The Yazidi genocide was perpetrated by the
Islamic State in
Iraq and
Syria between 2014 and 2017.[1][11][12] It was characterized by massacres,
genocidal rape, and forced conversions to
Islam. The
Yazidi people, who are non-
Arabs, are indigenous to
Kurdistan and adhere to
Yazidism, which is an
Iranian religion derived from the
Indo-Iranian tradition. Over a period of three years, Islamic State militants trafficked thousands of Yazidi women and girls and killed thousands of Yazidi men;[13] the
United Nations reported that the Islamic State killed about 5,000 Yazidis[5] and trafficked about 10,800 Yazidi women and girls in a "forced conversion campaign"[14][15] throughout Iraq. By 2015, upwards of 71% of the global Yazidi population was displaced by the genocide, with most Yazidi refugees having fled to Iraq's
Kurdistan Region and Syria's
Rojava.[16][17] The
persecution of Yazidis, along with other religious minorities, took place after the Islamic State's
Northern Iraq offensive of June 2014.[18][19]
Amidst numerous atrocities committed by the Islamic State, the Yazidi genocide attracted international attention and prompted the
United States to establish
CJTF–OIR, a large military coalition consisting of many
Western countries and
Turkey,
Morocco, and
Jordan. Additionally, the United States, the
United Kingdom, and
Australia made emergency airdrops to support Yazidi refugees who had become trapped in the
Sinjar Mountains due to the Islamic State's
Northern Iraq offensive of August 2014. During the
Sinjar massacre, in which the Islamic State killed and abducted thousands of the trapped Yazidis, the United States and the United Kingdom began carrying out airstrikes on the advancing Islamic State militants, while the
People's Defense Units and the
Kurdistan Workers' Party jointly formed a humanitarian corridor to evacuate the rest of the Yazidi refugees from the Sinjar Mountains.[20]
In addition to the United Nations, several countries and organizations have designated the anti-Yazidi campaign of the Islamic State as a definite genocide. These include: the
Council of Europe and the
European Union, the United States,
Canada,
Armenia, and Iraq.[1][11]
in 1892,
Sultan Abdulhamid II ordered a campaign of mass conscription or murder of Yazidis as part of his campaign to Islamize the Ottoman Empire, which also targeted
Armenians and other Christians.[27]
On 3 August 2014, IS militants attacked and took over
Sinjar in northern
Iraq, a Kurdish-controlled town that was predominantly inhabited by Yazidis,[29] and the surrounding area.
Yazidis,[30] and internet postings of IS,[31] have reported
summary executions that day by IS militants, leading to 200,000 civilians fleeing Sinjar, of whom around 50,000 Yazidis were reportedly escaping to the nearby
Sinjar Mountains. They were trapped on Mount Sinjar, surrounded by IS militants and facing starvation and dehydration.[31][32][33]
On 4 August 2014,
Prince Tahseen Said,
Emir of the Yazidi, issued a plea to world leaders calling for assistance on behalf of the Yazidi facing attack from IS.[34]
On 3 August 2014, IS killed the men from the
al-Qahtaniya area, ten Yazidi families fleeing were attacked by IS; and IS shot 70 to 90 Yazidi men in Qiniyeh village.[35]
On 4 August, IS fighters attacked Jabal Sinjar, and killed 30 Yazidi men; 60 more Yazidi men were killed in the village of Hardan.[35] On the same day, Yazidi community leaders stated that at least 200 Yazidis had been killed in Sinjar (see
Sinjar massacre), and 60–70 near Ramadi Jabal.[35]
According to reports from surviving Yazidis, between 3 and 6 August, more than 50 Yazidi were killed near
Dhola village, 100 in
Khana Sor village, 250–300 in
Hardan area, more than 200 on the road between
Adnaniya and Jazeera, dozens near al-Shimal village, and on the road from
Matu village to Jabal Sinjar.[35]
On 10 August, according to statements by the Iraqi government, IS militants
buried alive an undefined number of Yazidi women and children in northern Iraq in an attack that killed 500 people.[10][36][37][38]
Those who escaped across the
Tigris River into
Kurdish-controlled areas of
Syria on 10 August gave accounts of how they had seen individuals also attempting to flee who later died.[29][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]
On 15 August, in the Yazidi village of Kojo, south of Sinjar, after the whole population had received the jihadist ultimatum to convert or be killed, over 80 men were killed.[47][48]
A witness recounted that the villagers were first converted under duress,[15] but when the village elder refused to convert, all of the men were taken in trucks under the pretext of being led to Sinjar and gunned down along the way.[citation needed]
According to reports from survivors interviewed by OHCHR, on 15 August, the entire male population of the Yazidi village of Khocho, up to 400 men, were rounded up and shot by IS, and up to 1,000 women and children were abducted; on the same day, up to 200 Yazidi men were reportedly executed for refusing conversion in a Tal Afar prison.[35]
Between 24 and 25 August 14 elderly Yazidi men were executed by IS in the
Sheikh Mand Shrine, and the
Jidala village Yazidi shrine was blown up.[35] On 1 September, the Yazidi villages of Kotan,
Hareko and Kharag Shafrsky were set afire by IS, and on 9 September, Peshmerga fighters discovered a mass grave containing the bodies of 14 executed civilians, presumably Yazidis.[35]
According to an
OHRCR/
UNAMI report on 26 September, by the end of August, 1,600–1,800 or more Yazidis who had been murdered, executed, or died from starvation.[35]
In early October, Matthew Barber, a scholar of Yazidi history at the University of Chicago, estimated that 5,000 Yazidi men had been killed by IS.[49]
According to the
United Nations, IS had massacred 5,000 Yazidi men and kidnapped about 7000 Yazidi women and girls (who were forced into sex slavery) in northern Iraq in August 2014.[49]
In May 2015, the Yazidi Progress Party released a statement in which they said that 300 Yazidi captives were killed on 1 May by IS in the
Tal Afar, Iraq.[50]
A 2017 survey by the PLOS Medicine journal significantly decreased the number of Yazidis killed however concurrently raised the number abducted with 2,100 to 4,400 deaths and 4,200 to 10,800 abductions.[5]
The 2017 report of the United Nations Secretary-General on conflict-related sexual violence detailed the brutal attacks on Mosul, Sinjar, Tall’Afar, and the Ninewa plains in the north and subjection of civilians to sexual violence on a horrific scale primarily against women and girls from ethnic and religious minority groups. According to declarations, 971 Yazidi women and girls have been freed while 1,882 remained enslaved in Iraq and Syria. Forced transfer of Yazidis from Mosul to Raqqah (Syria), trafficking, the sale and trade of women and children, and the use of sexually enslaved women as human shields by IS during the Mosul operations were also reported.[51]
Abductions
On 3 August, IS abducted women and children from the
al-Qahtaniya area, and 450–500 abducted Yazidi women and girls were taken to
Tal Afar; hundreds more to Si Basha Khidri and then Ba'aj.[35] When IS fighters attacked Jabal Sinjar on 4 August, they abducted a number of women in the Yazidi village of Hardan, wives and daughters were abducted; other Yazidi women were abducted in other villages in the area.[35] On 6 August, IS kidnapped 400 Yazidi women in Sinjar to sell them as
sex slaves.[52] According to reports from surviving Yazidi, between 3 and 6 August 500 Yazidi women and children were abducted from Ba'aj and more than 200 from
Tal Banat.[35] According to a statement by the Iraqi government on 10 August 2014, hundreds of women were taken as slaves in northern Iraq.[10][37][38] On 15 August, in the Yazidi village of Kojo, south of Sinjar, over 100 women were abducted,[47][48] though according to some reports from survivors, up to 1,000 women and children of the Yazidi village of Khocho were abducted.[35] According to an
OHRCR/
UNAMI report on 26 September, by the end of August up to 2,500 Yazidis, mostly women and children, had been abducted.[35]
In early October, Matthew Barber, a scholar of Yazidi history at the University of Chicago, compiled a list of names of 4,800 Yazidi women and children who had been captured (estimating the total number of abducted people to be possibly up to 7,000).[citation needed]
The abducted Yazidi women were sold into slave markets with IS "using
rape as a weapon of war" according to CNN, with the group having
gynaecologists ready to examine the captives. Yazidi women were physically observed, including examinations to see if they were
virgins or if they were pregnant. Women who were found to be pregnant were taken by the IS gynaecologists and
forced abortions were performed on them.[53]
Sex trafficking
Haleh Esfandiari from the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars highlighted the abuse of local women by IS militants after they have captured an area. "They usually take the older women to a makeshift slave market and try to sell them. The younger girls ... are raped or married off to fighters", she said, adding, "It's based on temporary marriages, and once these fighters have had sex with these young girls, they just pass them on to other fighters."[54]
Speaking of Yazidi women captured by IS,
Nazand Begikhani said in October 2014, "These women have been treated like cattle ... They have been subjected to physical and sexual violence, including systematic rape and sex slavery. They've been exposed in markets in Mosul and in Raqqa, Syria, carrying price tags."[55] Yazidi girls in Iraq allegedly
raped by IS fighters have committed
suicide by jumping to their death from
Mount Sinjar, as described in a witness statement.[56]
A United Nations report issued on 2 October 2014, based on 500 interviews with witnesses, said that IS took 450–500 women and girls to Iraq's
Nineveh region in August where "150 unmarried girls and women, predominantly from the Yazidi and Christian communities, were reportedly transported to Syria, either to be enslaved to IS fighters as a 'reward' or to be sold as sex slaves".[57]
Also in October 2014, a UN report revealed that IS had detained 5,000 to 7,000 Yazidi women as slaves or forced brides in northern Iraq in August 2014.[58]
On 4 November 2014, Dr.
Widad Akrawi of
Defend International said that "the international community should define what's happening to the Yezidis as a crime against humanity, crime against cultural heritage of the region and ethnic cleansing", adding that Yazidi females are being "subjected to as systematic gender-based violence and the use of slavery and rape as a weapon of war."[59]
A month earlier, President of Defend International dedicated her
2014 International Pfeffer Peace Award to the Yazidis, Christians and all residents of Kobane because, she said, facts on the ground demonstrate that these peaceful people are not safe in their enclaves, partly because of their ethnic origin and/or religion and they are therefore in urgent need for immediate attention from the global community.[60][61][62][63][64][65][66] She asked the international community to make sure that the victims are not forgotten; they should be rescued, protected, fully assisted and compensated fairly.[67]
In June 2017, reports from Vian Dakhil of the Iraqi parliament told of a captured sex slave being fed her own one-year-old child. The woman was starved for three days in a cellar and was finally given a meal by her captors. When finished, they said "We cooked your one-year-old son that we took from you, and this is what you just ate".[68]
A young woman described her experience in a 2023 documentary Daughters of the Sun: "A man bought me. He was an Iraqi, from Til Afar. He was 24 years old ... I was his slave and had to take care of his children. He hit me all the time. I was with that family for three years. Not a day went by when he didn't hit me. Most of the time I couldn't see because my eyes were swollen."[69]
Process of selling Yazidi and Christian women
On 3 November 2014, the "price list" for Yazidi and Christian females issued by IS surfaced online, and Dr.
Widad Akrawi and her team were the first to verify the authenticity of the document.[70][71] On 4 November 2014, a translated version of the document was shared by Akrawi.[72][73] On 4 August 2015, the same document was confirmed as genuine by a UN official.[74][75]
Writing in mid 2016, Lori Hinnant, Maya Alleruzzo and Balint Szlanko of the
Associated Press reported that IS tightened "its grip on the estimated 3,000 women and girls held as sex slaves" even while it was losing territory to Iraqi forces.[76] IS sold the women on encrypted smart phone apps, primarily on
Telegram and on
Facebook" and to a lesser degree on
WhatsApp. In advertisements for the girls seen by AP, "many of the women and girls are dressed in finery, some in heavy makeup. All look directly at the camera, standing in front of overstuffed chairs or brocade curtains in what resembles a shabby hotel ballroom. Some are barely out of elementary school. Not one looks older than 30.[76] In the documentary "Daughters of the Sun," Yazidi women describe the selling process: "Price tags were put on us. They bought us for 10 dollars, 20 dollars, some for 100 dollars, or as a gift....[I was sold] five times."[69]
Pregnancies
Various forms of reproductive violence were enacted against the Yazidi women and children to prevent birth. Captured Yazidis were taken as slaves and forced to use contraceptive pills and injections, and those captured pregnant were victims of forced abortions. Reports covered that Yazidi women and girls were told that they had to abort their previous unborn children since IS fighters were interested only in making Muslim babies. Forced impregnation with the intent to prevent the birth of Yazidi babies is also another form of reproductive violence and a measure taken against the group. These destructive intents and acts are described as preventing future procreation and causing severe long-term physical, psychological, and socio-political effects.[77][78]
Escape and liberation
Since 2014, efforts have been ongoing to rescue those enslaved by the Islamic State, including paying ransoms.[79][80][81] Many were freed by the
Syrian Democratic Forces as they took territory from the Islamic State in the
Rojava–Islamist conflict.[82][83] In November 2014 The New York Times reported on the accounts given by five who escaped the Islamic State of their captivity and abuse.[84]
According to
Mirza Dinnayi, founder of the German-Iraqi aid organization
Luftbrücke Irak, IS registers "every slave, every person under their owner, and therefore if she escapes, every Daesh [IS] control or checkpoint, or security force—they know that this girl ... has escaped from this owner".[76]
For over a year after the girls were first enslaved, Arab and Kurdish smugglers managed to free an average of 134 "slaves" a month. But by May 2016, an IS crackdown had reduced those numbers to just 39 in the previous six weeks, according the Kurdistan regional government. IS fighters targeted and killed "smugglers who rescue the captives". In 2016, funds provided by the
Kurdistan Regional Government to buy the women out of slavery were cut off as a result of the collapse in the price of oil and disputes with Iraq's central government over revenues.[76]
The freeing of Yazidi women continues, with some being found at the homes of Islamic State commanders in
Ankara in July 2020.[85][86] One seven-year old Yazidi girl was rescued from two IS commanders in Ankara by Turkish authorities in February 2021.[87]
Claimed Islamic justification for enslaving non-Muslim women
In its digital magazine Dabiq, IS explicitly claimed religious justification for enslaving Yazidi women.[88][89][90][91][92][93] ISIL's religious justifications were refuted by mainstream
Islamic scholars.[94][88]
According to The Wall Street Journal, IS appeals to
apocalyptic beliefs and claims "justification by a Hadith that they interpret as portraying the revival of slavery as a precursor to the end of the world".[95] In late 2014, IS released a pamphlet on the treatment of female slaves.[96][97][98][99][100]The New York Times said in August 2015 that "[t]he systematic rape of women and girls from the Yazidi religious minority has become deeply enmeshed in the organization and the radical theology of the Islamic State in the year since the group announced it was reviving slavery as an institution."[101]
The IS offensive in the Sinjar area of northern Iraq, 3–4 August, caused 30,000–50,000 Yazidis to flee into the
Sinjar Mountains (Jabal Sinjar) fearing they would be killed by ISIL. They had been threatened with death if they refused conversion to Islam. A UN representative said that "a humanitarian tragedy is unfolding in Sinjar".[102]
On 3 and 4 August 14 or more, Yazidi children and some elderly or people with disabilities died of hunger, dehydration, and heat on
Mount Sinjar.[35] By 6 August, according to reports from survivors, 200 Yazidi children while fleeing to Mount Sinjar had died from thirst, starvation, heat and dehydration.[35]
Kurdish military intervention
Fifty thousand Yazidis, besieged by IS on Mount Sinjar, were able to escape after Kurdish
People's Protection Units and
PKK broke IS siege on the mountains. The majority of them were rescued by Kurdish
PKK and
YPG fighters.[103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110] Multinational rescue operation involved dropping of supplies on the mountains and evacuation of some refugees by helicopters. During the rescue operation, on 12 August, an overloaded Iraqi Air Force helicopter crashed on Mount Sinjar, killing Iraqi Air Force Major General Majid Ahmed Saadi (the pilot) and injuring 20 people.[111]
On 8 August, PKK provided humanitarian aid and camps to more than 3,000 Yazidi refugees.[110]
By 20 October, 2,000 Yazidis, mainly volunteer fighters, who had remained behind to protect the villages, but also civilians (700 families who had not yet escaped), were reported as still in the Sinjar area, and were forced by IS to abandon the last villages in their control, Dhoula and Bork, and retreat to the Sinjar Mountains.[112]
Forced conversions to Islam
In an article by The Washington Post, it was stated that an estimated 7,000 Yazidis had been forced to convert to "the Islamic State group's harsh interpretation of Islam".[113] Yazidi boys were taken to Raqqa, Syria to be trained to fight for ISIL, with some being forced to fight as U.S.-led forces closed in on the group.[114][115]
Return of displaced Yazidis
Following ISIL's retreat from Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the region during late 2017 campaigns, both governments laid claim to the area. The Yazidi population, with only about 15% returning to Sinjar during the period, was caught in the political crossfire. Yazidis returned to an abandoned town of crumbling buildings, leftover
IEDs and the remains of those killed during the massacre.[116]
In November 2017, a mass grave of about 70 people was uncovered[117] and a month later in December, another mass grave was discovered holding about 90 victims.[118]
Thousands are still missing. To aid in the search, local business owners use their network of contacts to locate people.[119] Former captives use their contacts to buy back Yazidi women sold into sex slavery and return them to their family. This additionally prevents their organs from being sold on the
black market, each of which, according to an Islamic State informant, can be sold for $60,000–70,000.[120]
Fate of Yazidi captives of the Islamic State
In January 2015, about 200 Yazidis were released by IS. Kurdish military officials believed they were released because they were a burden. On 8 April 2015, 216 Yazidis, with the majority being children and elderly, were released by IS after being held captive for about eight months. Their release occurred following an offensive by U.S.-led air assaults and pressure from Iraqi ground forces who were
pushing northward and in the process of retaking Tikrit. According to General Hiwa Abdullah, a peshmerga commander in Kirkuk, those released were in poor health with signs of abuse and neglect visible.[121]
In March 2016,
Iraqi security forces managed to free a group of Yazidi women held hostage by IS in a special operation behind IS's lines in
Mosul.[122][123]
In March 2016, the militant group
Kurdistan Workers' Party managed to free 51 Yazidis held hostages by IS in an operation called 'Operation Vengeance for Martyrs of Shilo'.[124] Three Kurdistan Workers' Party guerrillas died during the operation.
In April 2016, the Kurdistan Workers' Party with the
Sinjar Resistance Units managed to free another 53 Yazidis held hostages by ISIL.[125]
Rise of Yazidi anti-Arab militias
According to a report by
Amnesty International, on January 25, 2015, members of a Yazidi militia attacked two Arab villages (Jiri and Sibaya) in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq, killing 21 civilians. The gunmen also kidnapped 40 other residents, 17 of whom are still missing and presumed dead.[126]
In 2017, CNN journalists Jomana Karadsheh and Chris Jackson interviewed former Yazidi captives and exclusively filmed the Daesh Criminal Investigations Unit (DCIU), a team of Iraqi Kurdish and western investigators who have been operating secretly in Northern Iraq, for more than two years, collecting evidence of ISIS’ war crimes.[136]
In August 2017, the
Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic of the
United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) stated that 'IS committed the crime of genocide by seeking to destroy the Yazidis through killings, sexual slavery, enslavement, torture, forcible displacement, the transfer of children and measures intended to prohibit the birth of Yazidi children.' It added that the genocide was ongoing, and stating that the international community still must recognize the detrimental effects of the genocide. The Commission wrote that, while some countries may choose to overlook the idea of the genocide, the atrocities need to be understood and the international community needs to bring the killings to an end.[138]
In 2018, the Security Council team enforced the idea of a new accountability team that would collect evidence of the international crimes committed by the Islamic State. However, the international community has not been in full support of this idea, because it can sometimes oversee the crimes that other armed groups are involved in.[139]
On 10 May 2021, the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da'esh/IS (UNITAD) determined that ISIL's actions in Iraq constituted genocide.[140][141][142]
Council of Europe: On 27 January 2016, the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution stating: "individuals who act in the name of the terrorist entity which calls itself 'Islamic State' (Daesh) ... have perpetrated acts of genocide and other serious crimes punishable under international law. States should act on the presumption that Daesh commits genocide and should be aware that this entails action under the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide." However, it did not identify victims.[143]
European Union: On 4 February 2016, the
European Parliament unanimously passed a resolution to recognise 'that the so-called 'ISIS/Daesh' is committing genocide against Christians and Yazidis, and other religious and ethnic minorities, who do not agree with the so-called 'ISIS/Daesh' interpretation of Islam, and that this therefore entails action under the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.'[129][144] Additionally, it called for those who intentionally committed atrocities for ethnic or religious reasons to be brought to justice for violating international law, and committing crimes against humanity, and genocide.[129][144]
United Kingdom: On 20 April 2016, the
House of Commons of the United Kingdom unanimously supported a motion to declare that the treatment of Yazidis and Christians by the Islamic State amounted to genocide, to condemn it as such, and to refer the issue to the UN Security Council. In doing so,
Conservative MPs defied their own party's government, who had tried to dissuade them from making such a statement, because of the Foreign Office legal department's long-standing policy (dating back to the 1948 passing of the Genocide Convention) of refusing to give a legal description to potential war crimes. Foreign Office secretary
Tobias Ellwood – who was jeered at and interrupted by MPs during his speech in the debate – stated that he personally believed genocide had taken place, but that it was not up to politicians to make that determination, but to the courts.[132] Furthermore, on 23 March 2017, the regional devolved
Scottish Parliament adopted a motion stating: '[The Scottish Parliament] recognises and condemns the genocide perpetrated against the Yezidi people by Daesh [ISIS]; acknowledges the great human suffering and loss that have been inflicted by bigotry, brutality and religious intolerance, [and] further acknowledges and condemns the crimes perpetrated by Daesh against Muslims, Christians, Arabs, Kurds and all of the religious and ethnic communities of Iraq and Syria; welcomes the actions of the US Congress, the European Parliament, the French Senate, the UN and others in formally recognising the genocide'.[146][147]
Canada: On 25 October 2016, the
House of Commons of Canada unanimously supported a motion tabled by MP
Michelle Rempel Garner (
CPC) to recognise that ISIS was committing genocide against the Yazidi people, to acknowledge that ISIS still kept many Yazidi women and girls captive as sex slaves, to support and take action on a recent UN commission report, and provide asylum to Yazidi women and girls within 120 days.[133]
France: On 6 December 2016, the
French Senate unanimously approved a resolution stating that acts committed by the Islamic State against "the Christian and Yazidi populations, other minorities and civilians" were "war crimes", "crimes against humanity", and constituted a "genocide". It also invited the government to "use all legal channels" to have these crimes recognised, and the perpetrators tried.[148] The
National Assembly adopted a similar resolution two days later (originally tabled on 25 May 2016 by
Yves Fromion of
The Republicans), with the
Socialist, Ecologist and Republican group abstaining and the other groups approving.[149][150]
Armenia: In January 2018, the Armenian parliament recognised and condemned the 2014 genocide of Yazidis by the Islamic State, and called on the international community to conduct an international investigation into the events.[151]
Israel: On 21 November 2018, a bill tabled by opposition MP
Ksenia Svetlova (
ZU) to recognise the Islamic State's killing of Yazidis as a genocide was defeated in a 58 to 38 vote in the
Knesset. The
coalition parties motivated their rejection of the bill by saying that the United Nations had not yet recognised it as a genocide.[152]
Iraq: On 1 March 2021,
the Iraq parliament passed the Yazidi [Female] Survivors Bill which provides assistance to survivors and "determines the atrocities perpetrated by
Daesh against the Yazidis, Turkmen, Christians and Shabaks to be genocide and crimes against humanity."[153] The law provides compensation, measures for rehabilitation and reintegration, pensions, provision of land, housing, and education, and a quota in public sector employment.[154] On 10 May 2021, the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da'esh/IS (UNITAD) determined that ISIL's actions in Iraq constituted genocide.[140]
Belgium: On 30 June 2021, the Foreign Relations Commission of the
Belgian Chamber of Representatives unanimously approved a resolution by opposition representatives
Georges Dallemagne (
cdH) and
Koen Metsu (
N-VA) to recognise ISIL's August 2014 massacre of thousands of Yazidi men and enslavement of thousands of Yazidi women and children as genocide. The resolution, which would likely also pass with overwhelming approval in the Chamber itself, called on the Belgian government to increase its efforts to support victims, and prosecute perpetrators (either at the
International Criminal Court, or at a new ad hoc tribunal).[155] On 17 July 2021, the Belgian parliament unanimously voted to recognize the suffering of the Yazidis at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014 as a genocide.[156]
Netherlands: On 6 July 2021, the
Dutch House of Representatives unanimously passed a motion tabled by MP
Anne Kuik (
CDA) which recognised the crimes of Islamic State against the Yazidi population as a genocide and crimes against humanity.[157]
Germany: On 19 January 2023, the German
Bundestag unanimously recognized the crimes against Yazidis as genocide.[158] The resolution, which was jointly tabled by the government and the opposition, also calls for prosecution of the perpetrators and aid for rebuilding Yazidi villages.[159]
Timeline
Timeline
Genocidal and related events
2013
Threatening of Yazidi students in Mosul University by Islamists[160][161]
10 June 2014
Iraq's second largest city, Mosul falls under ISIS control[160][161]
ISIS attacks Sinjar after withdrawal of Kurdish forces. Yezidi IDPs flee to Sinjar mountain but are trapped with no access to essentials. Many die trying to escape[160]
4 August 2014
At least 60 Yazidi men are killed by ISIS in Hardan village while women and children are forcefully taken as captives to Tel Afar.[160]
7 August 2014
Air strike by the United States to "end siege" on Mount Sinjar. Several thousands of Yazidis have already been killed or taken captive by ISIS[160][162]
9–11 August 2014
Syrian Kurdish forces create an escape corridor from Mount Sinjar. At least 100,000 IDPs arrive in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq[160][163]
14 August 2014
United States ends humanitarian air drops on Mount Sinjar[160][164]
15 August 2014
ISIS carries out the Kocho massacre after two weeks of siege. The majority of village men are killed and boys are forced to become child soldiers; the women and girls are sold into sexual slavery[160][165]
Kurdish forces and Yazidi armed groups liberate Shingal from ISIS[160][167]
22 March 2019
Baghouz of eastern Syria is liberated. Yazidi captives are reportedly beheaded by ISIS. Enslaved Yazidi child soldiers are released[160][168]
27 October 2019
ISIS emir Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is killed by the United States in Syria[160][169]
1 March 2021
Yazidi survivors legislation is ratified by the Iraq parliament to offer compensation, land, and jobs[160][170]
6 February 2021
A funeral is held for the 104 Yazidis from the Kocho massacre. Hundreds of bodies are exhumed from about 80 mass graves located around Sinjar, some of which could not be identified.[160][171]
International reactions
ISIL's atrocities against Yazidis were strongly condemned by prominent Islamic scholars and Muslim organizations.[172][173][174]
On 8 August 2014, the US asserted that the systematic destruction of the Yazidi people by the Islamic State was genocide.[175]
President Barack Obama had authorized the attacks to protect Yazidis but also Americans and Iraqi minorities. President Obama gave an assurance that no troops would be deployed for combat. Along with the airstrikes of 9 August, the US
airdropped 3,800 gallons of water and 16,128
MREs. Following these actions, the
United Kingdom and
France stated that they also would begin airdrops.[176]
On 10 August 2014, at approximately 2:15 a.m. ET, the US carried out five additional airstrikes on armed vehicles and a mortar position, enabling 20,000–30,000 Yazidi Iraqis to flee into Syria and later be rescued by Kurdish forces. The Kurdish forces then provided shelter for the Yazidis in
Dohuk.[177][178]
On 13 August 2014, fewer than 20
United States Special Forces troops stationed in Irbil along with British
Special Air Service troops visited the area near Mount Sinjar to gather intelligence and plan the evacuation of approximately 30,000 Yazidis still trapped on Mount Sinjar. One hundred and twenty-nine additional US military personnel were deployed to Irbil to assess and provide a report to President Obama.[179] The United States Central Command also reported that a seventh airdrop was conducted and that to date, 114,000 meals and more than 35,000 gallons of water had been airdropped to the displaced Yazidis in the area.[180]
In a statement on 14 August 2014,
The Pentagon said that the 20 US personnel who had visited the previous day had concluded that a rescue operation was probably unnecessary since there was less danger from exposure or dehydration and the Yazidis were no longer believed to be at risk of attack from ISIL. Estimates also stated that 4,000 to 5,000 people remained on the mountain, with nearly half of which being Yazidi
herders who lived there before the siege.[181][182][183]
Kurdish officials and Yazidi refugees stated that thousands of young, elderly, and disabled individuals on the mountain were still vulnerable, with the governor of Kurdistan's
Dahuk province,
Farhad Atruchi, saying that the assessment was "not correct" and that although people were suffering, "the international community is not moving".[182]
Humanitarian aid
IDP camps are built to be temporary solutions, but they trap you in a cycle of day-to-day survival, rather than allowing you to progress toward recovery.
30,000–40,000 Yazidis fled to Syria, 100,000 Yazidis took refuge in Kurdish controlled
Zakho, Iraq.[185] In Syria, the
UNHCR provided material and transportation to Yazidi refugees and local Syrian communities cooked them meals.[186] Turkey initially took in 2,000 Yazidis refugees in
Silopi, where they were provided food and medical care,[187][188] but some refugees were turned back. The Turkish Disaster Relief Agency (AFAD) also set up refugee camps in Zakho, Iraq.[189][190] By 31 August, Turkey reportedly hosted 16,000 Yazidi refugees.[191]
The US military air dropped food and water to Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar.[192]Today's Zaman reported that Turkey also airdropped humanitarian aid to Yazidi refugees within Iraq.[193]
United Nations, Arab League, and NGOs
United Nations – On 13 August 2014, the United Nations declared the Yazidi crisis a highest-level "Level 3 Emergency", saying that the declaration "will facilitate mobilization of additional resources in goods, funds and assets to ensure a more effective response to the humanitarian needs of populations affected by forced displacements".[183][194] On 19 March 2015, a United Nations panel concluded that IS "may have committed" genocide against the Yazidis with an investigation head, Suki Nagra, stating that the attacks on the Yazidis "were not just spontaneous or happened out of the blue, they were clearly orchestrated".[195]
Defend International – On 6 September 2014, Defend International launched a worldwide campaign entitled "Save The Yazidis: The World Has To Act Now" to raise awareness about the tragedy of the Yazidis in Sinjar; coordinate activities related to intensifying efforts aimed at rescuing Yazidi and Christian women and girls captured by ISIL; provide a platform for discussion and the exchange of information on matters and activities relevant to securing the fundamental rights of the Yazidis, no matter where they reside; and building a bridge between potential partners and communities whose work is relevant to the campaign, including individuals, groups, communities, and organizations active in the areas of women's and girls' rights, inter alia, as well as actors involved in ending modern-day slavery and violence against women and girls.[67][198] The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) emphasized the continued threats against Yazidis and made calls for U.S. government action to support the human rights and religious freedom of the group in Iraq.[199]
Prosecutions of Islamic State personnel
Amal Clooney of the
Center for Justice & Accountability (CJA), represented five Yazidi women before the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against
Umm Sayyaf seeking prosecution of Sayyaf for her role in their enslavement.[200] In 2021, German courts convicted ISIS women for their involvement in the enslavement of Yazidi women.[201] German courts also prosecuted Taha al-Jumailly, an Iraqi member of the Islamic State, for his involvement in the Yazidi genocide, to include the murder of a five-year-old girl.[202] A report by the Yazidi Justice Committee covered the allegation of countries, Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, for failing to prevent and punish the genocide.[203]
Resettlement of Yazidi refugees
United States Senators
Amy Klobuchar and
Lindsey Graham have called on United States President
Joe Biden to help resettle Yazidi survivors of the Islamic State campaign of 2014–2017.[204]
Nanninga, Pieter (2019). "Religion and International Crimes: The Case of the Islamic State". In Smeulers, Alette; Weerdesteijn, Maartje; Hola, Barbora (eds.). Perpetrators of International Crimes: Theories, Methods, and Evidence. Oxford University Press.
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^Çelebi, Evliya (1991). The Intimate Life of an Ottoman Statesman: Melek Ahmed Pasha (1588–1662). Translated by
Dankoff, Robert.
SUNY Press. pp. 169–171.
ISBN0-7914-0640-7.
^Edip Gölbasi, The Yezidis and the Ottoman State: Modern power, military conscription, and conversion policies, 1830-1909 (Master's Thesis: Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History, 2008). See also: Nelida Fuccaro, 'Communalism and the State in Iraq: The Yazidi Kurds, c.1869-1940", Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 35, No. 2 (April 1999), p. 6
^
ab"Daughters of the Sun". 52 Documentary (short documentary). Voice of America. 7 November 2023.
Archived from the original on 11 December 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
^Samar El-Masri (2018). "Prosecuting ISIS for the sexual slavery of the Yazidi women and girls". The International Journal of Human Rights. Regardless of ISIS's interpretation of certain Quranic verses to justify their explicit practice of sexual slavery – which was publicly refuted by dozens of Islamic scholars – and regardless of the social, cultural and religious reasons that may clarify ISIS's disregard of girls' and women's rights, the victims deserve justice.
^Schaack, Beth Van (2018). "The Iraq Investigative Team and Prospects for Justice for the Yazidi Genocide". Journal of International Criminal Justice. 16: 113–139.
doi:
10.1093/jicj/mqy002.