BAGHDAD — A recently convened UN committee addressed discrimination against many minorities in many countries, including Iraqis of African descent. Its conclusions shed light on the marginalization of this almost forgotten minority — forgotten especially years after the 2013 assassination of one of its main leaders, Jalal Diab, in Basra.

Diab had posters of Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama on the walls of his school dedicated to teaching poor African-Iraqis in the slums of the Az Zubayr area of Basra. The two pictures showed an unexpected awakening of identity in the areas of the oil-rich Basra province where this minority lives. And this same province has witnessed popular protests in recent years.

Inspired by Diab, and subsequently his death, this group raised its voice in protest, seeking an end to discrimination and to gain the rights afforded to all other minorities. 

Thus, the observations of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) can be considered the victory of Diab, who spent his life fighting for these rights and was known as the “Martin Luther King Jr. of Iraq."