On October 17, 2015, Yazda launched a genocide documentation project designed to procure as much material as possible on the attempted genocide campaign that IS (the group calling itself “The Islamic State”) conducted against the Yazidi people, which began on Aug. 3, 2014. Voices of Rwanda, active in documenting Rwanda’s genocide for many years, provided Yazda with training and support.

Yazda’s documentation project focuses on:

1. Survivor testimonies and the accounts of other witnesses to the events of Aug. 3;
2. Mass graves of Yazidis in Sinjar;
3. The physical destruction of Yazidi material culture and towns in an attempt to prevent Yazidis from returning to their homelands and effectively erase their presence from the region.

There are several objectives of Yazda’s documentation project:

1. To preserve the memory of what befell the Yazidi people beginning August 3, 2014 for the historical record;
2. To preserve knowledge about Yazidi culture as it existed in Sinjar prior to the attempted genocide;
3. To provide the international community with as detailed and accurate an account of the genocide campaign as possible;
4. To collect evidence of crimes of genocide against the Yazidi people in the effort to secure genocide recognition for the Yazidi case.

Since Yazda began its documentation project, cataloging and photographing the mass graves of Yazidis in Sinjar has been a priority. These sites can provide valuable evidence regarding the genocidal intentions and actions of the IS jihadist group against the Yazidis, but the sites are at risk due to a lack of proper protection and the absence of a professional effort to properly document and analyze them.

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