UN Panel Reports on ISIS Crimes on Yezidis

Unimaginable Horrors

Skye Wheeler
Researcher, Women's Rights Division
WheelerSkye

The unimaginable horrors that the Islamic State (ISIS) is committing against the minority Yezidis, documented in a
report released on June 16 by the UN-mandatedIndependent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the
Syrian Arab Republic, shows the urgent need for concrete steps to ensure justice for these crimes.

In August 2014, ISIS fighters overran Yezidi towns and villages around Sinjar, in northwestern Iraq,executing many
men and capturing women and girls. Their intent soon became clear in slave markets ISIS set up in Mosul and
elsewhere, wherethey sold the women and girlsto their fighters into sexual or domestic slavery.

Yezidis at the Iraqi-Syrian border crossing in Fishkhabour, Dohuk province, August 10, 2014.2014 Reuters

The COI report found that the crimes against the minority Yezidis amount to genocide.

Human Rights Watch has found that the abuses against Yezidi women and girls, including abducting them and
forcibly converting them to Islam and/or forcibly marrying them to ISIS members, amount to war crimes, may be
crimes against humanity and may be part of a genocide against Yezidis. Women also reported that ISIS members
took their children from them, physically abused their children, and forced the women and girls to pray or take
Islamic names.
The commission says that ISIS still holds about 3,200 women and children, most in areas it controls in Syria. The
report says that separating men and women, inflicting mental trauma, taking children away from their families and
forced conversions, are among methods intended to destroy Yezidis as a people.

There has been considerable attention to the plight of Yezidi women in the media, but little discussion on how to
provide justice for these terrible crimes. The commission says the UN Security Council should refer the situation to
justice, possibly to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or an ad hoc tribunal.

The ICC has a mandate over crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Iraq, like Syria, is not a
party to the Rome Statute, which set up the court. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told Human Rights Watch in
March that Iraq has no plans to join the courtout of apparent concern that the court would also be able to
examine grave abuses by government security forces.

Yezidi victims of human rights abuses have a right to justice, not just government
declarations with no consequences.

Skye Wheeler
Researcher, Women's Rights Division

Both the Iraqi government and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), where hundreds of thousands
of Yezidis have sought safety, says they have ISIS fighters in custody. In fact, the government says it has captured
scores of ISIS fighters since the start of its Fallujah offensive. But to Human Rights Watchs knowledge, no criminal
justice authorities in KRI or the rest of Iraq are investigating or prosecuting ISIS members for war crimes or crimes
against humanity, including crimes against Yezidis.

A Genocide Committee in Dohuk, a major city in Iraqi Kurdistan, which was established by the Kurdish
government, is attempting to document these crimes. But its head investigator, Judge Ayman Bamerny, told Human
Rights Watch the committee has no link to the Kurdistan Regional Governments judiciary.

Similarly, in Baghdad, Judge Abd al-Sattar Bir Qadar, spokesperson for the judiciary, told Human Rights Watch in
March that there have been no judicial investigations against captured ISIS members for war crimes or crimes against
humanity The only exception has been apatently unfair trials, in July 2015 and February 2016, each lasting all of two
hours, that convicted 24 men for the mass killing a year earlier of up to 1,700 Shia military cadets.

In March 2015, Iraqs Council of MinistersdeclaredISIS crimes against Yezidis to be genocide, but Iraq has no
provisions in its domestic law for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

Yezidi victims of human rights abuses have a right to justice, not just government declarations with no
consequences. Iraq should incorporate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide into its penal code and
start investigations into credible allegations of abuses by ISIS. Iraqi authorities should also hold their own forces to
account for their serious crimes. Iraq should also join the ICC, as membership could provide an impetus for Iraq to
ensure accountability for the worst crimes by all sides. The US should press Iraqi authorities to make that a priority.

Countries that support Iraqs war against ISIS, including Iran, Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia and
European states should support Iraqi efforts to investigate these crimes and provide redress for its victims. They
should urge Iraq to pursue impartial investigations of serious crimes by all sides, and offer Iraq technical assistance
and judicial cooperation. Judicial authorities in Baghdad and Erbil told Human Rights Watch that there have been no
exchanges of information in either direction with European countries that that have suspected ISIS fighters in
custody.

Letting grave crimes against Yezidis and others go unpunished is a stain not only on the Iraqi government, but on all
countries that have vowed to protect groups like the Yezidis against threats of extermination and that have
committed themselves to supporting justice for grave abuses whenever and wherever they occur.