10 years after the Yazidi genocide what justice?

27 February 2024 By

for Justice Info

In the early hours of August 3rd 2014 Islamic State militants launched a coordinated attack and forcibly took over the Sinjar region in northern Iraq, home to the Yazidi people. In the days and weeks that followed, approximately 12,000 Yazidis were killed or abducted by IS, according to the NGO organisation Yazda and the United Nations. Around 7,000 women and girls were kidnapped, enslaved, usually as sex slaves. Boys were forced to become child soldiers and it is thought 5,000, mostly men were massacred. An estimated further 250,000 people were displaced and forced to flee to Mount Sinjar, cut off from food, water and medical treatment for days before coalition forces found safe passage for them to Syria. It was genocide, concluded the UN, some twenty countries, as well as a German court. Our partners at Asymmetrical Haircuts speak to Natia Navrouzov, a Yazidi from Georgia just appointed Executive Director at Yazda. They discuss the little accountability that has been possible in the past ten years, including through universal jurisdiction; the impact and limited reach of UNITAD, the UN body assisting Iraq’s justice system to hold Islamic State accountable for their crimes; the uncertainty over the evidence it has gathered; the weak prospect of prosecuting international crimes in Iraq; as well as the challenges faced by Yazidi returnees. Ten years after the crime symbolic recognition seems to have overshadowed justice.

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This year marks ten years since the Yazidi genocide, where Islamic State fighters killed, raped and enslaved thousands of Yazidis after seizing parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

In the early hours of August 3^rd 2014 IS militants launched a coordinated attack and forcibly took over the Sinjar region in northern Iraq, home to the Yazidi people.

In the days and weeks that followed, approximately 12,000 Yazidis were killed or abducted by IS, according to the NGO organisation Yazda and the United Nations. Around 7,000 women and girls were kidnapped, enslaved, usually as sex slaves. Boys were forced to become child soldiers and it is thought five thousand, mostly men were massacred.

An estimated further 250,000 people were displaced and forced to flee to Mount Sinjar, cut off from food, water and medical treatment for days before coalition forces found safe passage for them to Syria.

The exact number of people killed and abducted is unknown and mass graves are still being discovered.

This week we speak to Natia Navrouzov, just appointed Executive Director at Yazda, an NGO representing Yazidis in the efforts at finding legal accountability. We discuss what accountability has been possible in the ten years since the atrocity. The impact and reach of UNITAD, the United Nation’s body to hold Islamic State accountable for their crimes and the possibility of setting up a court to prosecute these international war crimes in Iraq.

Netherlands to open first trial on crimes against Yazidis

ASYMMETRICAL HAIRCUTS

This podcast has been published as part of a partnership between JusticeInfo.net and Asymmetrical Haircuts, a podcast on international justice produced from The Hague by journalists Janet Anderson and Stephanie van den Berg, who retain full control and independence over the contents of the podcast.