Christian scholar to head Kurdistan Region's human rights board

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdistan Region's parliament on Tuesday voted a Christian lawyer as head of the Independent Human Rights Board.

Muna Youkhanna, 50, was chosen out of 11 candidates and received 71 votes from MPs.

In an interview with Rudaw on Tuesday, Youkhanna said she has published 33 books and research papers on human rights, and has been teaching law for more than 20 years at Erbil’s Salahaddin University.

The current head of the human rights board, Ziya Petros, is also a Christian.

While the population is predominately Sunni Muslim, Christians are spread throughout Kurdistan Region. Almost 138,000 Christians were displaced to the Kurdistan Region when the Islamic State (ISIS) took over swathes of Iraq in 2014.

In late April, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani told Vatican ambassador Mitja Leskovar the rights of Christians will be protected in the Region’s constitution, as “Christians are integral part of the Kurdistan Region and play a significant role in serving, building, developing and fostering a culture of coexistence in the Kurdistan Region.”

The Kurdistan Region hosts many Iraqi Christians who fled their homes when ISIS took control of Mosul and the Nineveh Plains in the summer of 2014. Many more have left Iraq altogether, with the number of Christians in Iraq currently estimated at 300,000, down from 1.5 million before 2003, according to Erbil's Chaldean Archbishop Warda.

Ano Jawhar Abdulmasih Abdoka was sworn in as the Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) Transportation and Communications in 2019, using a bible that was burned by ISIS militants in the Nineveh Plains, wanting to demonstrate that Christians will remain an essential part of the Kurdistan Region.

A Christian MP criticised  Youkhanna’s appointment, citing her alleged involvement in a protest over the Assyrian village of Nahla, where residents claim their land is being subject to land-grabbing attempts. 

Farid Yaqub Eliya, a Christian MP from al-Rafidain party, voiced his discontent, saying it “doesn’t suit the principles of democracy and coexistence.”