During 1987 and 1988, the Iraqi state carried out airstrikes and chemical bombardments in eight stages in different Kurdish regions of Iraq, including the city of Halabja as a part of an operation called Anfal . The operations were committed by the Ba'ath regime institutions, in particular the secret police, the intelligence, the Jiang Hanen, the Amn Al’am, and others. The Anfal genocide indicates the Ba'athis’s intentional end to destroy Kurdish villagers and their farms, and in fact to destroy and eradicate the Kurdish population, as a result of which almost 182,000 people were killed. These attacks, aimed at destroying the Kurdish ethnic group in Iraq, are a clear indication of genocide. Therefore, the present paper will address the mechanisms of transitional justice in the genocide in Iraqi Kurdistan. In this respect, the paper will try to answer this question that in view of the international responsibility of the Iraqi state, what would be the proper mechanisms for achieving peace, reconciliation and healing of the victims’ sufferings of the crimes committed in Kurdistan? The main argument is that the issue of dealing with serious and organized human rights violations against the Kurds in the Iraqi transitional society is not a simple issue that can be resolved only through one mechanism. Therefore, transitional justice in the Iraq genocide requires multiple mechanisms. A Comprehensive approach and flexible cooperation of all mechanisms is a promising version of legal pluralism which is essential for the rule of law; as the experience of transitional justice programs show that a unified approach to transitional justice is not only dissatisfactory but also rather not self-sustaining for the establishment of justice.
