Genocide Studies

من المرجح أن يواجه الأطفال الذين ولدوا للناجيات الإيزيديات عبر اغتصاب الإبادة الاجتماعية خلال أسرهن لدى تنظيم الدولة الإسلامية، مستقب ًلا سيكتشفون خلاله حقائق قاسية بشأن الظروف المأساوية التي أحاطت بمجيئهم إلى هذا العالم. وفي ظل الصدمة التي لا تزال أمهاتهن تعانيها، يخضع العديد منهم لإرث الإبادة الجماعية. أحد تجليات ذلك، مأزق التوثيق المدني لأوراقهم الثبوتية، إذ أنهم محاصرون ما بين مخاطر انعدام الجنسية وبين إمكانية الحصول على جنسية من شأنها أن تؤدي لوصمهم بشكل خطير؛ نتيجة ربط هؤلاء الأطفال بآبائهم مقترفي الجرائم. وآخذًا في الاعتبار حقوق الإنسان والمصالح الفُضلى لهؤلاء الأطفال؛ فإن هذا المقال يستعرض الأبعاد القانونية والدينية والاجتماعية، التي من شأنها تعقيد قدرتهم على الحصول على حقهم في الجنسية، كما يتعقب المقال تطور الخطاب المجتمعي حول هذه القضية. الحجة الرئيسية التي يقدمها المقال أنه في ظل الظروف المأساوية الاستثنائية، ربما يغدو الحصول على جنسية موصومة معضلة لا تختلف عن المحنة التي يواجهها الذين ظلوا عديمي الجنسية. وبالرغم من بعض الحلول "المبتكرة" غير الرسمية التي ظهرت في مستهل الأزمة للمشكلات التي أخفقت القوانين في حلها؛ فإن المقال يخلُص إلى ضرورة إحالة الأمر إلى المجتمع الدولي، ليعمل على سد الفجوة في الحماية المتاحة لهؤلاء الأطفال.

The Kurdish-inhabited lands of the Middle East—spanning territories in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey as well as the Caucasus—have hosted a complex ethno-religious mosaic of civilizations since ancient times. The region’s fertile soils bear witness to centuries of social cohesion and intercommunal harmony, punctuated by persecution, war, genocide, and atrocity committed against its peoples by internal and external historical agents. In the modern era, genocidal strategies have been employed against ethnic Kurds as well as Armenians, Assyrians, and Ezidis,1 among other groups, as part of the rise of nationalism and nation-states within a larger global context characterized by regional competition and Russian, European, and North American imperial interests. At times, Kurds have found themselves caught up in genocidal processes as perpetrators, bystanders, and rescuers, as was the case with the Ottoman Empire’s genocide against its Christian (and Ezidi) populations during and after World War I. At other times, and more frequently, Kurds have found themselves targeted by genocidal violence, to the extent that they have been referred as “a nation of genocides.”2 The enduring trauma of genocide and of the historical processes of erasure, as well as the trauma associated with the unfinished project of creating a sovereign homeland in which Kurds can find protection, is palpable to anyone who visits the region.

Children born to Yezidi survivors of genocidal rape during Islamic State (ISIS) captivity are likely to face a future interspersed with difficult realisations about the tragic circumstances of their coming into this world. In the shadow of the trauma endured by their mothers, many are subject to the legacy of genocide. One such manifestation is their civil documentation predicament, as they are trapped between the risks of statelessness and the possibility of acquiring a dangerously stigmatised nationality that associates the children with their perpetrator fathers. Considering the human rights and best interests of such children, this article unpacks the legal, religious and social dimensions that complicate their ability to access the right to a nationality, and traces the evolving community discourse on the issue. The central claim is that in exceptionally tragic circumstances, accessing a stigmatised form of nationality may be just as problematic as the plight of remaining stateless. Despite some initial 'creative' informal solutions to the problems the laws have failed to solve, the article concludes by turning to the international community to fill the gap in protection available to these children.