FoRB Podcast: Justice and Accountability for the Yazidi Genocide Ten Years On

In Episode 4 of The FoRB Podcast, Merilin Kiviorg and Dmytro Vovk invite Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law to discuss political, legal, and social responses to the 2014 Yazidi genocide committed by ISIS. Jocelyn elaborates on the roots of the genocide and addresses the challenges and threats Yazidi communities have faced post-genocide. She also discusses state responsibility and measures, often ineffective, implemented by the Iraqi government and other national and international actors to hold perpetrators accountable. Jocelyn further explains why detention camps for former ISIS members and their families can foster a new circle of violence and how the Yazidi genocide has changed our understanding of international criminal law.

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The Zoroastrian Community Post-Religious Persecution

Malcolm M. Deboo has been president of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe since 2009. This post is based on his remarks at the AMAR International Charitable Foundation’s Windsor Dialogue Conference held at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, England, 24 June 2024. It was published as part of the feature “Marking the 10th Anniversary of the Yazidi Genocide.”

In the West, members of my community are called Zoroastrians, based on the ancient Greek name for the Prophet Zoroaster. In Iran, however, where the faith was established, we are called Zarathushtis, after the Prophet Zarathushtra. In India, we are known as the Parsis, meaning “those who came from Persia”; that name was given by the Hindus to my religious ancestors who left Iran more than a millennium ago, sailed down the Strait of Hormuz via the Persian Gulf, and landed on the west coast of India, in South Gujarat, where they were allowed to stay as refugees. Although India is home to other communities from Iran, including Shiites, the name “Parsi” was reserved for my people. In many ways, they were some of the world’s first “boat people.”

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Institutions as Agents of Persecution and Inclusion of Minority Faiths

Brett G. Scharffs is Rex E. Lee chair and professor of law at J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, and is director of the Law School’s International Center for Law and Religion Studies. The following post is based on his remarks at the AMAR Windsor Dialogue conference held at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, England, 24–25 June 2024. It was published as part of the Talk About blog feature “Marking the 10th Anniversary of the Yazidi Genocide.”

My engagement with the AMAR International Charitable Foundation began as a participant in the 2018 Windsor Dialogue conference held in Baghdad, where I and others discussed the experience of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their journey “from persecution to inclusion.”[1] The hope was that the Latter-day Saints’ journey might have salience, relevance, and resonance with the Yazidi community. I later discussed the Latter-day Saints’ journey at a 2022 Notre Dame University Symposium, “Re-Thinking the Law to Protect Religious Minorities,” and published a related essay in Notre Dame Law Review Reflection.

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