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. Law Library of Congress.

 240 Chimni, BS (ed.) (2000) International Refugee Law: a reader. New Delhi: Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications.

 241 Birchall (2016).

 242 Middle East Monitor (23 June 2016) ‘Palestinians of Syria: Refugees Once More’, Middle East Monitor (accessed 23 July 2016); Clementi, A (2015) ‘No Way Out: The Second Nakba of Palestinian Refugees from Syria Escaping to Turkey’, Badil, Issue 57.

 243 Akram, SM (8 April 2000) ‘Reinterpreting Palestinian Refugee Rights Under International Law, and a Framework for Durable Solutions’. Paper presented at The Right of Return: Palestinian Refugees and the Prospects for a Durable peace, international conference, Boston.

 244 UN (1998) Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2

 245 Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration (2008) National Policy on Displacement, section 6.9.

 246 IDCM (2014).

 247 The Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons (1954), Article 1.

 248 UN Treaty Collection. (accessed 27 September 2016).

 249 Wilton Park (2016).

 250 Wilton Park (2016).

 251 ICRC (2003) International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law: similarities and differences; ICRC (2004).

 252 OHCHR (undated). Status of Ratification (accessed 27 September 2016).

 253 AINA (2014) ‘All 45 Christian Institutions in Mosul Destroyed or Occupied by ISIS’, AINA (accessed 29 July 2016).