Supporters of a law on minority rights in Iraq are working to finalize a draft with the hope that the next parliament will act on it, following legislative elections scheduled for April 30. Given the narrow demographic space religious and ethnic minorities occupy, they are subject to marginalization and subsequently ignored within their societies. This is particularly true within societies, such as Iraq's, composed of large groups involved in sectarian conflict. The rights of minorities often are lost amid the clamor of the larger groups’ demands.

Iraqi society is tribal in nature and shaped by sectarian divisions. Some tribes are divided on the basis of sect, as is the case of the Shammar, Tayy, Banu Tamim, al-Jabbour, Zubaid, Khafaja and Khazraj. Since the first Iraqi military coup in 1958, the ruling regimes, aided by events, worked to strengthen this structure to use it politically to consolidate power. The current authorities are also trying to use this structure in the ongoing sectarian conflict by forming alliances with Shiite parties against other Shiite groups in Shiite areas and with Sunni groups against their rivals in Sunni areas.

The tribal and sectarian structures offer needed protection for those within them in their conflicts with rival groups. In addition, the large Iraqi groups — the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds — take part in governance and have significant shares in the general political regime and economic system. This gives them the ability to preserve their interests and promote their sectarian and national agendas. In addition, they have a chance to be socially prominent and to culturally express themselves in the public arena.

Minorities, however, have less protection because they are outside the tribal structures — as is the case for Baha’is, Christians and Turkmen — or are too small as a group to be effective on their own behalf. Their political presence amounts to only a small number of MPs representing them. Also, their religious and cultural freedoms are sometimes limited to the confines of their homes and houses of worship, without the freedom of public expression.