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Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Feb 01, 2023 2:44 am

Do not repatriate ISIS members

The looming return of alleged ISIS members to Canada has brought trauma, worry and fear to people who were invited to Canada as a safe haven after the terrorist group all but destroyed their ancient community in northern Iraq

"When I first heard the news, I felt the strength leave my body," Huda Ilyas Alhamad told CBC News in her Winnipeg apartment. She is one of 1,200 survivors of the Yazidi genocide who were resettled in Canada; she spent years as a slave of ISIS members.

"I had to sit down right away. I was heartbroken and terrified at the same time because on one hand they had promised to protect us and bring us here and give us safety, and on the other hand they're offering that same entryway for these very people who raped and tortured us on a daily basis."

The Yazidis are members of an ancient Kurdish-speaking farming community in northern Iraq who practice their own monotheistic religion. They were victims of one of the worst atrocities of the 21st century at the hands of the Islamic fundamentalist terror group, which set out to eradicate the Yazidi people in a brutal campaign launched on August 3, 2014.

'Heartbroken and betrayed'

Earlier this month, the federal government agreed to repatriate 19 Canadian women and children from northeastern Syria, where they have been held in Kurdish-run detention camps for suspected ISIS members and their families.

Advocates for the adult detainees say there is no proof tying them to ISIS, and no justification for allowing them to remain in Syrian camps.

"It's clear that the Canadian government has the ability to bring our Canadians home, and where there is evidence to believe they've committed an offence, charge them and prosecute them," lawyer Lawrence Greenspon told CBC News earlier this month.

The agreement to assist women and children to travel to Canada was followed a day later by an order from the Federal Court, instructing the government to also repatriate four men currently held in Syrian prisons, accused of ISIS membership.

Neither the government nor the court has disclosed the names of the10 adults to be repatriated.

Jamileh Naso, president of the Canadian Yazidi Association, said Yazidis feel grateful to Canada. Many have settled in Winnipeg

"Canada was one of the first countries to respond to the plight of the Yazidis," she said. "And they couldn't be any more happy or grateful that they would come to a country like Canada where they could feel safe and protected, in a country that stood for all these great values of freedom, of rights, of justice, of accountability and all these things the Yazidi community wanted to see."

Naso praised the work of Winnipeg's Jewish community to help reunify families and privately sponsor Yazidi refugees, but she said others in the city have helped as well.

Jamileh Naso, president of the Canadian Yazidi Association. (Jaison Empson/CBC)

"This has really been a grassroots local community effort to reunite these families and this is what Canada is about," she said.

The ISIS repatriation order, she said, has left Yazidi families feeling "heartbroken and betrayed."

"A lot of them just broke down into tears because they thought this news was completely unbelievable. It can't be true," she said.

"We have submitted applications for family reunification to reunite with our family members who were in ISIS captivity. And here they are bringing the perpetrators of these crimes of genocide to Canada. And they know in most cases that these folks will not face trial. The evidence is not here and the witnesses aren't here. They are giving a free pass for their part in genocide and terrorism.

"It's really disappointing, not just for those in the Yazidi community, but for those across Canada who believe in liberal values, and that we should be a country that's standing up for victims and survivors."

A peaceful community destroyed

"Before ISIS arrived, we were very happy. We had 13 people in my family," Huda Alhamad told CBC News at her Winnipeg home. She was 17 years old in August, 2014, when ISIS attacked.

"It was always loud and noisy in the house, but I loved it. We would go to work, we would come home, we would have dinner as a family."

As ISIS closed in, Huda's family and thousands of others sought refuge on the slopes of the Yazidis' traditional refuge of Mount Sinjar. But they were captured, along with thousands of other Yazidi civilians. ISIS members then began to separate them by age and gender.

Huda said she believes the gunfire she heard as she was driven away after the initial separation of family members was the start of the massacre of older community members.

ISIS had different plans for different segments of the Yazidi population. The youngest boys were taken from their families to be converted to Islam and raised as jihadi fighters and suicide bombers. Thousands of older boys and men were murdered. Young women and girls, like Huda and her three sisters, were separated for sale to ISIS members as slaves.

The ISIS slave market

"They went around taking down names, ages, family members, who was connected to who, and then they started separating by looks," Huda said. "They came in like we were cattle, what looked good, what didn't look good. Who was too old, who had kids, how many kids they had."

"My sisters and I were taken to a separate room with a lot of the other young women and we were all sold.

"About 100 ISIS members came into the room. There were about 200 of us, and they all came in and started just grabbing us for themselves. And I, along with another young Yazidi girl, was taken by one of the ISIS members."

Iraqi Yazidis light candles and paraffin torches during a ceremony to celebrate the Yazidi New Year in Duhok province, Iraq April 16, 2019. Yazidis' ancient monotheistic religion made them a target for the Islamic State, which labelled them "devil worshippers".

Iraqi Yazidis light candles and paraffin torches during a ceremony to celebrate the Yazidi New Year in Duhok province, Iraq on April 16, 2019. Yazidis' ancient monotheistic religion made them a target for the Islamic State, which labelled them "devil worshippers." (Reuters)

Girls as young as 10 were taken as slaves by ISIS members. After raping them for a time, members would often sell them on. Many girls were sold multiple times.

Huda's sisters were taken by other ISIS members. Years would pass before she learned they had survived.

Huda's parents and older brother were never seen again. "Other than the four family members I'm with here, and then my two sisters and my brother who are in a refugee camp now, I'm not sure what happened to the others," she said.

Yazidis told CBC News there is a misconception that the women of ISIS were less culpable or less violent than the men.

"The women were worse than the ISIS fighters. The women would beat us constantly," said Huda. "They would refuse to feed us. I would usually get beaten with a cable by the wives of the ISIS fighters, and they would laugh at me, they would spit at me, they would kick me, and that was on a daily basis. And then when their husband would come, he would rape me."

Naso said Huda's experience with the women of ISIS is common among survivors.

"Almost all of them can tell you that when they were in captivity, the women played as much of a role as the [ISIS] fighters did in torturing them, in keeping them captive, in keeping notes on them and saying what they were doing, constantly beating them," she told CBC News. "The females had just as much to do with the inhumane treatment of the Yazidis as the men did."

Stolen children

Yazidis continue to arrive in Canada as individuals struggle to reunite the surviving members of families torn apart by ISIS.

Ayad Alhussein is just 13 years old. He spent five of those years in ISIS captivity and three more in a displaced persons camp. He arrived in Winnipeg only two months ago, rescued by two older sisters he had forgotten he even had.

"I've only been told now how hard my sisters worked with organizations here in Winnipeg like Operation Ezra (a reunification program sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg) and the Canadian Yazidi Association," he said. "How they submitted paperwork three years ago and went back and forth with the government and different people to try to get me here."

Ayad was young enough to be spared by ISIS when his family was captured. Twelve members of his family have not been seen since August 2014.

ISIS raised the youngest Yazidi boys to be jihadi fighters and suicide bombers. Ayad forgot his native Kurmanji and learned to live in Arabic. He doesn't remember his life before capture.

Forgotten identity

"I was five years old when I was captured, so I didn't really have an idea of who my community was or who my family was or anything like that," he said. "And like the other little boys around me, I just kind of did whatever they did. At first I was scared, but then it just became normal."

Normal, he said, included almost daily beatings (the boys were told they would make them tougher), military training, weapons drills and religious indoctrination.

"And that continued on until I met some others [slightly older Yazidi captive boys] who told me that I wasn't a part of this. I had family elsewhere," he said. "And then I started learning more and more as the years went by. And when I finally reached the camp after five years of captivity, that's when I started to learn my mother tongue."

Yazidis 'heartbroken' over pending repatriation of suspected ISIS members
Survivors of the Yazidi genocide, one of the worst atrocities of the 21st century at the hands of the Islamic State, say they feel heartbroken over Ottawa’s decision to repatriate Canadians held in Syrian detention camps for suspected ISIS members and their families.

Today, Ayad is in school in Winnipeg, learning English with the help of cousins. He said he's happy in Canada and hopes to become a doctor.

But recent developments have rocked the teenager.

"When I heard the news that they would be bringing ISIS members here, I was terrified. That had not been that long since I came here," he said. "The whole point of coming to a country like Canada was to be offered safety and security. If they're bringing those people here, those terrorists, how am I supposed to feel safe?"
'We don't believe the government understands'

Huda said the news has brought on anxiety and panic.

"If I see somebody who semi-resembles one of the [ISIS] members, my heart starts beating really quickly," she said. "Sometimes I cry, sometimes I just have to drop everything I'm doing and go home right away. And that's been the case for the past five years. This news has just doubled that and I feel that all the time now.

"I'm scared to send my kids to school. What if they recognize some of us?"

Huda said it hurts to see ISIS families being reunited while her own sisters are still living in dangerous refugee camps.

"That's all I could really ask for, if I could be reunited with my sisters here. We've worked on their paperwork, we've submitted for family reunification," she said. "But for the past almost three years now, we have yet to hear anything about how their file is going."

Like many Yazidis, Huda said she believes the federal government and rights organizations working on behalf of suspected ISIS detainees are naive about the nature of the people they're helping.

"We don't believe the government truly understands. I mean, we've tried to share our story multiple times. We told them about the atrocities we faced," she said.

"The government was the one who recognized it as genocide. They're the ones who said yes, what they were doing to the Yazidi community constitutes genocide. They are raping women. They are separating families. They're trying to annihilate this community off the face of the earth.

"And yet here they are, bringing these very members, these individuals who chose to leave this country, this security, these freedoms, and go there and join this group that is committing these crimes. And so it doesn't make sense to us."

'No repercussions'

Although talking about her captivity is wrenching, Huda said "it's more important than ever that people know exactly what types of monsters they are, and we're inviting them into the country with no repercussions."

"If the Canadian government or anybody has questions about what ISIS was doing in Iraq and Syria," she added, "you can come talk to me.

"If you have questions about what women and girls had to face, how they were tied up and treated like slaves, how were they were sold, how 10-year-olds were raped, how girls were ripped from their mothers' arms and taken into separate rooms and they could hear them being raped. If you want to hear about why we should keep people like that out, you can come talk to me.

"I feel like I could talk for days about what had happened to us and share stories of the horrors I saw. But with this decision to bring in those very people who caused all this pain and suffering, does it even matter if we tell our stories anymore?"

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/yazidi ... -1.6728817
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Fri Feb 03, 2023 12:30 am

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Angelina Jolie, Nadia Murad in Shingal

American actress Angelina Jolie and Yazidi activist as well as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad on Wednesday visited the Yazidi heartland of Shingal in Nineveh province, overseeing the development of renovation projects in the war-torn district

Thousands of Yazidis were killed when the Islamic State (ISIS) tore through Shingal and other parts of northern and western Iraq in 2014.

Murad, who is one of the survivors of the violence brought upon by ISIS and a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Goodwill Ambassador, has launched “Nadia’s Initiative” to advocate for the survivors of the mass killing and rebuild the district.

Murad and Jolie visited a hospital which is under construction. They also visited “New Kocho” village - named after the Yazidi survivor’s Kocho village which is known for being the site of one of the terror group's most cruel and devastating acts.

The pair visited the city center as well where they met with a number of survivors, including those outside the Yazidi community but who were subjected to the same violence by ISIS.

‘New Kocho’, designed to find durable solutions for survivors of the massacre, is carried out with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project will also create memorial sites to commemorate the dead, and protection measures for the graveyard where victims initially left in mass graves are now being reburied.

More than 6,000 Yazidis were kidnapped when ISIS attacked Shingal, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Office for Rescuing Kidnapped Yazidis. About 3,000 remain missing.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/010220232
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Feb 11, 2023 10:54 pm

Woman prosecuted for Yazidi enslavement

THE HAGUE, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Prosecutors in the Netherlands on Friday announced they plan to put a Dutch woman who joined Islamic State on trial for crimes against humanity for enslaving a Yazidi woman in Syria in 2015

The woman, identified by Dutch media as Hasna Aarab, will also be tried for membership of a terrorist organisation along with 11 other women who were repatriated to the Netherlands in November last year from camps for IS members in Syria.

It is the first time Dutch prosecutors have brought a case for crimes against humanity committed against Yazidis, an ancient religious minority who combine Zoroastrian, Christian, Manichean, Jewish and Muslim beliefs, the prosecution service said in a news release.

In neighbouring Germany, several former ISIS members have already been convicted for crimes, including genocide, against Yazidis.

ISIS, which views the Yazidis as devil worshippers, have killed more than 3,000 of them, enslaved 7,000 Yazidi women and girls and displaced most of the 550,000-strong community from its ancestral home in northern Iraq.

Under Dutch universal jurisdiction laws, national courts can try suspects for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed on foreign soil as long as the accused reside in the Netherlands.

A trial date has not yet been set.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/du ... 023-02-10/
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Mon Feb 13, 2023 2:33 pm

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Memorial for Yazidi Genocide Victims

Nadia’s Initiative and IOM Iraq Break Ground on Cemetery and Memorial for Yazidi Genocide Victims

Geneva/Sinjar – As the Yazidi community in Iraq continues to rebuild in the wake of genocide, construction of a cemetery and memorial in Solagh, Sinjar, has officially commenced.

Launched by Nadia’s Initiative (NI) in 2021 in response to requests from the Yazidi community, NI spent the last two years designing the cemetery and memorial in partnership with community members and a Yazidi architect.

This week, construction is officially underway with support from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Iraq and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

“Grief is part of the healing process,” said Nadia Murad, founder and president of Nadia’s Initiative. “Having a place to collectively mourn and remember our families, friends, and neighbors is vital for survivors, especially those who have returned to Sinjar.

It also serves an educational purpose – reminding the world of what our community suffered, and how we must continue to focus on preventing such atrocities.”

“When a community has experienced this degree of trauma and devastation, memorializing the past and paying tribute to lost loved ones become essential components of efforts to support survivors as they return home from displacement,” said IOM Iraq Chief of Mission, Giorgi Gigauri.

“This is what we are endeavoring to do here – a memorial by and for the community, that is also consistent with the provisions enshrined in the Yazidi Survivors Law, which IOM and Nadia’s Initiative have worked to support from its inception, and to which we remain committed as the reparations roll-out continues.”

In August 2014, the Yazidi ethno-religious minority community in Sinjar was attacked by Daesh (ISIS) in a systematic attempt to erase them from existence. Thousands of people were killed, hundreds of thousands were displaced, and more than 6,000 women and children were enslaved.

Today, around 3,000 Yazidis are still considered missing, while dozens of mass graves remain unexhumed

“This cemetery will be the first project of this scale documenting the Yazidi genocide. It will be a historical landmark for future generations and will visually demonstrate the magnitude of the genocide and its impact on our community.

Establishing a symbolic mass grave will attract the attention of public figures and those who are interested in human rights and justice issues,” says Khaled Talo Khedr, community member and relative of a Solagh victim.

Memorializing the victims of genocide is essential to the Yazidi community, many of whom remain displaced within Iraq more than eight years later. The final design for the cemetery and memorial was selected through extensive consultations with survivors both displaced and returned and aims not only to honor those who were lost, but also to act as a catalyst for the collective healing of a people, community, and region that has withstood incredible trauma.

This is the first memorialization project of this size and scope to be implemented in Sinjar. The construction’s design aims to preserve and honor the memories of Yazidis in Sinjar, and it will serve as a place of solace and remembrance for the greater Yazidi community.

About Nadia’s Initiative

Nadia’s Initiative is an international NGO dedicated to rebuilding communities in crisis and advocating globally for survivors of sexual violence. Its current work is focused on the sustainable redevelopment of the Yazidi homeland in Sinjar, Iraq.

Nadia’s Initiative works with the local community and a variety of implementing partners on the ground in Sinjar to design and support projects that promote the restoration of education, health care, livelihoods, WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene), culture, and women’s empowerment in the region.

All Nadia’s Initiative programs are community-driven, survivor-centric, and work to promote long-term peacebuilding. Nadia’s Initiative advocates governments and international organizations to support efforts to rebuild Sinjar, seek justice for Yazidis, improve security in the region, and support survivors of sexual violence worldwide.

About IOM Iraq

IOM is the leading intergovernmental organization in the field of migration, working in cooperation with the Government of Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government, civil society organizations and international partners to provide support across the country’s 18 governorates.

As part of its multi-sectoral response covering camp management and camp coordination, shelter and infrastructure rehabilitation, health care, mental health and psychosocial support, livelihood assistance, policy development and more, IOM plays a key role in advancing a trauma-informed, survivor-centered transitional justice process in Iraq.

https://www.iom.int/news/nadias-initiat ... de-victims
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Feb 18, 2023 9:20 pm

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Protection for Yazidis falling
By Sertan Sanderson

Yazidi refugees from Iraq are being granted protection less frequently in Germany, according to a report published in the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung regional newspaper. This comes despite the fact that Germany has classified the crimes carried out against Yazidis by the so-called "Islamic State" (ISIS) terror militia as genocide

In 2022, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) recognized less than half of Iraqi Yazidi asylum applicants as being in need of protection, according to official numbers.

Of a total of 4,706 Yazidi asylum cases from Iraq examined by BAMF, 2,420 were rejected.

Beginning in 2014, ISIS fighters in northern Syria and northern Iraq began to systematically oppress and use extreme violence against members of the Yazidi religious community. In addition to raping and enslaving an estimated 7,000 of women and children, it is estimated that ISIS murdered more than 5,000 Yazidis across the two countries.

An estimated 327,000 displaced Yazidi refugees still live in camps for internally displaced people in Iraq.

From genocide to 'safety'

The fact that the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament and the the primary legislative body, had recognized crimes committed by IS against the Yazidi ethnic group as a genocide last year did apparently not factor in, and is unlikely to change any individual decisions already issued.

This is due to the fact that IS no longer wields power in Iraq, according to BAMF. This is why in 2017, the recognition rate for Yazidis presenting as in need of protection stood at 91.8%; by 2022, that percentage had fallen to 48.6%, according to a BAMF report.

In 2015, the protection rate for all Yazidis was close to 100% during the height of the so-called refugee crisis and the brutal IS reign of terror in northern Iraq and Syria.

Meanwhile, BAMF continues to classify almost all Yazidis from neighboring Syria as still in need of protection.

Status revoked

The Left Party in Germany claims also that BAMF has already revoked the existing protection status granted to Yazidis from Iraq in 1,475 cases in recent years. This could mean that survivors of the genocide currently residing in Germany might face the trauma of displacement once more, having to live in fear of facing deportation back home.

Left Party MP Clara Bünger demanded that permanent leave to remain be issued to Iraqi Yazidis.

"I call on the federal government to abide by the unanimous decision of the Bundestag" to recognize the Yazidi genocide, she told Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.

In 2019, a study published by the Göttingen-based human rights organization Society for Threatened Peoples found that support for resettled Yazidi women in Germany was insufficient.

https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/46 ... ny-falling
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Feb 18, 2023 9:26 pm

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Help Shingal returnees

Yazidi activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad said on Friday that the Iraqi government should help members of the ethno-religious group who have returned to their hometown of Shingal

Thousands of Yazidis were killed or kidnapped when the Islamic State (ISIS) seized control of Shingal and other parts of northern and western Iraq in 2014. Thousands of families were displaced to the Kurdistan Region and Kurdish-held areas in Syria.

Murad, who is a survivor of the violence committed by ISIS and a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Goodwill Ambassador, told Rudaw on Friday that 150,000 people have returned to Shingal but they need help.

“150,000 people have returned to Shingal [but] the houses of many of them have been destroyed. They should be rebuilt so that they can start life again,” she told Rudaw’s Alla Shally.

The activist said she saw this urgent need herself when she visited Shingal earlier this month with American actress Angelina Jolie.

“I was in Shingal two weeks ago. People are in desperate need to rebuild their houses,” said Murad.

Murad met with Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani in Munich on Friday. She told Rudaw that she discussed with him the fate of around 3,000 Yazidis who are still missing.

“We know that these women and children are in Syria and some of them are living with ISIS families in Turkey. We hope that he [Barzani] can help us return some of them, and we could work together to help people return to their places,” she said.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/18022023

As I have stated many time: I believe that the coalition that helped to destroy Yazidi lands, buildings and businesses as they attempted to blow ISIS into oblivion (which they failed to do), should pay towards the rebuilding of that which they helped to destroy and give Yazidis back their homes, way of life and their dignity
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue Feb 28, 2023 1:33 am

PKK affiliated fighters in Sinjar

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A Turkish unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) killed a top commander of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)-affiliated group along with two companions in the Yezidi-majority town of Sinjar on Monday afternoon, the Kurdistan Region’s anti-terrorism group confirmed

The Region’s Directorate General of Counter Terrorism (CTD) did not elaborate further on the identities of the deceased in its statement.

“A Turkish drone struck a YBS – Sinjar Resistance Units – vehicle at Khana Sor community in Sinjar, killing a military official and two militants,” according to the press release.

The CTD released two photos of a burning pickup truck, claiming it belonged to the fighters.

Turkey has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

Khana Sor is located in northern Sinjar, an area previously targeted by aerial strikes against members of the PKK-affiliated group.

Turkey and PKK have been engaged in a decade-old military confrontation, which has resulted in tens of thousands of causalities from both sides.

Bolstered by its sophisticated drone capabilities, Ankara in recent years has doubled its UAV airstrikes against the Kurdish militant group, particularly in urban centers.

Officials from the Kurdistan Region regularly call on the warring sides to take their conflict outside of the populated border towns, as the long-standing confrontation has displaced hundreds of residents in these rural areas and threatened their livelihood.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/30 ... rism-group

A) ALL armed militia should be removed from Sinjar

B) Turkey should NOT be attacking Sinjar

C) UN should provide a Peace Keeping force for Yazidis
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Mar 11, 2023 10:48 pm

German minister visits Yazidis

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited the Yazidi homeland of the Sinjar (Shengal) area in northern Iraq on Thursday after meeting with Kurdish leaders in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah on Wednesday

The Sinjar normalisation agreement should be implemented to provide suitable conditions for the return of displaced Yazidis, Baerbock said.

The minister told Kurdish news network Rudaw that Germany would stand with displaced Yazidi people and help them to return to their homelands. Berlin has recently recognised the Islamic State (ISIS) crimes against Yazidis as genocide.

“The world has to know that a mass killing occurred in a place called Sinjar eight years ago. Men, women and children from this area were all killed. Their women and children were kidnapped. We could not ignore the massacre of Yazidis. We have stood with the victims and done anything needed so that the next generation does not forget it,” she said.

Baerbock arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday for her three-day trip to Iraq nearly 20 years after the U.S.-led invasion. Part of the visit’s significance comes from being the highest level diplomatic connection in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) by Germany.

The following day she met with Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) President Nechirvan Barzani, Vice President Qubad Talabani, and other top Kurdish officials. The minister discussed internal political tensions in the region as well as the relations between the Kurdistan region and Baghdad.

“The German government supports a unified Kurdistan region, so the political parties must solve the region’s internal problems,” the German Foreign Minister said.

https://medyanews.net/germanys-foreign- ... h-leaders/
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Mar 11, 2023 10:53 pm

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German FM visits Yazidis

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Thursday visited the Lalish Temple of Yazidis in Shingal as well as a cultural center of the religious minority, and is set to visit the village of Kocho, one of the main sites of the Islamic State’s (ISIS) massacre against the Yazidis, before wrapping up her three-day trip to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region

Baerbock arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday, meeting with top officials in the Iraqi capital city. She also met with the Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani and Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in Erbil on Wednesday, discussing means to enhance relations between Erbil and Berlin.

Baerbock visited the House of Coexistence in Shingal’s Snune on Thursday morning, meeting with the head of the project Mirza Dinnayi who toured the German minister to the house, introducing her to the different parts of the location that aims to spread harmony in the area.

“We discussed a number of different topics in the meeting, especially the situation in Shingal. Discussing the need to restore stability to Shingal, what are the obstacles before that, and what Germany can do towards that end as an ally of Iraq, and as a country that has had a significant role in helping IDPs and in fighting ISIS,” Dinnayi told Rudaw’s Naif Ramadhan.

The house consists of a cultural and social center and a public platform that is designed to bring together all the various components living in the Yazidi heartland.

Baerbock later visited the temple of Lalish, meeting with senior religious figures of the Yazidi faith.

The German foreign minister also paid a visit to an IDP camp housing displaced Yazidis in Duhok on Wednesday afternoon to review the situation of the residents and address their problems.

During a press conference with PM Barzani, Baerbock highlighted the importance of ensuring the safety of the Yazidi people following the closure of the IDP camps in the Kurdistan Region, saying that the Yazidi people "must not return to unsafe areas."

In January, the German parliament recognized ISIS crimes against the Yazidi community as “genocide”.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/09032023
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Mar 11, 2023 10:58 pm

ISIS bride let five-year-old girl die

German ISIS bride who chained up five-year-old Yazidi slave girl in the sun and let her die of thirst for wetting the bed faces tough new sentence as court overturns 'too lenient' ten-year jail term

Germany's top court on Thursday ordered a new sentencing hearing for a German ISIS member who was given 10 years in prison for her involvement in the death of a five-year-old Yazidi slave girl.

Jennifer Wenisch joined ISIS in Iraq and allowed the young girl to die of thirst after she was chained up in the sun for wetting the bed in August 2015.

She and her then husband, an ISIS fighter, had bought the young Yazidi girl and her mother as household slaves.

The initial sentencing that saw her jailed for 10 years in 2021 was considered too lenient by the German public prosecutor.

The 31-year-old defendant, originally from Lohne in Lower Saxony, now risks a higher sentence.

Jennifer Wenisch, originally from Lohne in Lower Saxony, joined ISIS in Iraq and allowed the young girl to die of thirst after she was chained up in the sun

Germany's Federal Court of Justice threw out an appeal by the woman - who the court identified only as Jennifer W. in line with the nation's privacy rules - but partly approved an appeal by prosecutors.

The court overturned the sentence on Thursday, though not the rest of the verdict, and sent the case back to the Munich state court for a new decision.

The woman was convicted in October 2021 of, among other things, two counts of crimes against humanity through enslavement, in one case resulting in death, being an accessory to attempted murder and membership in a terrorist organization abroad.

The federal court found that Munich judges erred in sentencing the woman for a 'less severe case' of crimes against humanity and overlooked aggravating circumstances.

German law allows for a life sentence in cases where a defendant's actions result in a person's death.

At the trial in Munich, prosecutors accused the woman of standing by as her then husband chained the young Yazidi girl in a courtyard and left her to die of thirst. The court found that she did nothing to help the girl, although doing so would have been 'possible and reasonable.'

She was taken into custody while trying to renew her identity papers at the German Embassy in Ankara in 2016, and deported to Germany.

Her former husband, an Iraqi citizen who was identified only as Taha Al-J., was convicted by a Frankfurt court in November 2021 of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and bodily harm resulting in death. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The girl's mother, who survived captivity, testified at both trials.

German law allows for a life sentence in cases where a defendant's actions result in a person's death

Following her conversion to Islam, Wenisch was recruited by the terrorist organisation in mid-2015 to the group's self-styled hisbah morality police. She patrolled city parks in IS-occupied Fallujah and Mosul, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, a pistol, and an explosives vest.

She was tasked by the group to ensure strict IS rules on dress code, public behaviour, and bans on alcohol and tobacco.

In January 2016, she visited the German embassy in Ankara to apply for new identity papers. When she left the mission, she was arrested and extradited days later to Germany.

Wenisch's initial trial began in April 2019, and is one of the first examples of court proceedings over the Islamic State group's brutal treatment of Yazidis.

A Kurdish-speaking group hailing from northern Iraq, the Yazidis were specifically targeted and oppressed by the jihadists beginning in 2015.

London-based human rights lawyer Amal Clooney - who was involved in a campaign for ISIS crimes against the Yazidi community to be recognised as a 'genocide' - was part of the team representing the Yazidi girl's mother.

Germany has charged several German and foreign nationals with war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out abroad, using the legal principle of universal jurisdiction which allows crimes to be prosecuted even if they were committed in a foreign country.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... tence.html
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Mar 11, 2023 11:01 pm

Village emerges from water

NINEVEH, Iraq - For the first time in 38 years, Yazidis are returning to the ruins of a village that emerged from the receding waters of Mosul dam after years of lack of rain and decreased flow of the Tigris River

The remains of Old Khanka village and its cemetery near Khanke town in the Shingal district of Nineveh province are now visible.

Every day, former residents come to see the remains of their homes and visit loved ones buried in the cemetery.

Khalat Khidir, a mason who repairs headstones and re-writes fading names on gravestones, is one of those who has returned.

"My ancestors used to do this job [masonry], so did I. We used to come here [to the cemetery] on foot from Khanke town, though it was not very safe. We used to visit this cemetery in the past every Wednesday, lighting lamps," he recalled.

Everyone who once lived in the village has a story to share.

Jameel Injul checks the remains of his classrooms and other rooms of the village school where he studied when he was a child.

"It’s a great feeling when you see something old. You feel nostalgic when you remember these old memories," Injul said. "I used to study from grade one to five. We left here after it submerged..."

More than 80 villages were submerged when Mosul dam was constructed on the Tigris River in 1984, 50 kilometres north of Mosul.

The dam can store up to 11 billion cubic meters of water that is used in agriculture and residential sectors. It also produces hydropower, generating an average of 580 megawatts of energy per day.

In June 2019, German and Kurdish archaeologists uncovered an ancient palace after water levels plummeted. The ruins were located in Kimune, where the ancient city of Zakhiku, ruled over by the Mittani Empire, is believed to have been located.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/110320231
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sun Mar 19, 2023 12:33 am

International justice for the Yazidis

Yazidi tradition recounts that, before the Daesh attack in 2014, the Yazidis had suffered seventy-two large-scale persecutions in their history

To a large extent, in the past, they faced these attacks alone, with little hope of external support. But given that the 2014 genocide took place in the age of international justice – the age of the Rome Statute – will things be any different this time round?

The word “genocide” has different legal and sociological meanings. It carries a moral and social stigma and is often deployed by various advocacy groups to draw attention to their plight.

However, in the case of the Yazidis, the characterisation “genocide” – in its narrow, legal sense – is correct. In January 2023, the German Federal Court of Justice confirmed the first-ever conviction of a Daesh fighter for genocide against the Yazidis.

And in his final briefing to the United Nations Security Council, Karim Khan KC, the former Special Adviser of the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (UNITAD), stated:

“I can confirm to the Council that based on our independent criminal investigations, UNITAD has established clear and convincing evidence that genocide was committed by ISIL against the Yazidi as a religious group”.

The question is, therefore, not whether this is genocide, but whether there is the political will to confront it. Since the genocide against the Yazidis began in August 2014.

There has been some limited progress on justice and accountability, with two convictions of Daesh fighters for genocide in Germany and prosecutions for international crimes on the basis of universal jurisdiction in some other countries.

But nine years on, justice for the Yazidis has remained elusive. This case, therefore, presents a real litmus test for the legitimacy and effectiveness of international justice mechanisms.

If justice doesn’t take place in Iraq, then where?

On 6 March 2023, the International Bar Association Human Rights Initiative (IBAHRI) and City, University of London, together with a number of Yazidi and justice-focused organisations (including Yazda, the Free Yazidi Foundation and Coalition for Genocide Response) organised a side event to the UN Human Rights Council to draw attention to the need for sustained work towards justice for the Yazidis.

The event was co-sponsored by seven States, showing continued concern for this subject: Armenia, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and the United States.

While delegates praised the work of states to promote accountability for Daesh fighters using universal jurisdiction, the main impediment to comprehensive justice for the Yazidi genocide remained the lack of an appropriate legal framework and mechanism to prosecute genocide and other international crimes in Iraq.

Such a law existed for crimes committed in the Saddam Hussein era, but its temporal application is limited to crimes committed between 1968 and 2003. And even though there reportedly have been multiple draft laws on international crimes in the pipeline, none have so far seen the light of day, nor is there any clear timeline in place.

As such, one delegate at the above-mentioned event noted: “without the passing of such a law, the evidence currently collected cannot be actioned in Iraq.” She asked: “if justice doesn’t take place in Iraq, then where?”

In fairness, Iraq has taken some positive steps towards promoting broader justice. For instance, in 2021, the Iraqi Council of Representatives adopted the Yazidi [Female] Survivor Law, which aims to provide reparations to survivors of the Daesh atrocities and expressly recognises the Yazidi genocide.

As things stand, however, Daesh fighters cannot be prosecuted in Iraq for genocide or other international crimes. They are instead being prosecuted under anti-terrorism laws.

Do terrorism-related trials provide a suitable alternative?

From January 2018 to October 2019, the Iraqi judiciary processed over 20,000 terrorism-related cases of Daesh fighters, with thousands pending (as of January 2020).

Prosecutions under anti-terrorism laws are favoured by Iraqi officials because they are fast, often focusing on “association with” or “membership” in a terrorist organisation and usually requiring little evidence of other crimes.

Moreover, under these laws, the death penalty is mandatory for a wide range of acts that do not meet the “most serious crimes” threshold.

Putting aside fair trial considerations around these trials, however, prosecuting Daesh fighters for terror-related offences only means that victims and survivors are not involved in such trials. This means that their voices and stories are not heard, which affects their personal journeys towards justice and the process of documenting historic events.

This is particularly acute with respect to the many instances of sexual and reproductive violence suffered by Yazidis women and girls, which do not get recorded. Moreover, one of the main objectives of domestic prosecutions of international crimes is to help restore public confidence in the national institutions that failed citizens.

However, far from restoring such confidence, by focusing only on anti-terrorism, Iraq seems to be placing its own national security interests (vis-à-vis terrorism) over and above the genocide, and the ensuing sense of impunity for genocide, faced by its citizens.

What about state responsibility for genocide?

While discussions about justice for the Yazidis have usually revolved around individual criminal responsibility of Daesh fighters, an important element that should not be forgotten is state responsibility for failure to prevent and/or punish genocide under the Genocide Convention.

In 2022, a team of international lawyers and academics published a report entitled: “State Responsibility and the Genocide of the Yazidis” (YJC report), which provides significant, prima facie evidence that three States (Syria, Iraq and Turkey) have allegedly failed (and continue to fail) in their obligations to prevent and punish genocide.

In this context, on 23 January 2023, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution on “Addressing the issue of Daesh foreign fighters and their families returning from Syria and other countries to the member states of the Council of Europe,” which amongst others calls on member states to:

“consider bringing before the International Court of Justice, proceedings against States which allegedly failed to prevent and punish acts of genocide committed by Daesh, in order to hold those States to account under the Genocide Convention.”

While it is clear that it was Daesh fighters who committed genocide against the Yazidis and who should bear the greatest responsibility for this genocide, as we know, genocides are rarely instantaneous. They occur in stages that, with appropriate and timely state intervention, may be reversible.

    Gregory Stanton referred to ten stages. And the UN Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes highlights various common and specific risk factors which may, with state intervention, be prevented (or at least delayed) from escalating
However, the YJC report found that, in the case of the Yazidis, not only did states take very limited action to prevent genocide, but the evidence supports the prima facie conclusion that some states, directly and indirectly, provided aid or assistance to Daesh and to individuals affiliated with Daesh.

Moreover, action in state responsibility for genocide is also necessary to address the continuing violations of the Genocide Convention by states, including Iraq and Syria, who are not only failing to punish genocide but have not even enacted the requisite domestic legal framework to do so (a breach of Article V of the Genocide Convention). Such action may serve, at the very least, to pile international pressure on these states to enact the necessary legislation and punish genocide.

Conclusion

With Daesh largely defeated, the international community may understandably wish to draw a line under that tragic chapter and focus on more contemporary issues.

However, for the Yazidis, the genocide is continuing. Around 3,000 Yazidi women and children remain missing, with attempts to save them becoming less frequent.

A large number of Yazidis (over 200,000) continue to live in internally displaced persons camps and are unable to return to their homelands because of ongoing fighting and insecurity in the region.

Moreover, the genocide remains unpunished in Iraq and Syria, giving rise to continued violations of the Genocide Convention. There is, therefore, a need for a comprehensive, multi-level approach to accountability for Daesh atrocities against the Yazidis.

States should continue collaborating with mechanisms such as UNITAD and the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), created by France and Sweden, to gather and share evidence to support prosecutions under universal jurisdiction.

Moreover, states such as the United Kingdom, should consider broadening the scope of their universal jurisdiction provisions. Currently, the courts of England and Wales can only exercise jurisdiction over the offences of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed abroad by any person who: (i) is/was a UK national or UK resident at the time of the crime; or (ii) became a UK national or UK resident after the crime and still resides in the UK when proceedings are brought.

In addition, the consent of the Attorney General is required to institute proceedings for such crimes. As things stand, therefore, the scope of universal jurisdiction in the UK is limited, reducing its ability to prosecute génocidaires.

The international community, moreover, needs to continue supporting and pressuring Iraq, as well as Syria, to enact appropriate domestic legislation to criminalise genocide (and other international crimes) as a matter of urgency.

To date, Iraq has prevaricated on this issue. In so doing, it has continued to breach its legal obligations under the Genocide Convention to punish genocide (Article I) and to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide (Article V).

Furthermore, states should seriously consider following in the footsteps of The Gambia v Myanmar and institute proceedings in state responsibility for genocide against one or more of the states identified in the YJC report before the ICJ.

This report contains an extensive compilation of prima facie evidence of state violations of the Genocide Convention and, as such, may be used to facilitate any such ICJ submission.

In the final analysis, if the mechanisms of international justice are not able to mobilize with respect to the clear-cut case of the Yazidis, not only will we be failing them in this hour of critical need, but our international justice mechanisms will emerge severely undermined.

The call here is not for some extraordinary measures, but simply for states to comply with the Genocide Convention and, as necessary, to take action to rectify any ongoing violations.

https://www.ejiltalk.org/a-litmus-test- ... -for-whom/

The author served as Head of Research for the Yazidi Justice Committee (YJC), an ad-hoc committee comprised of the following organisations: Accountability Unit, Women for Justice, International Bar Association Human Rights Institute, Bar Human Rights Committee, and the Geoffrey Nice Foundation.
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Thu Mar 23, 2023 12:31 am

Yazidi culture and beliefs

Efforts to separate Yazidi community from its culture and beliefs

Throughout history, the Yazidi community has been subjected to countless campaigns of ethnic genocide, and the number of massacres committed against it has so far reached 73 massacres known as the "firman".

Most attacks were carried out by the Ottoman occupation, which tried to obliterate the identity and culture of this community. Within five years, the occupying state of Turkey and its mercenaries committed the worst types of crimes against him.

The start of the Turkish occupation state’s attack on Afrin canton on January 20, 2018, was accompanied by death threats, slaughter and captivity of the Yazidis, and during the entry of the Turkish occupation state and its mercenaries into the Yazidi villages.

They destroyed the Yazidi shrines and tried and are still trying to force the Yazidis to leave their religion, and impose culture, religion and extremist thought on them, in a step that is a continuation of what ISIS mercenaries did in Şengal.

Yazidis in the occupied Afrin canton

The Yazidis are distributed in 23 villages, in the district of Sherawa (Iska, Shadira, Ghaziouya, Burj Abdullah, Ain Dara, Teranda, Qibar, Kimar, Basofan and Ba'i).

And in the sub-districts of Shera and Janders, they are distributed in the villages of (Qatmeh, Sinka, Pavilion, Qastal Jendu, Ali Qina, Faqira, Qajuma, Qila, Ashkan Sharqi, Jaqla, Kafr Zeit and the center of Janders district), in addition to the city center of Afrin.

Yazidi shrines in Afrin canton

In the occupied Afrin canton, there are 19 shrines for the Yazidis, scattered in the districts of Sherawa, Shera, and Janders. (Qara Jarna), Sheikh Barakat (Mount Sheikh Barakat), Sheikh Ali (Basoufan), Sheikh Rikab (Shadria), Sharaf Din (Pavilion), Bir Javier (Kafrajneh), Ziyarat Hajri and Sheikh Abd al-Qadir (Teranda), and Sheikh Karras (Deir Balut), and the Abu Kaaba (Abu Kaaba village, and Sheikh Qassab (Burj Qass)).

The policy of genocide against the Yazidis in Afrin

With the occupation of Afrin canton, the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries began targeting the Yazidis and committing crimes against them, through the killing machine, kidnapping, theft and looting, forcing them to convert to Islam, not to mention the destruction of their religious shrines.

According to the Yazidis Union of Afrin canton, the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries killed 11 citizens, including 4 women from the Yazidi community, after occupying the canton, and kidnapped 64 citizens, including 19 women and minors. They permitted the sale of property before the eyes of its owners.

Building settlements in Yazidi villages

In August 2020, the Turkish occupation began building a Sharia school called "The Imam and the Preacher" on the ruins of the Yazidis Union Center in Afrin. It is a model of schools that follow extremist education, funded by the Kuwaiti Sheikh Abdullah Al-Nouri Brotherhood Association and supervised by the “White Hands” organization. On September 23, 2021, the so-called “Afrin Local Council” of the occupation opened it.

In the village of Shadira in the Sherawa district, close to the “White Hands” and “Living in Dignity” associations affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, a settlement complex that accommodates 70 families, as well as in the Yazidi village of Pavillon after the displacement of its entire population from it; With the aim of settling Palestinian and Turkmen families, supported by Qatar and Kuwait.

The Turkish occupation and its mercenaries also built it; On the ruins of the Yezidis' houses of worship in the Yezidi villages, there are centers for spreading the extremist ideas of mercenaries. In the village of Shadira, a center was built, with the support, funding and supervision of the Palestinian "Living in Dignity" Association, and the implementation of the "White Hands" Association.

In the Yazidi village of Qastal Jindu, which is controlled by the mercenaries of the Northern Storm Brigade, a mosque was built in the village, although there are no Muslims in the village, and all its residents are Yazidis.

Sadly, there are armed militia groups on Yazidi lands making those lands and their inhabitants targets for Turkish attacks

These armed groups MUST be removed from Yazidi lands in order to protect the innocent Yazidis
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sat Mar 25, 2023 1:25 am

ISIS victims take case to UN

An international team of human rights lawyers instructed by Hogan Lovells, comprising 11 KBW Chambers, Matrix Chambers, Doughty Street Chambers and Twenty Essex Chambers, has filed a joint communication to the UN’s Committee Against Torture highlighting the failings in the global system for reparations for victims of torture and sexual violence in conflict. It has long been recognised that those victims have a right to redress and justice but, in practice, such justice has proved illusory for most victims

The complaint was filed on behalf of five Yazidi women who were kidnapped from Iraq, forcibly transferred to Syria, enslaved and subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. This is just one example of atrocities committed against Yazidi women by the Islamic State (IS). The man responsible for enslaving and torturing the women was an Australian citizen, Khaled Sharrouf, who was also a notorious and high-profile member of IS.

The Communication seeks to recognise the responsibility of States, in this case Australia, to ensure that justice is done for the victims. Many States have ratified the UN Convention Against Torture, been vocal in condemning foreign fighters’ involvement with IS and even instituted confiscation proceedings for the assets of the perpetrators.

Yet in practice authorities have so far denied all requests for compensation and other support for the victims. This has resulted in the freezing of extensive assets, amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds, which will remain frozen in circumstances where they might otherwise be re-purposed for the benefit of survivors.

Professor Philippe Sands KC, who is leading the team of international human rights lawyers working on the case, said: “The purpose of taking the complaint to the UN Committee is to end the impunity of governments who have pledged to support Yazidis in their quest for justice.”

“You’ve got a situation of utter lawlessness in which governments who have committed to rooting it out seem unwilling to take responsibility to provide the institutional and financial mechanisms to deliver on that commitment. If there’s a gap, and unless that gap is filled, you have impunity and more lawlessness.”

“The legal framework as it stands seems incapable of delivering, so this application is intended to fill that gap and seek to recognise the responsibility of a state like Australia to ensure that justice is done for the victims.”

A spokesperson for Nadia’s Initiative, founded by Nobel Laureate Nadia Murad said, “We have been waiting for many years to see proper accountability of Da’esh perpetrators who have committed the most serious of atrocity crimes, many of whom were foreign fighters.

Justice can take the form of criminal prosecution but for many survivors that avenue is not possible. The international community therefore needs to recognise the right to reparations and underwrite that collectively to ensure it is a reality for innocent survivors, whose lives have been devastated by foreign fighters.”

Taban Shoresh, founder of the Lotus Flower Foundation who support the survivors said, “After so many years, we hope this process will finally go towards securing justice for these five Yezidi women, and that it will signal a long overdue change to international law and the way crimes against humanity and genocide are dealt with.”

The Hogan Lovells team advising on the case includes International Pro Bono Partner Yasmin Waljee OBE, counsel Helen Boniface, associates Alex Riposi and Haylea Campbell, trainee solicitor Shah Warraich in the UK, and partner Scott Harris and associate Adam Aarons in Australia, along with international lawyer and investigator Paul Nahmias.

The counsel team includes Professor Philippe Sands KC (11 KBW Chambers); Dr Tatyana Eatwell (Doughty Street Chambers); Joanna Buckley (Matrix Chambers); Dr Brendan Plant (Twenty Essex Chambers); and Robbie Stern and Tim James-Matthews (Matrix Chambers); and Kate Eastman SC.

https://www.matrixlaw.co.uk/news/victim ... n-torture/
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Re: Yazidi UPDATES genocide has occurred and is ongoing

PostAuthor: Anthea » Tue Mar 28, 2023 10:31 pm

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1562

Mass graves near Sinjar
Wladimir van Wilgenburg

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi government, supported by the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIS (UNITAD), concluded the excavation of multiple mass graves in Hamadan, near Sinjar town, UNITAD

UNITAD said the excavations were led by the Mass Graves Directorate (MGD), in cooperation with the Medico-Legal Directorate (MLD), according to the national strategy for excavation of mass graves and the Iraqi Law on the Protection of Mass Graves.

In August 2014, ISIS carried out several war crimes against the Yezidi community in Sinjar, which UNITAD has recognized as a genocide.

UNITAD said “the excavation of the Hamadan mass graves is additional evidence of the crimes committed against the Yazidis.”

The UNITAD referred to the excavations and investigations of multiple mass graves as “critical components in advancing efforts for holding ISIL (ISIS) perpetrators accountable for atrocities committed against the Yazidi community in Sinjar.”

Remains of the victims were reportedly transported to MLD facilities in Baghdad to be identified, allowing for their return to the next of kin, to provide their loved ones with dignified burials in accordance with religious or cultural practices.

“UNITAD will continue to support Iraqi efforts to excavate mass graves of ISIL victims. The Yazidi community in Hamdan, as other communities impacted by ISIL crimes in Iraq, deserve to see justice served for the international crimes committed against them and their loved ones,” Special Adviser and Head of the Investigative Team Christian Ritscher said in a press release.

“It is through our joint endeavors with the Iraqi Government and competent national experts that we are able to move towards pursuing accountability and achieving justice.”

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/31 ... ar:-UNITAD
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