The internationally-led campaign for the removal of the PKK from the list of terrorist organisations in the EU was launched last November by the Justice for Kurds initiative and calls on the Council of the European Union "in the interest of peace, democracy and human rights" to remove the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from the EU terrorist list. In the campaign, the initiative highlights that the classification of the PKK as a terrorist organisation serves as a justification for attacks on Kurds and as a reason for war, and leads to "endemic inequalities being overlooked and social problems not being addressed". The peace initiative is supported by internationally known personalities from politics, civil law, art and culture, including Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek, Afghan women's rights activist Selay Ghaffar, German international law expert Norman Paech and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek.

The campaign, initiated by 29 intellectuals and a thousand initial signatories, is expected to last several months and aims to collect four million signatures worldwide. The signatures are to be sent to the Council of Europe and to the corresponding institutions responsible for the "terror list" in the US. They will also serve as a reference for members of national parliaments and put the issue on the agenda of parliaments. The petition can be signed online. In addition, the campaign is being promoted on the streets worldwide.

While the campaign was joined by Kurds and their friends all over the world, the Yazidi town of Shengal (Sinjar) in southern Kurdistan (northern Iraq) joined the signature campaign in March.

The Institution of Martyrs’ Families in Shengal held a press briefing on Sunday and announced the outcome of the campaign in the Yazidi homeland.

According to the statement read by the Spokesperson of the Institution of Martyrs’ Families, Hem Bişar, 40,446 signatures have been collected in Shengal.

The statement recalled how the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) went into action and rushed to save the Yazidis when ISIS attacked Shengal in August 2014.

The people of Shengal called on international powers to delist the PKK as a terrorist organization.