Yazidis denied legal recognition

The Syrian Ministry of Justice has rejected a request from the Yazidi community to recognise them as a religious group and grant them permission to establish courts mandated to resolve civil and personal matters in accordance with their faith.

In its ruling, known as Statement 7 and published on 14 February, the Ministry of Justice said that the Civil and Personal Affairs Law No 59, which was issued in 1953, is the law applicable in matters related to Syrian Yazidis, and that their civil and personal matters fall under the auspices of the Shari’a Court.

Article 307 of the same law provides for special courts for civil and personal matters for citizens belonging to the Druze religious minority, and for Christian and Jewish citizens in Article 308.

The Council for Syrian Yazidis issued a statement condemning this ruling and describing it as “a flagrant violation of basic human rights,” warning that such laws “threaten the Syrian heritage and social fabric to which the Yazidis are indigenous. Such laws are not different from the restrictions imposed by the Islamist groups loyal to Turkey in Afrin and Northwest Syria which forced the majority of Yazidis into displacement, causing a deliberate and systematic demographic change.”

Mrs Mesgin Joseph, the Chair of the Council for Syrian Yazidis, told CSW: “During their history, the Yazidi people suffered over 200 massacres to this day. The ideologies that justified these massacres still exist. We feel trapped between the jaws of the Syrian government on one side and the Islamist groups on the other.”

CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: “This ruling constitutes a grave violation of the principles of non-discrimination and equality before the law enshrined in Article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We urge the Syrian government to amend the 1953 law, and to allow Yazidis equal rights and access to a judiciary system that is compatible with their religious belief with regard to civil and personal matters. We also call on the government of Turkey to restrain the excesses and abuses of Islamist groups loyal to it in areas it controls in northeast and northwest Syria, to respect international humanitarian law, and to ensure an end to attacks that target Syrian civilians.”