Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, I've looked at that issue. I was one of the examiners on a doctoral dissertation that was examining precisely that, and whether the humanitarian assistance being provided to the Yazidis in Iraqi Kurdistan was culturally appropriate to their specific circumstances and backgro

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  My pleasure, and good luck with all your work.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  That would depend on where. I'm not as familiar with the situation in Jordan. I know some of the minorities would quite likely feel threatened in some of the camps in southern Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. In the Kurdistan region of Iraq, as well as Rojava, I've not come across an

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Sure.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think they have thought about it. Actually, I should rephrase that a bit. They cannot agree on anything, so it's almost as if they haven't thought about it, because no plan has materialized with regard to how to really govern these areas as they're liberated from Daesh. Even w

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Absolutely. The three areas that are most overwhelmed by refugees and IDPs are the Kurdistan region, Jordan, and Lebanon. In Lebanon, probably the only thing that's prevented this from bringing Lebanon back into civil war is the fact that the Lebanese still have so many memorie

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. There's a group in Iraq that's alternately referred to as Ahl-e-Haqq or Kaka'i. I'm not sure if you've included them.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There's been a resurgence of Zoroastrianism. I have no idea how big that really is, but there is that. Then, even within the Christian communities, of course, you have those who consider themselves Assyrian, and others who consider themselves Chaldean, and so forth. So there's

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think the currency of Daesh is significantly weakened when the territory it controls is being taken back, with the uprooting of mass graves and displaced communities coming back. I think in this case the military isn't completely divorced from the ideology. The story of Daesh c

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  They could get worse if they don't come up with methods of adequate governance for areas liberated from ISIS in both Syria and Iraq. They could get better, however, if the government is okay and Baghdad's rule in the Sunni areas isn't too oppressive, and if the Kurdistan region d

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Conditions in the camps are not great. They want to work. They want to earn money to support their family and send their kids to school.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I guess every group that controls territory in Syria needs to be brought to the table without preconditions, and that's a hell of a task, because, for instance, Turkey won't allow the groups it supports to let the Kurdish groups, the second-largest controllers of territory in Syr

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Islam is a contested, multi-faceted field just as Christianity, Judaism, and other religions are. The Baathists were secular, but at the same time, they also incorporated Islam into the legitimation of the regime. It is a bit ironic for the Assad regime, which is Alawite, to inco

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think the Syrian regime has decided that it's not in its interest to allow humanitarian corridors, because it's been pursuing a strategy of starving its opposition and laying siege to them. If that remains the case, I think they're going to be impossible to establish and mainta

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We could look at the example of the civil war in Bosnia. When the Dayton accords were being drawn up, whoever controlled whatever territory they were in pretty much kept it. This unduly rewarded Bosnian forces, which had conquered a fair bit, but no one saw another way out of thi