1. Scope and purpose
These standards apply to CCTIDTO website copy, research summaries, articles, visual material and related public communications. They are intended to support the Centre's charitable educational purpose, public benefit, responsible research and ethical counterterrorism innovation.
2. Authorship, originality and status
Material should identify its author, date, version and publication status. A completed manuscript must not be described as published, approved, independently reviewed or peer reviewed unless that process has actually occurred. The founding research topics and five-part article series should retain their stated attribution to the Founding Director.
3. Accuracy, sources and interpretation
Dates, names, quotations, statistics, translations, transliterations, captions and legal or historical claims should be checked against credible sources. Established fact, survivor or witness testimony, allegation, analysis and opinion should be clearly distinguished. Genuine uncertainty, material disagreement and the limits of available evidence should be stated.
4. Yazidi cultural and religious care
CCTIDTO does not claim to define Yazidi belief or identity, speak for all Yazidis, or treat survivor experiences as uniform. Yazidi religion and culture should be approached as a complex living tradition, with care for oral tradition, terminology, transliteration and diversity within and across communities. Appropriate Yazidi-informed review is required before the full founding articles are publicly released.
5. Islam, Muslims and terrorist organisations
References to ISIS or ISIL, its propaganda or its claimed religious justifications refer to that terrorist organisation, its ideology and conduct. They do not describe or represent Islam or Muslims. The name “Islamic State”, where historically necessary, identifies the organisation's self-adopted name and does not validate its religious claims. Language should avoid collective blame, stereotyping, vilification or unnecessary religious identification.
6. Survivor dignity and trauma-informed practice
Testimony and imagery concerning genocide, enslavement, sexual violence, death, displacement and armed conflict must be handled with dignity, appropriate consent, privacy, safety and respect for agency. Material should not sensationalise suffering, reduce a person to victimhood, glorify conflict or expose someone to avoidable harm.
7. Visual imagery and counter-narratives
Visual imagery is the connecting intellectual foundation of the five founding articles. Images should be contextualised, accurately captioned, lawfully used and never manipulated in a way that changes their meaning. “Positive propaganda” is used only in the Centre's limited constitutional sense of ethical, transparent and constructive counter-narrative communication—not deception, coercion or exploitation of trauma.
The “Image of the Warrior Woman” is an original illustrative concept developed within the series. It is not a universal description of Yazidi women, a prescribed armed identity, a romanticisation of conflict or a replacement stereotype.
8. Publication gate and reader access
Article titles, status, authorship and careful summaries may be made public before full release. A full article should become accessible only after documented cultural, religious, historical, editorial, source, image-rights, privacy, accessibility, online-safety, governance and legal review. Potentially distressing visuals should be warned, deliberately revealed, restricted or omitted rather than displayed unexpectedly.
9. Corrections and concerns
CCTIDTO welcomes concerns from Yazidi and Muslim community members, survivors, scholars, religious and community organisations, rights holders and any member of the public. A report may concern factual accuracy, omission, wording, translation, transliteration, cultural, historical or religious context, attribution, image rights, privacy, accessibility or another ethical or legal issue.
The report should identify the article, heading, passage or image and explain the concern. A supporting source or suggested correction is helpful but not required. Reports will be considered respectfully and in good faith. Material may be corrected, clarified, annotated, temporarily restricted or withdrawn where warranted, with a version or correction record retained where appropriate.
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