OPENING LETTER

Dear friends of the Yazidi Cause,

On behalf of the Yazidi community, it is our privilege to present to you the documented speeches and statements of the first Yazidi Leadership roundtable, which was hosted on September 7, 2020.

For the first time in six years, the many leaders of the Yazidi community came together to discuss crucial matters of administration, security, safe return, and justice. We had the honor of receiving the blessings of our late Spiritual Leader Baba Sheikh Khurto Hajji Ismail with a pre-recorded speech, in which he encouraged all leaders to deeply listen to each other and agree on how to move forward as one voice for all the Yazidi people. The roundtable honored and actioned these words. His wisdom will always be with us for the many Yazidi leadership and community convenings to come.

In these pages, you will read the complexities and urgencies of the Yazidi cause across the multiple challenges facing the Yazidi and other minority groups in Iraq today. You will also read the opportune straightforwardness for public policy and legislative action to support the Yazidi cause.

This public documentation sets the stage for a unified position paper that the Yazidi community leadership will publish to propose an action plan that can be measured and monitored over the coming months. Following the consensus presented at the Sixth Annual Commemoration of the Yazidi Genocide on August 2-3, 2020: we will not host a seventh commemoration that repeats these same concerns and worries of the Yazidi people and minority communities. 

With much gratitude and our deepest respect,

Haider Elias
President
Yazda Organization

Lynn Zovighian

Co-founder & Managing Director

The Zovighian Partnership