care for humans. for people that are in emergency needs off back. >> well, i -- [inaudible] >> i think we have the question, but thank you. >> so yes, i think large of the people attempted kurdistan are safe. they are sheltered and the african move around and get jobs. to the extent public services are available, they are free to access them. people have gone to a place where they can be protected. the u.s. military is providing safety and security for kurdistan and it is a protected area. suggest i think it is a safe part of iraq. >> if i can follow up on her comments. actually i didn't say that about iraq so some of her that that's not what i said. i think iraqis take will persist

and i think, rather the internal borders will shift. and i think, i don't want to get into kurdistan independence in the medium or long-term the kurdistan regional government exists, and about exists in disputed territories exist. in terms of what i did say was yazidis and other minorities do want increased autonomy. i'm not sure what form that's going to take yet and i do think it should be acknowledged, and i think that we don't know whether it's going to be under baghdad or irbil. will they be a problem with sinjar again? we don't know yet. i would also say in terms of this minority region, it has to be negotiated with arab, sunni, shia, kurdish neighbors. we don't have any sort of

backlash, exceptionalism, segregation. i would say that in response. it will happen but the borders, how they will ship in early is yet to be seen. people should pay a lot of attention to. u.s. policymakers. so it happens that these away under a framework not from conflict. we think about mosul, that question about mosul, when we think about the most liberation and the expertise is not in kind of politics of mosul but i will talk about this conference is about minorities. there are minority areas all to the east and northeast that are still occupied by daesh, but i suspect windows a liberated we need to have -- and the short and medium term in place that going to address what people want irbil, baghdad, administration.

is that going to persist? i think that's something we should start to plan for. especially looking at sinjar. >> that was a great question because it's a very public it is situation. the gentleman in the front has been very patient waiting to ask a question. >> and this woman. >> thank you. really appreciate and we thank america for all it's done, especially recently this conference supporting iraq for liberation. we appreciate the import of the university and the state department as well. this conference building. i had honored to be number of pairs conference. we have not to deal and to tackle only with result of the problem but we have to go through the roots. with all my appreciation for all commands, all things being done here, all these, majority of

these boards we are taking care of the problem, how to manage them out to protect but not really we never talk about how to deal with the roots. how to stop this problem. advocate will have some isis everywhere. every day with france, belgium, tomorrow come everywhere. we have to think about how to stop that. in my personal opinion we spoke about previously, and i will say that now. community has to run for some resolution to stop, and criminalize that culture, either among the muslims or among the christians, any society the world. been a critical moment of education from beginning to the end must be a part of that diversity culture the second point -- >> would you share your name and position? >> iraqis parliament member. you spoke about the solutions have to protect.

this is a resolution of iraqi council of ministers. number 16, on january 22, 2014, 3 provinces. sinjar is on the way. there's nothing wrong. that's one. second, when as for intervention protection, region or so that something like that we don't ask for forces to be brought at the local people can protect themselves. it should be same like 1996 when turks forces or in irbil, one battalion only. but local people were there with them. we don't ask america to send some new battalions or brigades but we have lots of people to take care of that. thank you very much. >> i did hear a question but i hear two very important observations. right behind you, the woman behind you has asked to speak.

>> i do have a question. i'm the founder and executive director of the free yazidi foundation. my question is, i am concerned that the 2 million that is pledged for iraq will be wasted or spent badly. and i hope that active local civil society organizations for minorities and led by minorities will benefit from this 2 million. i know that small organizations like ours, we do not need much to make a change on the ground. i've been noting also that many governments denying helping organizations that are led by yazidis for yazidis. and i think at this moment you should help these organizations to rebuild again. so how can we, this is a question actually for and what

to think about, how can we make sure we empower minorities by helping us to rebuild, rebuild our self? >> that's an excellent question. one of the things at the conference of bishops that we often say is that whenever it is delivered into a society, industry not only delivered to come institutions but also their local ngos and civil society, including faith-based organizations. and leisure some of tennessee strengthen the grassroots and civil society as well as governing institutions, you don't get a real open transparent and responsive society. i think, and i know we've been urging our own government to direct its age in that way, not just in this situation, i don't know if anyone wants to add anything to that. >> i used to work for usaid for eight years and there's a whole division called democracy, conflict inhibiting affairs i think it's called. something as simple as this can

have an effect is to write a letter to the assistant administrator at usaid and say here's a particular need to i don't know if there's any funds that might be available but you'd be surprised how often something like that gets passed on to play for the money might exist. but you can't assume, particularly of a smoker but somebody will necessarily know. to be proactive, put it on the table and don't hesitate to send it to something like crs or world vision or care, save the children, some of these others as well. then they know a little more about it and there might be assistance possible. >> there's been a gentleman up at the front who has been very patient, and then all the way to the back. [speaking in native tongue]

>> translator: he is a parliamentary representative, ucd quoted from the iraqi parliament. >> wonderful. [speaking in native tongue] spee he's talking about, i don't know what i'll do. he talks about before isis and after isis. [speaking in native tongue]

[speaking in native tongue] >> there was a crisis about trapping, killing and destroying places. could you describe more what is the solution for future? [speaking in native tongue] >> regarding use and community ngos about that. >> yeah, it's a question we are all asking ourselves, what is the source of such extraordinarily intolerant towards the other, towards their historical treasures, towards their people, towards their beliefs. but i think in terms of looking through history it's a very old

problem. human beings have not always handled well how they do with the other. this is an extreme form of intolerance but it's not a new form of the intolerance. the question we have to ask ourselves is, how could you unleash forces within societies, within religions, within cultures that would push that back, that would control that, that would defeat that? right now we know that one of the things that sort of allows that to gain strength is anarchy, anarchical situation with her so state power. extremists always move into a te vacuum like that. so the sooner we can build the conditions for a just society or a more just society, it's more difficult for extremism like that to get a foothold. >> we have often said strengthening the rule of law,

reducing political and economic exclusion that people exploit, convince also, and we haven't talked about this much, ma it's tackling the ideology itself. i was very proud of a number of muslim scholars who came together at marrakech and issued a declaration based on the chart of medina which goes way back to the profit at the beginning of islam creating a society where all were part of the community and everyone had citizenship in that community. in medina. it's polling those resources out of our religious traditions to counter extremist ideologies will be absolutely critical. >> all the way to the back. i recognize this gentleman with a reddish tie. i keep hitting my microphone. i'm sorry. then we will come all the way to the front. >> thank you so much for giving me the opportunity.

dizzy from sinjar -- yazidi from sinjar. i will keep my question sure. we talk about the dark side of what's happened but the bright side of let's say i will talk about the disease specific we are thousand graduates from different schools, all these activists, media people within the minorities. my question, what should we do, i mean, as kind of a talk about myself. i'm confused what to do as a yazidi. like the help that emerges by the international, by the global force. so from your point of view, what should we do from inside to facilitate that help? >> that's an excellent question. what should be done of the inside? >> i tell him what to do all the time. >> i've given you my views by

really think it's important, one of the questions, local organizations, how can they play a role in this conflict. you have invaluable knowledge about your community that you can use contribute back. for yazidis batter here are of the minorities that are here in the u.s., to come back to kurdistan at you build your knowledge and expertise and a new way of thinking where you see equality, yes, we have problems in our democracy here, but when you see quality inaction and you can bring your bolstered scaled back. even in a few years when you're ready to go back, we'll still be dealing with the aftermath of us. one of the challenges for local organizations getting money is good will, good intentions. they have local knowledge but we've got to increase the skills, especially when we're talking about the psychosocial support delivery.

they are we really do have the opportunity to rethink the mice people. with the best of intentions. you need trained and skilled people. so what i would say to you and your colleagues is build your skills, get great job experience to open your mind and then come back, please come and contribu contribute. >> i would just add, i think that's a good example and other students who are yazidi also turkmen students who has helped me understand to a point that i thought was not possible. similarly, you all, and you all better here, and help better inform policymakers to inform the civil society community about what's going on on the ground. again, what people want is not

always going to happen. we had to figure what people want and what's realistic in terms of policy and the world order. but you can help inform us here just like in other places. >> i think we have time for one last question, and this woman in the front row has been very patient with me. and thank you for your question. >> thank you. i am the kurdistan regional government representative to the united states. i think would have been very noticeable in the discussion now which is very, very useful, very informative, and the previous panels, it seemed to everybody that fish of iraq began either in 2003 or in 2014. if we want to get to the root cause of these problems we have to think of all of iraq's history. iraq has never been a stable country.

it has been a country of coup d'état, bloody revolution powers, oppression against one group or another. every group and iraq have suffered at some point. it has become until recently, until this dialogue, it has become acceptable that iraq will be the theater for mass murder. we've had the killing of -- these were all under saddam hussein. we've had chemical bombardment. we had chemical bombardment today against the peshmerga. why does the international world accept that iraq should continue to be the theater for massacre? if you want to look at the future and if we want to fix these problems around ethnic and religious minorities, we need to really look at iraq properly from beginning to end. somebody mentioned

responsibility. been aware that originates from? again, a genocide in iraq. the principle of responsibly to protect originated there. we need to look at what iraq is like this. of course, the minorities need to be protected. we need to listen to them. we need to admit our mistakes, but we also need to admit the bigger mistakes. we need to look at iraq. what is iraq like this? to any of us, any iraqis, any of the truly feel safe in this country? >> a very important question. >> i mean, i think iraq has been through a lot as a state. actually my graduates work was in iraqi history, and i think a lot of nation-states in the middle east have had similar

track record, like countries in the west before. and i think that iraq can remain because i still see a lot of the iraqis sentiment and identity and nationalism and patriotism in places. but i think iraq will look very different i think iraq will be more local, more fragmented. vacuuming everything for the kurdistan region. i think that sometimes people exception lies iraq or kurdistan, and actually had similar issues in the past. kurdistan has had issues as well with wars within. i think that for this to be resolved, irbil and baghdad have to come to a solution. they have to come to agreement about revenue sharing, about the disputed territories, about politics. and i hope that can be together

because i think the future of kurdistan is through baghdad and whether it's independent or not. and so i think that their future and to pass our shared and future be shared even if they separate. >> we have run out of time, and i want to thank you for that thorough response to that because that was really an important question. and really the history of iraq a sort of the history of humanity, is it not? a cradle of civilization and the story we see repeated in many parts of the world over and long period of history. and the catholic church would often say the only empirically verifiable doctrine of the church is original sin, that tendency of humans to violence to one another. but i want to end on a more hopeful note. at the very beginning i talked about the faces of those i met just a few the faces of the many people i've met in the region. optimism and hope are not the

same thing. and i so hope in the eyes of every family i met with. they are still struggling for their children, for the future, for the land or whether they stay or whether they are ultimately make the judgment they need to leave, we should never underestimate what god's spirit can do to the human spirit. i think in this situation it was always reason for hope. let's thank our panel for very stimulating conversation. [applause] thank you very much. [inaudible conversations] >> ladies and gentlemen, if you are not seated, please take your seats. were going to get started now. i'm going to introduce to you the moderator of our final panel in which is entitled post-liberation, promises and challenges.

robert destro is professor of law and director and founder of the interdisciplinary program and law and religion at the catholic university of america. and he has a deep and long experience in the subject that we're going to talk about right now in our final panel. bob, take it away. >> okay. thank you for having me. and what i think i will start doing right here is i'm going to introduce the members of our panel. so let me pull up the biographies for a second and i will do that. sal on my right is tashfeen malik, nds from the ceiling justice and accountability center. and bassam ishak from the syriac national council of syria. saad salloum from the masarat

religious freedom organization, and pascale warda from the hammurabi human rights organization. and we welcome you to the panel. let me just say a few words to get started. my experience in this field in the last year, i spent most of last year working with our congress on adopting the house and senate genocide resolutions. i learned a lot about the politics, what i would call the domestic geopolitics of genocide. so what i would like to do during the panel here, because all of the members of the panel, like myself, have a human rights orientation. what i'd like to do is to get them to speak very specifically, because i mean, i have really

appreciated listening to what people have had to say this morning, but what i would really like to focus on is what we need to do between now and the end of the year, and between now and this time next year. because what i'm afraid of is about in less we get very specific about what each of us on this panel needs from each of you in this room, then where going to be here in another year talking a majestic generalities, and we can't afford to have that happen. if we start with the three major reasons for having genocide law, those three reasons are the protection of the communities, the prevention of genocide, and then the punishment of those who

have committed these crimes. so what i would like each member of the panel to do, and i know that you all have comments that you would like to make in terms of things that have been said before, so what i would like you to do is to get comments about what's been said before, slip them in the answer to the second question. i want to make sure you get a chance to address what other people have said. so let me start and it is going to go down the line, please take about five minutes for this so that we can get a conversation going on the panel. could you give me, i am a big, because i'm not really that organized, i like to make lists, you know, the to-do list. i can tell you that the to-do list in simply the forensic examination of the genocides that have happened, and that

only counts isis. that doesn't count all the genocides that happen before isis. okay, the investigation of the genocides will cost at least $100 million, okay? that's just the start, just the investigation. it's not the prosecution. so when i look at, when i say a wish list, i mean, what are they going to get the greatest registration. who are we going to get to do the registration? who are we going to get to do the dna? these other kinds, i want a very, very practical list. because of people like me who will have to go to congress and say here's what we need to, i have to be very specific. they don't want to hit the stores anymore. they know the bad stories, but they say, look, a member of congress can only do one thing.

and member of congress votes. what do you want them to vote on? you have to give him or her something that's very specific. so i'm going to turn to you and start with you and say give me your top three things on your wish list, and then pick one of them and tell me how are they going to get that accomplished in the next six months. >> thank you for having me. my name is mohammed al-abdallah pic of the want to list three top things regarding countering isis, a big difference between what's happening in than six happening in iraq there i was a first went to stop the sectarian fueling in the country. that includes governmental supplying, governments supplying surveillance them an immediate was playing bad roll on fueling the violence in both countries. i.e., mobilizing the sunnis in

general. you were the victim of that bad governance the minority dictators. or maliki. those people being repressed for political reasons enough for sectarian and religious reasons. and to clarify the point that cities and arabs are isis did not present cities and edge in the region. is a line from important speech about the genocide since the sunnis have been victims of isis as well. usually this one is wrong. nobody cares about this. try to save sunnis are telling us. this is place exactly, isis is trying to spread. you were sunnis, your victims. we are here to represent you and defense you. you of the victim again and i would listen. if you want to counter this message we have to tell the sunnis and recognize their victimhood as well. stop treating them as the

perpetrators of the cricket a second point is accountability and just a. accountability for the sick carrying fueling and the conflict, justice for the victims. without justice for the victims the communities will not be able to reconcile and move forward apple behind what happened and what isis did. to that point there is to jettison areas. and iraq there is the covenant, the central government. there is courts and jurisdiction of iraqi government can prosecute people, judiciary can prosecute perpetrators and put them behind bars which is not the case in saad. syria is when republican and that's one my next that goes hand-in-hand with the second point. can't establish a model of good governance in these areas after liberating them from isis. today in saad occurs forces come to liberate these towns. one of the practice of the kurdish forces aside from human

rights violations, there's a problem with who is occupying the town and discovering the town. those people are not working for this tells the they are from outside and inside the tension and violence with these accounts. lots of the other sunni tribes, the problems they came from and the city i came from, they are finding its isis because they have the sources. they don't like the courage to come down south to liberate event. they prefer to stay under isil security, not to be under the carte tyranny because there's mistrust between both and history of clashed in the region. without addressing these issues we will not give to to the isis, not able to bring a good model for cowardice and not be able to put, plants and seeds for accountability and redress for victims.

putting bad people incumbents kind of party that people with the militias, arming the wrong guys in turning a blind eye about the sickening violence they were trying to incite. there's one important cable came with wikileaks showing the embassy in iraq during president bush's administration, and president obama as well saying no rate i'll maliki is a horrible person. gives mobilizing the militia. he surpassing the sunnis very, very much and that's very dangerous. he's kicking them out over the institutions of the government and out of military and, of course, what isis comes to try to represent the grievances, they found support because these committees have been suppressed by the militias off malik and that's exactly what some colleagues in the previous panel sent isis was here, and will

come after this into the form. this commute doesn't to recognize, does it feel their in good governance. they will come back. >> so now i'm going to come back and say, but what specifically do we need to do between now and december to start to address that problem? >> i heard you describe the problem. i want you to give me one thing that you would suggest that we do to fix it. >> working with the people of each city in each down and each area, try to recognize their existence to their leadership, not to again marginalize this group in favor one stronger group who will help us do the dirty work of defeating them, but it's going to be terrible for our good work later. >> very good.

>> i represent the syriac national council of syria. i'm its president. as far as to moderate you to talk specific things because we just had yesterday a bombing in my city, and 50 civilians died. so i think we appreciate in the northeast of syria, you know, the syriac and specifically the syrian people, the efforts of the united states which help us liberate 34 villages from isis, and stop, put a stop to isis advancement on the capital of the province. and the u.s. has continued now and allies international allies to support us militarily against isis. but that is not enough for our communities, for our civilian

communities. for example, syriac residential area. in the last three months we have had five bombings that isis has taken credit for. and we've had 23 civilians died. there was the attempt on the life of the patriarch, and if it wasn't for the three policemen who belong to the local what we call -- which means in syriac language, saying in american language, defense or protection. they died to save the patriarch and 120 guests. and by the way, those three policemen who died, one of them was an arab from our region, you know. so our defense is not just all one group.

what we have had before his support for the fighting forces in what is now called by the u.s. what is now called the syria democratic forces, which we are grateful for military support against isis. but we need immediate support, for the police forces that are protecting the people, our communities, which we're trying very hard to onto them and convince them to stay in our land and not to leave. so i am sorry to be very practical and pragmatic and say we need assistance to our police as soon as possible. they need training and they need equipment and all that. and this assistance, it comes comfortable lift up the morale

of our people. and notches the syriac people but we care for all the kindred is -- communities. we need to lift up their morale and not feel that they are forgotten. and other important need that we need to have by the way is make humanitarian aid available to the region come in the northeast of syria. this is where the that krg could play a role in facilitating through the borders. because, you know, we cannot allow the humanitarian needs of the people behind jack by political differences, you know. i understand there could be political differences, people take position, they feel strongly about things but we should never let the people pay

the price for these political differences. this is another thing we need. another thing we really need is to empower congress to work on the culture. because the problem of everything we've heard is the local culture, whether it's in iraq or its in syria. so how to encourage these people to stay this way to encourage them to live together in a better way, another way to reconcile and get a deeper sense of community, or what we call in the west citizenship. just if you like this place belongs to all of us and we should live together. this is why the reason is, this is where the civil society in the west, u.s. and europe, could take a big role in helping

facilitate reconciliation among the ethnic groups in our region. but another -- can i do for instead of the? >> no the action i want to go back to the first one that actually i'm going to work on the first two. when you say you need security and support for the police forces, have you made a list of the things you need? if so, who have you shared it with? >> yes, i am not police expert or a military expert but i have access to the people who can provide me this tonight. >> no, no. this is exactly what we need, coming out of a meeting like this. we need to know not simply who to call but we need their list. we need to kno know how many anw many policemen are we talking about. because in the end some of the best, if we are waiting, i really appreciate ambassador

saperstein's comments about getting the international community involved. i think that's great but in the meantime, you still need of those people trained. the question is who's going to go over and do it? i can tell you from dealing with religious communities here in the united states, they will say to us, what do you want us to do? i have doctors who will say tell me where i need to go. i will go there. you know, and i will do whatever needs to be done, but just tell me where i need to go. we are going to have to do the same thing with policemen. when i say do we need a list, i'm serious. and when i say if you need humanitarian aid to what kind of humanitarian aid? what specific things does your community need? because by the time we all leave, if we don't have those lists are we a least another

place to put the list, six months from now nothing is going to happen. so that's why i'm kind of pressing each one of you to be really specific for me. >> okay. >> all right. >> thank you. we work a lot from 2004 until now, and then founder of counsel. first of all i want to miss the weakest in this panel our colleagues who represent the highest community in iraq, and -- if there's any question about this community, i'm ready to answer it. we hear a lot from our colleagues, especially from

member of parliament who was here, talks a lot about the mentality and the solution, how can we change the mentality? i am connected with a number of these because we work to change mentality. it's not just repatriation, territory, mentality. it's very important. we talked about losing trust horizontally and -- between the individual people, political system. i talk about political system in krg and the central government, and the governor of mosul. and between the community. we face this problem.

how can we build trust again? i think this question is disconnected. there was reconciliation. how we must think about the tools. i hear many details from the early morning about short tips, but it's not a matter of short tips. we must think about long-term investing times with the short terms. how can we be able to face that? i think we must see how can we change the mentality on top to bottom, and bottom to the top. what would a state and society at the same times? for example, drafting laws isn't very important for us. as they civil activist, if i

didn't have any tools to fight, i cannot survive, i will give up. so laws can change mentality. i can fight for decades but if i of law, again discrimination, law, hate speech. we saw hate speech everywhere in media, clergy, by political leaders. and this came blood, translated to blood, the bullets, bombs. so how can we face that? when we made law to change the mentality. drafting laws is very important. in the same time, we need to counsel many laws who are not from their city. for example, we are talking about the freedom of religion and belief, but until now in our system, legal system, we have

laws from the bad times, prevent -- belief. its constitution. why? the mentality of that political system, so we need to draft a law and at the same time cancels the discrimination again against iraqis. you can kill any person by bullets, and you can kill him with one word. when you call iraq a continuously. and arabic language it's usually when we talk about -- [speaking in native tongue] and arabic, the dictionary, it's the same meaning. so you kill them. if we have law, again we can

face discrimination. so that's what i think the first element laws. it's part of package. it's not just security reason. because many people not leaving the country because of danish. because of discrimination. -- daesh. this is their internal daesh, the culture on that. so we must work to face the resources to catch a. the second element, changing curricula. i'm teaching at university 10 years. and i really daily the with the aspects of the other. for example, 2007, one of my students went to the university of iraq, community in iraq that has big jewish community. one of my students asked me, she

surprised there are jewish community before, and then she transferred to horrible question. she said, iraqis jewish, or the sunni or shia? [laughter] we talked about university. we have curriculum called national education. one of the people who work in ministry of education who wrote this, he talks, he wrote about university at its wrong information. he considers it one of the religious minorities. i said, this is not true. he said i find this in mr. google. [laughter] so explained that. imagine that.

we have people who are working minister of education who didn't know about that. what about this? what about the other generation. new generation, the mentality arise in black and white. they did know anything about the other. so change in curriculum is the second album. i find it very important and we've worked for that for 10 years. we a plan, curriculum, expert. but international community, they didn't care about that. in 2005, we have special issue of magazine about yazidis. because we believe at the time -- discrimination led to genocide and that's what happened in sinjar. so from the beginning an international committee at the time tell us about how can we

make the election? talk about diversity. without diversity what is political solution of the election? if we lose diversity of yazidis, christians, leaving the country will be three parts, and is divided iraq. so keeping diversity is keeping iraqi united. one of my books called unity and diversity. sometimes it promoting federalism and the right. the third element, if i can talk -- >> one more and i want to come back. >> we can return back. i talk a lot because i'm one of the founders of security council. i am a particular member of the council. clergy as a part of the problem. but they are part of the solution. how can we make them part of the solution?

i will talk later about what the activity we're doing. it's amazing activity but no one has about that because media focusing on haters, our for instance, -- sorry. the fourth element -- >> weight. we were going to stop at three i think. >> the initiative, really i wanted you to ask me if how the young people save us, we want to talk about another image of a rack that you noted in the media, and there are many, many peacemakers and about the i work daily but nobody sees in because media see their own and the worst image of iraq. thank you. >> so what i hear from you is we have to change the laws. we have to change the curriculum.

we have to focus on some interfaith dialogue and then change the media image. i'm going to ask you for the specific question, is how soon can you get people together to give us a list and the text of the laws that you want to change? and which laws do you have somebody you can actually do that? if not, how can we get somebody to help you? >> of course, me and my colleagues and me activate in iraq work about driving off in 2009, or 2010. we have campaigned for that and after daesh everything changed. so we have a plan. with strategy. we are ready but we need somebody to help us to do that. for curriculum this thing. >> let me be specific to one of

the reasons i ask the question which laws other than going to go to next question. we have people here in the united states, people in europe who are fluent arabic speakers and who are lawyers, but they don't know how to find the laws. they don't know what the text is your they need the list of things to do. and so what we need from you if you want us to help you is we need, give us a list, give us the text of the laws and tell us what's wrong with them and then we would get somebody to translate them and then we can be partners. that like i said there are people who are volunteering right now and say look, i will do it but i don't know where to start. somebody locally us to do that work. >> thank you very much for this opportunity and thank you for all this time, a patient's, of

nice people who would like really to understand some things. i would like to come different important tied up in iraq there is no religious freedom. there is freedom of worship. no freedom of religion. what we understand of religious freedom here is completely out of existence in iraq. so anyone who is converted and officially muslims is a convert to any religion. this is the first thing. maybe two months ago i was in the minister of justice and i met the president who is a woman.

i told her, please, do you know what i'm organizing now? she said what? a campaign not only for christians and minorities who are targeted, but also for majorities. what's happening i say? not only the law, article 26, which is article 21, and they converted to be called, changing the title. they change it to say national the cult, nationality called, and they change many things. this article which is right to talk all the minorities and non-muslim minorities is to

islamize all those children of non-muslims when a father or a mother became muslim. so children are automatically, buyers children are automatically muslims. what you are doing now you are just destroying families. you know the context of the family in iraq is not like in other countries. when somebody is out of his values or his education, it's completely destroyed the family. so to see, i iraqi parliament has decided for 15 years we are really ashamed. and to see without the activity, with change and we didn't get any change the tone of. we change to saddam hussein but you get many saddam hussein after that.

also international and american family. we are in the situation. i always say why when president obama said there is redline, why didn't he say sinjar is redline. because only this period is the most peaceful era in iraq. because these people, they have no arms. they are armless. so it was impossible to see the redline to protect kurdistan. more than that, sinjar. just left in the hands of daesh. we get to complicate the work more than what was possible to do.

where we would like to arrive and what we would like you to do, like countries have had to do with our history because you are now partnership, we like or not, partnership in our country. first of all training and training and training. not only for police, for judicial come but also for politicians. we have a lake the leadership. i'm very sorry to say this, were our iraqi parliament members? nowhere. [applause] no one comes. do you know how many here in three days in iraqi parliament? know what of minorities represented, and see what we are speaking about. so here we have -- [shouting] >> we will give you a chance later, okay? spit i am sorry to you here and i'm proud of you. but it's important to say, it's

important to say that we have a leak of leadership. iraq as all history of everything you need, blessed leadership. we have no leadership currently. i very didn't sorry to say this because we are going to the roots of the problem. the roots of the problem are also those. when you have a government, we have a parliament, when you have come a people still in the streets asking and trying and dying without electricity. brother mohammad was asking this morning, do you want to divide iraq or -- now. we have a constitution where the federalism is a possibility. each region can be done in a province can be administration can be, can be federalism, can be.

so we have many ways to do but we haven't those people decide for us. we haven't any political decision. .. human rights situations and focus on minority here and also,

minority alliance, unfortunately for them to be the first. we are trying to make in documents all those violations, which are showing as we are going to corral and it's completely opposite. you're just doing the opposite. it isn't more and more violations, more and more possibility thinking about why in the middle of this we never lose the hope because we know we have a very strong people. we have a very strong history, a country with thousands of years

of just putting on a chapter of problems about any solution. no solution for any problems. so problems for iraqi politicians, they ask people to leave where they are. they live in violation. the region and regimes go out in a decide we are not ever to do it so they go out. in the last situation that was fair. i said okay, what are we doing? if you are not able to really carry this possibility of security for people, why are you staying? so when we see minorities, i am

one of those who has now since 1998 he had weaver the victims and now i have the hands of daish. we are trying to see solutions. but security solutions are not easy ones. we have to have real police. police are important for facilities. we were in need of diverse militias. but do we think iraq will be really continuing with the militia system is really a lack of understanding, a leg of a country like iraq that is vital for all middle east.

>> okay, so let me again be specific. you have talked about no responses. you talked about the need for training. he attacked about this specific need for changing the law with respect to freedom of worship, religious freedom. and now in the next round of discussions as i hear at least a month or two of you at the end of the panel that we have a nascent project on documenting the laws that need to be changed. in the process of doing that, and it has evolved that into the training. so the question is can you organize and after so i think the next go through. 15 minutes before we have to open up for questions from the audience.

i would like you to say look, you have people in the audience from the international community. what specifically do you want them to do? what do you want a to do? if i'm going to go to congress an advocate for you, what do you want me to ask for? i will go down the list of each of you and ask you to say what you want from the e.u.? what do you want from australia? what he wants from congress? >> i want you to let us do our job, not to her job on behalf of us. that is one of the things. i thought honestly you were joking about how to change the laws. it took to misha for years to draft a new constitution and that constitution took really deep thinking discussion. they along with the communities and everybody to the speculators in the parliament and each

article of the constitution. thank you that's good idea. that's what destroyed iraq. >> i want to make clear in saying what can we do to help you not write the laws. that is your job. >> i wanted to comment on mass. also i have problem with providing only policing without trying to provide support to some government structure or the overall rule of law mechanisms. there is no rule of law, no court except the police will end up being more violent. aside from it being militarized to go abroad and provide

security support to the police. peer the use of policing aspect of their work had said this recently, a very unfortunate accident happened in aleppo group beheaded a kid, allegedly a kid with fighting the government forces. the group is receiving support and one of the projects in northern outlet though. we don't want to see this again because there's not accountability and the law provides some linear supply security support but that's not happening. the sacking solution on people when president bush will go in and he said if you break it, you own it.

that is why it is owning iraq all over the time right now. the u.s. will deploy. it was building are rebuilding was building or rebuilding mistakes in iraq and trying to restructure cuban president obama took up office, he said this is an impossible mission. he gave the keys to nouri al-maliki and both ministers and sectarian behavior again. so of course the solution of transitional justice, the practices were implemented in iraq. the system from the bad guy and a human rights violators was bad. let's take everybody out including teachers, including military force who did not for the membership of the

international tribunal for iraq. i wanted to see him in a due process and a fair trial, not the jobs you have supported. thirdly and that's an important one. the politics in the region a lot more influence of iran and the region. this area and balance is very dangerous and never once saw this happening. when isis started coming to be on fire in sunni areas, it wasn't difficult to convince them we are here to represent you and defend you and you are being killed and secluded only because you are sunni. your comment on president obama said not all of it about the chemical weapons used in syria and that was sent followed through. back to the iraqi federalism.

i understand the iraqi constitution. my question was when i heard the representatives of minority communities discussing, you see people thursday for governments because they don't trust the other committees to govern them. they go to self-governance based only in fear from the others because there is no national force is. no national and that we trust that it's not really giving any ability to live and cutting their budget and try to besiege them ended up going back to the central government, which was a great example in the minority representative from the what type of governance, the structure of governance they wish to see. is a decentralized federalism? they then told the group basically that tierney of nouri

al-maliki and this government and things like that. one final comment if i may more related to syria. it is lamer complicated for the precise reason there is no one group taking over these areas. isis comes and freeze the opposition fighters and takes over some cities and towns. the government comes to fighting the free syrian army appears the kurdish afforded by u.s. and russia liberate them and violations in its towns and announce them in the liberated areas. they are not happy with any of those actors. not with the syrian -- not with opposition. they are not being confronted in this process here there is no process of reconciling those people with the people allegedly

liberating them. we will liberate in spite of you and if we don't represent you. that will bring only another isis. nothing in the model of extremists but could we a model of the silent reaction to the back governance model being sent in the region. >> thank you. this is a good reminder of the wisdom that all politics is local and that you have to start from the bottom to build these things out. mr. said three. >> that is exactly what we were forced to do in the northeast of syria. the regime basically that the area so the locals had security in their own hands. they were being attacked by

rating statements, threat letters to people, asking them to leave. even before that, we come into our region to take over and that started an accident that the christians in syria. so we had to take matters into our own hands. they took matters into their own hands. but they had a negotiation with other groups and started something called the democratic self administration and they had their own system and the social

contract together recognizes the language as an indigenous language. it recognized and 40% of all government positions. for ice -- the female child to fight with a passion fight with the passionate outsiders. >> i am talking about syria. not the kurdish forces who complain against the kurdish forces that can take it with the kurdish forces. i am talking about our situation. how we went about protect in ourselves and our threat. we engage in negotiation and let's join together inside.

we said we are eager to have the political model for the rest of syria. we don't like the bishara al-assad model. the opposition refuses to set, so let's do it ourselves. this is what we did. >> let me interject right now because we are going to run out of time. what specifically do we want from the international community? that is the question for this go around. >> they support as in developing and mature in our model like my colleague, mohamed. what about training for the forces and for the police and the human rights. >> do you think the international community knows enough about the model that you

develop. >> i was representing geneva a month ago and was representative of countries including the united states. they know about the model. do they know enough about the model to help you? >> we want more engagement developing this model. >> thinking about the division make a good the clergy as a part of their makeup. we didn't see any approach from the international community to

push, to collect clergy for the discourse. for example, if a clear question. it is the kind of interpretation of the land. so you can see your face. you can choose part of the books to support their crime. it was another part. it's a matter of interpretation. how can we support people and collect them to be clear to be against us. i'm not talking about the daish organization.

from there there is not in a statement against daish. >> i think that's not true. and france and elgin, the social accounts in social media are we then data truth, lots of people denounced a space. >> i need specific statement. >> we have the long negotiation

about 10 years of working. >> this is the debate. for example, we started in iraq with the christian muslim initiative in the beginning because this is true. so it needs many years to work. after sin job, because of that his cds. >> i can tell you here in washington want to work on the genocide resolutions. certain people in congress say why do we want to write one about christians.

but you can't leave out that his cds and all the others and especially can't leave out sunni and shia. is that part of the problem. what you have been to discussion with the religious minorities who need help and who do you bring together because unlike catholics, there is no hope in islam. there is not one person with senior scholars to if you could get them together to do some statements. steve galecki mentioned earlier that declaration was a good start, but certainly not where we stop. i have to move on and then i'll have to open up for questions. as soon as she's done and then i'll come back to you. why don't you go ahead.

>> i remember in the case of my colleagues here talked about, that when the isis attacked this. village. that day in istanbul the president of the national coalition and told him to make a statement about the isis attack. he said he will look at this and promised that there would be sent to you now. and indeed it was not about wisteria and villages. the isis attack on assyrian villages and instead talked

about kurds attack on arab divisions. things like this make you lose trust and how is a serious national coalition when he is taking sides in his avoiding to condemn what jesus is doing. how could be assured about what is coming. >> i'm running out of time. >> when turkey in the e.u. signs agreement that turkey would return searing refugees and basically prevent them to go to the e.u. the turkish forces would get over to the border.

they showed members of one family. two families were crossing the border. the turkish security border. the national coalition and i don't want to defend them issued a statement we demand an investigation for the turkish government and delay to the statement to the statement and the demand after one hour. just to make a point like isis because they are representative of islam. the islamic views -- [inaudible] >> my comment was i cannot >> we will talk afterwards about the mother models where this has

been done in equally difficult situation. >> they come to say all muslims have to start to mount in this or you're all responsible for it. sometimes -- i do not qualify myself as the muslim sunni and i'm a citizen. i don't think muslim sunni as one of my identities. i find it insulting to our intelligence. how many cops committed a crime in u.s. and the taliban african-americans. nobody asks all the u.s. forces to start denounced being every single attack and brutality of police forces. we are touching places to bring it to the discussion which is very dangerous. >> our discussion, which is very

complicated and meets those that are really implicated and fabricated at this issue. they can really look today at best. i would like to ask how the civil society, more help for civil society. do you know if there were no civil society, if there were no church where people were dying from their existence. any help of any government or any local government in the very beginning of that. >> what is your shopping list? >> i mean all organizations. human rights, social activists, church, who are presenting a service to people, who are there

to document and give information about what is happening, who are just dedicating their lives without any -- for free -- we are work and in no way to say we hope. i think it didn't exist in itself. politicians in parliament and other, they have no place in their ideas to civil society. do you know and never parliament everywhere? they have to watch what is happening. we have no right to do this, even if we are going to ask for the subject, but very, very big problems and my organization is one of the organizations to

parliament. but it's always not easy to get in for doing what we are suppose to do. >> what particularly do you want the international community to do? when you say support for civil society groups, like for example what? >> materially they need to exist, to stay on if we were not helped by our partnership and other organizations from different countries. we have talked when there were people isolated, and they were in little villages. big gatherings in big shelters. so we were -- those who go to people, even if our work was

obliged to do humanitarian relief because they are completely on the street. to continue to do this, and cases government has no idea what is happening. so wherefrom we can get help and they go to all the names of people. >> okay, we now are in our time for questions and answers. we are going to wrap up about out 5:15. we've asked to give your name and keep statement at a minimum kid we have one person i know who wanted to his feet early on. why don't you go ahead and ask a

question. i would like your name and the group you're affiliated with. >> first of all, thank you. my name is hightailed from the embassy of iraq, secretary bair. first of all, i would like to say were all iraqis and would like to help our people in iraq no matter how we are different religions or whatever. thank you for this holdsa, for holding that event. i just want to make clear for my sister here that we are here to hear you. we are happy to have the government, the ministries, apolitical people.

what would help to help our people. >> i understand you just promised to take the last. what we need to do is have a deadline for when everything has to be done. if we look at things done in the next six months to a year, then we will have to have some clear target. please go ahead. it's a question back here. >> thank you. [speaking in native tongue]

>> the first thing are holding out five. [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] >> of course they have no minority. research for justice or injustice in the country. [speaking in native tongue]

>> 1991 in the regime and from 2003 until now in central government experience. [speaking in native tongue] >> i ask a question but the international authority of the future region. [speaking in native tongue]

>> shea talks about the possibility of the u.n. and the russia community in general production minorities. the community -- [speaking in native tongue] >> she talks about the history of genocide and we come from

majority. [speaking in native tongue] >> or comment you made i was at a meeting a couple years ago by which the person sitting next to me was from the largest mosque and state or city. he said don't you have the statement if you break it, you bought it.

the fact of the matter is yes we are responsible. the rest of the international community as i was dividing up iraq. and so, there's plenty of responsibility to go around we spend all of our time with those responsible and never get to the task at hand, which is how we felt with specific problems. >> i said what she would like. in this situation were iraqis, officially minorities, the fact we are taking today is nomar after all that distressing streisand, after all of that you would not tell minorities you can forget.

they said we will protect you. don't worry. they were at last people. so we have two think about the security tools. so if americans can do something for the center, it's number one. and where we were without the difference to feel without protection on our borders. the place of governing.

but we are now. sorry. the problem is i think she is posing -- i oppose all so generally today be clear that iraq, syria also has made some differently than syria. iraq right now is possible to american possibilities and they would play a role on how debilitating the truth. the problem is not only in the international bubbles. in the iraqi level i am telling you the iraqi government is not something in one of their meetings.

people would like to help, but they don't know what to do. they don't have this interlocutor. americans are on the ground. they can put a strategy for that security, which is i am eight, police. >> from 2032 mac 2010. premier taxpayers money and rebuilding the iraqi national forces ended up on their wake with way. i completely agree with you.

we need to be realistic by father was a policeman. if you are going to train the police in just one town, it's going to take you years to do this. my father would only say it is the most dangerous thing in the world if we get a 20-year-old man or woman a gun and a badge and then gave them the authority without training them. that is the practical problem we are dealing with. you are going to have to build this from the ground up. it cannot be done now. it's got to be done from the ground up. we had a question back here. yes, you write here, please invent a question over here. >> my name is eric ashcroft from the american association for the

advancement of science is geospatial technologies project. this is a quick question. and the work you are doing and you anticipate doing, are there any uses of new and emerging technology you would like to use the uart doing yet? do you have any technology made that we could help you with? >> yes. go ahead and answer the question. >> in theory we develop a database customized for a need. there is an international humanitarian law and we've been getting lots of support to develop software is to process the ds and analyze videos about having to watch the videos basically. we have almost 600,000 videos and this is one collection. the software from carnegie mellon university you can upload the result and go to the photo

and that the software and the next morning it was sort of the videos. you can search by analysis. we been doing quite a bit of good work and technology because one of the main themes of the conflict of syria is the big data to the conflict and everybody is documenting while conflict is going on and there's something we have to adapt. we started with a higher number of i.t. people in our team. >> yes, go ahead. >> of course we need your support. for example, -- for example, we have many initiatives in iraq and they are doing amazing activities and nobody cares about them. they usually use social media

there are peacemaker, but they need to market their activity. i told you one example. many reasons. they are taking property of christians in bag dad. i don't receive any -- anything from the political leaders. so the main initiatives but the congo. the idea of this initiative that they will not celebrate

christmas, muslim will, to. so we have hundred of young people doing not. nobody controlled them. it is like from the bottom to the top. imagine 3 million or 4 million muslims celebrate christmas in iraq. there is no country in the middle east doing that. did you see this in the report or the media? no. if we have social media -- >> please stop up afterwards to talk about because at least in this country, it is not knowable unless you can find it on a map

somewhere. and so, we need to be plotting things on the map. we need to know where the atrocities i've come in the churches are the christmas celebrations are. the short answer to your question is yes cute. you had a question over here. >> i am representing myself like i said earlier. i am just kind of curious we are here for the religious freedom project. earlier today there was a statement made. there will be no boot on the ground. there will be no air attacks or anything. if i could do one thing, what could i argue on your behalf? it's a little confusing because we have gone through a whole day of so many different topics very large. if they go back to the topic of religious freedom which is what i think the questions today were

supposed to target, not policy is exactly an doubt that the religion or the abuse of minorities, isn't the main topic right here that none of these governments are going to be able to come in to exist as a divisive, bottom line. while they are sitting there and it's so heartbreaking for me as an american juice the people who really are trying to decide how will we build our government? how will we give everyone equal rights at the end of the day that doesn't matter right now because they are under threat. those guys that are existing, how can you even plan something like this? there's already young governments in the beginning. >> i just want you to ask the question. >> my question is do you not believe that the real problem right now is getting rid of isis

and in getting rid of done that governments that are kind of working by getting supported from the united states to get rid of isis are also attacking minorities? do we have to recognize that? >> okay, let me go down the panel imac. >> i don't think the big album is defeating isis. after we defeat isis, we have to position to people or worse people in a vacuum which is filled by another isis regard this as name of the extremism. that is why planting some good governance is essential. we cannot let these areas in a vacuum. otherwise what happened before isis emerged, they caught lots of the cities and towns. they kicked them out in this place is. we need schools.

we need education. we need disputes. i am a lawyer that somebody created to become a judge and five days training. they start appointing judges in the father-son thing was nothing related. you say the former soldier. do you have a witness? it was sent as a victim's >> with the help of the saudi groups to defeat al qaeda. that is boring.

these communities feel they are in balance in a good governance. >> we have five minutes left. let me get the other numbers. you each have basically two minutes. >> i would like to comment on her question. i think daish is our problem. this is nice here and now. i already publish our vision, what we have to do, bird strain and as we are speaking highly about reconciliation. but all of this is not efficient if there is no effect in the ground.

we need authorities who come with decisions where they would be back after daish. we have to provide everything for them. we need humanitarian relief. when they are back to their areas. so it is not an issue. they are destroyed. >> thank you. >> somebody earlier spoke about how. i want to be more specific. we need more efficient. how do we empower our people? how do we convince them to stay as we have to come up with a

vision? in our case, i can only see to the series situation the opposition has said enabled to come up with a vision. what we need urgently as the dialogue and many in the opposition are reluctant to go to the dialogue. they are ready to do high negotiation commission and get ready to get power. >> i've spoken to leaders of inside and outside of syria. where would you have such a dialogue? >> you're absolutely right. it has to take place. attacks from geneva, my is the guys with the guns. by definition they don't have

division. >> the dialogue would have been with the government or whom? >> we did have a chance one time in 2012, in july 2012. i think what we learned from god as they cannot go right away to an open conference for all opposition. it is to facilitate the groups dialog, groups who has the biggest differences. i've been in workshops where they have had groups like this and you think they have nothing in common. some who are islamists, others who are secular and they would come up with their vision.

you need to facilitate it. you need experience people who are facilitating this year in dialogue and the dialogue should not have an outside influence. >> if you are of course to answer this question, talk a lot about minority rights, collective right, that there is one word very important to ask. the citizenship talks about building these constitutions, establishing political regimes, but we've rebuilt positions. hope for us is senators. it's a way of my life. without that we give out. the view you are talking about is the model of citizenship

50s. and iraq and the closer thinking about that. we are on the ground. we are peacemaker. we are fighting. we will not give up, but we must have a view and the view is not minority rights citizenship. >> thank you very much for your participation. if everyone could stay seated for a moment you will have a brief closing comment. we will have tens debate and i think we've unearthed a lot of issues at hand and have a clear picture of the challenges ahead. the issues that we discussed today are fraud, but i also think we have a window of opportunity. these opportunities don't come

often and they don't last very long. we need to think about what we can do. we need to act. we need to find ways to have the policies in place to bring the resources online, to assist communities we've heard so much about today. the united states is committed to do this. we are committed to friends and allies in this regard, but we need a common plan. if we fail to take advantage of the opportunity, diversity will lose. that is something all of us are committed to fighting against. these discussions will help them find the conversations we have tomorrow at the state department with the different delegations from 25 countries. i want to thank everyone's participation. i like to thank the religious freedom program for helping make this possible. tom has a few closing comments. >> well, some of you have been here since we opened the doors this morning.

it has been a wonderful conference. thank you to this panel. we do the religious freedom project or five of these per semester. this is our sixth year. i think i am correct in saying this is not the best. pretty close to the best simply because of the quality of the presentations and the community of interests. it doesn't mean agreement. religious freedom said john orkney murray who was quoted earlier today creates intelligibly and conflict within the canopy of civil discourse. that is what we've heard today. if you are not on our list of the religious freedom, please check us out at religious freedom institute.org. thank you for coming and goodbye.

[inaudible conversations] >> if we just let that places of innovation, financial innovation, we can see that a one meter rise are likely to be highly exact to.

the thing to note here is that this one meter rise, the projection for what it is likely to occur was closer and closer by each scientific study arises. now we are worried it may happen within 30 to 40 years or the life of a mortgage. if you're in new york, you might think that doesn't look terrible. the more people from new jersey. they cannot cross a bridge. if you are google, you should be asking yourself why you are building your headquarters were in 30 years that will be flooded. if you're a facebook on me should be asking yourself why you are investing and locating your offices here.

>> next a forum on combating isis good representatives of religious non-governmental organizations working to help refugees in iraq in the area were among the panelists in a discussion on helping religious minorities persecuted by the islamic state. >> ladies and gentlemen, i am honored to introduce to you the man who hatched the american effort to advance international religious freedom, ambassador at-large, david satter strain. the 4% civil decidedly important position which was created by

the freedom act of 1998 or as we refer to it as the earth for. it requires the government of the united states to advance religious freedom and its foreign policy. the ambassador and his office at the state department or the executive agent about a. the buck as we say stops with them. the ambassador for religious freedom is confirmed by the senate. he is the official charge of carrying out u.s. policy, the one who travels the world representing the united states, its government and its people to defend those persecuted for their religious beliefs and to advance the institutions and habits of religious freedom. ..

largest segment of american jewry. a rabbi and an attorney, for 35 years rabbi saperstein taught seminars and first amendment, church and state law and in jewish law here at georgetown university law school, law center. in 1999, david saperstein was elected by his peers as the first year of the u.s. commission on international religious freedom, a separate and independent body also created, charts among other things with producing policy recommendations on this issue for the president and the congress and the department of state.

when david became the first chair of the commission back in i guess 1998 or 99 is when i met him. i quickly came to have a deep respect and affection for this man. he is savvy, persuasive, courageous. most importantly, he is a man of his word. as ambassador he is adopted an aggressive travel schedule to visit the dems of persecution. to urge governments to stop persecution and advance religious freedom. and to give hope to the persecutors. david saperstein played an instrumental role in ensuring that the united states government made the correct decision and declared what is happening in iraq and syria as genocide. i was proud to support him in the position he now serves with such distinction, and i'm proud

to call him friend. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the u.s. ambassador for international religious freedom, the honorable david saperstein. [applause] >> it's an honor to hold this position, tom, and it's an honor to be a to address this distinguished group of leaders. i will say in the entire work since i've been part of it from the beginning, the three constants in all of my work have been tom farr, frank wolf and chris smith, two of whom who are here today and they are both great heroes in the cost for religious freedom. so thank you for what you do. and i want to thank the religious freedom project at the berkeley center for cosponsoring this meeting today and part of our ongoing a productive partnership with you, tom, and