We, the undersigned Assyrians who are part of the indigenous and constitutive peoples of Iraq, representing a total of over 3 million persons living mostly in Iraq, the United States, Europe and Australia,

noting that in 1932, when the predecessor of the United Nations carved Iraq out of the remains of the Ottoman Empire, Iraq incurred permanently binding international minority protection obligations (.../a3a.htm#obligations) which cover not only such specific human rights as freedom of practicing the Assyrian's Christian beliefs, language privileges and preferential employment stipulations (.../CERES.htm#guarantees) but, most importantly, the obligation of the Iraqi State to respect the land ownership and other private property as it existed prior to Iraq's independence (.../a3a.htm#protected rights)(**);

noting that for Iraq's Assyrians, too, religion and language are so intertwined that to suppress either one will effectively mean the destruction of the Assyrian identity;

noting also that the International Court of Justice, in 1950, unequivocally stated (.../a3a.htm#367/Add.1):

   "These obligations represent the very essence of the sacred trust of civilization.  Their raison d'être and original object remain.  Since their fulfilment do not depend on the existence of the League of Nations, they could not be brought to an end merely because this supervisory organ [i.e. the Council of the League of Nations] ceased to exist.  Nor could the right of the population to have the Territory administered in accordance with these rules depend thereon." (ICJ Reports, 1950, p.133); and

take note of the political and military leadership of the Governments of the United States, Great Britain and Australia which is intended to bring about overdue changes in all of Iraq, i.e. this leadership provides for duly representative national and local governments headed by credible leaders to enforce the humanitarian and security-related UN Security Council resolutions 688 and 1441, and it opens the way to finally fulfill the all-too-long neglected international minority and property rights conditions which the international community had enshrined into Iraq's basic laws;

invite the Member States of the UN General Assembly to see to it
-    that the UN's economic sanctions are promptly lifted,
-    that the Iraqi people may enjoy their own sovereignty rights and resources, i.e. without inappropriate UN burdens and in line with the UN Report of April 1992 (.../UN92.htm), and
-    that, in accordance with its own Resolution 24 (I) of 12 February 1946 (.../UNGA.htm#1946), the UN Trusteeship Council, or another suitable UN body, be charged with the exercise of functions or powers entrusted to the League of Nations by virtue of the Declaration of the Kingdom of Iraq of 30 May 1932 (.../a3a.htm#DECLARATION);

request in particular the authorities of Switzerland and of other art markets to take such legislative and administrative measure which they deem proper and effective in order to promote the return of looted archeological treasures to their rightful owners; and

invite the representatives of the Arab, Kurdish, Turkomen and other constitutive parts of Iraq's multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-language society to jointly explore suitable avenues for contributing to the regional stability as well as to the internal and external security, e.g. by creating a Truth Commission for examining and overcoming the effects of Iraq's recent past.

NOTES
(*)    Assyria is not to be confounded with Syria, even though the Assyrian Empire of some 4000 years ago did indeed embrace all of what is now modern Syria - and much more.  Assyria was destroyed as a political system in 612 BC but not as a nation, not as a race and not as a language.  However, there are definite and continuous traces of Assyrians throughout history since 612 BC.  They were among the first to embrace Christianity in the first century AD, and as a consequence they have suffered persecution and massacres.  During the First World War they were invited by Great Britain as an ally, helped win a decisive battle against the Ottoman Empire and were caused to lose two thirds of their population in that war.  In articles 38ss of the Lausanne Treaty of 24 July 1923 (.../Lausanne.htm), "non-Muslims" such as the Assyrians were given special protection by way of special Turkish "obligations of international concern".  The British had promised the Assyrians independence, autonomy and a home for all Assyrians.  Instead the British mandate in Iraq was terminated and the Assyrians were released to the Iraqi Government, covered by the international minority protection guarantees written into the Declaration of the Kingdom of Iraq of 30 May 1932.  Since then Iraq has failed to comply with most articles of its still binding 1932 Declaration (see also: E/CN.4/1995/NGO/52).  In particular, Iraq has violated article 14 (covering land ownership rights), and it ignored special rights and privileges that were accorded to the inhabitants of the Mosul Vilayet which, in 1925, were placed under the conditional and limited authority of the Kingdom of Iraq.

(**)    Some of these rights and special privileges concern in particular the Northern part of Iraq, called the Mosul Vilayet which was conditionally attached to the Kingdom of Iraq in 1925 (.../UNGA.htm). Iraq thus incurred international obligations which it could not alter unilaterally, and from which it could be relieved only by the League of Nations or, in the event, by the United Nations acting as the League's succesor in accordance with UN General Assembly resolution 24 (I) of 12 February 1946.
 

Assyrian Universal Alliance Assyrian National Organization Assyrian Liberation Party (GFA) Shuraya Party Assyrian Democratic Party Bethnahrin Freedom Party Patriotic Union of Bethnahrin Assyrian Liberation Movement Assyrian Patriotic Party Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Union Dutch Union of Christians of the Middle East Syriac Assyrian Federation Syriac League of Lebanon

Babylon - Institute for Assyrian Kultur - Eu Atour Assyrian Association of Armenia Assyrian Federation of Russia Assyrian Australian National Federation Assyrian American National Federation Dutch Assyrian Society Assyrian Youth Federation of Middle Europe Assyrian Youth Ferderation of Sweden Free Women of Bethnahrin (HNHB) Svenska Kommitten for Assyrier (SKA) Assyrian-Syriac Union - Germany (UASD) International Assyrian Congress of Georgia CaldoAshor Organization Communist Party of Iraq