ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A Christian couple from the Kurdish city of Duhok were among this year’s recipients of the International Religious Freedom Award bestowed upon them on Wednesday by the US State Department for their role in furthering religious freedoms and defending minorities. The pair warned that the Christian population in Iraq is at a perilous state due to mass migration owing to persecution and instability.
The award was given on Tuesday for the first time, in what the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described as the “largest human rights gathering ever at the State Department”.
The US State Department praised William and Pascale Warda for their advocacy efforts to advance “religious freedom and other human rights in Iraq.”
“The Wardas’ advocacy and leadership in advocating for the rights of members of religious minorities and of women in Iraq highlight their commitment to advancing religious freedom.”
The couple founded Hammurabi Human Rights Organization (HHRO) in 2003 – a non-profit organization that monitors and advocates for human rights in Iraq. The organization is described by the US State Department as “one of the first organizations to document ISIS’ atrocities against Yezidi and Christian women, girls, and members of other minorities.”
ISIS militants targeted Yazidi and Christian minority groups when they swept through Iraq seizing large swaths of territory including Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul where they declared a so-called caliphate in August 2014.
Following the conferment of the award, Pascale spoke to Rudaw about the problems facing Iraq and how displacement has dramatically affected the standing of minority populations in the country.
“The solution to our problem is [building] a democratic country. The rule of law will be respected when there is democracy. You don’t need anything else when the law rules,” Pascale said.
She also spoke about the displacement and migration of Christians and other minority groups in the aftermath of the spiral of sectarian wars that plagued Iraq following the US-led invasion in 2003, including the disaster brought upon them by the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014.
“Migration has wreaked havoc on us,” Pascale said.
In his recent address in London, the Archbishop of Erbil Bashar Warda warned of the dwindling Christian population in Iraq due to centuries of persecution and called on the British government to do more to protect the minority.
The Christian minority in Iraq is “perilously close to extinction,” he said in May 2019, warning that the population of the minority group has dwindled by 83 percent – from around 1.5 million in 2003 to just 250,000.
Pascale currently heads HHRO and was Minister of Migration and Displacement in the Iraqi Interim Government formed following the invasion of the country in 2003. Her husband manages HHRO’s public relations and is also head of the Alliance of Iraqi Minorities Network.
During their offensive, ISIS slaughtered thousands of minority men, burying them in mass graves during the genocide against Iraqi minorities. Women and children were abducted and sold into slavery – many facing years of repeated sexual violence.
Over 125,000 Christians are believed to have been displaced by the violence.
