Photo courtesy of ⓒ 2024 Emilia Lixi / International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Yazidi Genocide survivors and organizations present challenges and needs in Sinjar.
Yazidi genocide survivors demand justice during special session at Palace of Luxembourg in Paris
Joint press release
- A special session was convened at the Palace of Luxembourg in Paris for Yazidi survivors who escaped captivity to highlight their needs and calls for justice.
- Calls for justice are still not being answered as Yazidi survivors grapple with the imminent closure of the United Nations Security Council-mandated investigative team, UNITAD, which has collected significant evidence of Da’esh crimes in Iraq.
- Almost ten years since the start of the Yazidi Genocide, the needs of Yazidi women survivors are acutely underserved with insufficient efforts by international and national governments to offer sufficient support to heal and rebuild their lives.
Photo courtesy of ⓒ 2024 Emilia Lixi / International Organization for Migration (IOM)
French Senator Nathalie Goulet co-hosts special session on Yazidi Genocide.
Paris, France - June 24, 2024
Yazidi women survivors who escaped Da’esh captivity represented their community during a special session in Paris at the Palace of Luxembourg. The session was hosted by French Senator Nathalie Goulet with Yazidi community institution, Yazda, and the Zovighian Public Office.
“I am happy and honored to host the Zovighian Public Office and the Yazidi survivors of a 21st century genocide,” said Senator Nathalie Goulet, representing the French region of l’Orne, who co-organized this convening. Author of L’abécédaire du financement du terrorisme, Goulet investigated the financing schemes of Da’esh through the illicit smuggling of historic artifacts during their occupation of Sinjar, in Iraq.
400,000 Yazidi people were displaced from Sinjar by Da’esh in a genocidal campaign that began on August 3, 2014. While men were mass murdered and children were kidnapped and taken into militant training camps, girls as young as nine years old and women were captured and enslaved in sex trafficking and forced labor conditions.
“Almost 10 years after the start of the genocide, none of the issues faced by the Yazidi community have been fully addressed. We still have missing people, unexhumed mass graves, unidentified remains, no security in Sinjar, and no prospective for justice. We need to recenter the discussions around the genocide on concrete and long-term needs of the affected communities, and not just the priorities of states around countering-terrorism and national security. 10 years later, essential questions should be: why were Yazidis and other groups targeted in the first place and how can we ensure this does not happen again?” stated Natia Navrouzov, recently elected Executive Director of Yazda.
While over 3,000 women and girls were able to escape against all odds, around 2,600 women and girls are still held in captivity in Iraq, Syria, and other countries almost ten years later, with no proper institutionalized mechanism to search and rescue them. The recently established UN Independent Institution on Missing Persons (IIMP) in Syria has the potential to bring some answers for Yazidis who were abducted and sent to Syria.
“It is almost the 10th annual commemoration of the Yazidi Genocide, and so little has changed for our people. We still have not received justice,” said Manal Luqman Khalaf, a Yazidi survivor who spent one year in captivity before her escape. She is a member of the survivor-led
Yazidi Survivors Network (YSN) established in February 2019 by Yazda to give female survivors an advocacy platform to express their needs and demands.
Photo courtesy of ⓒ 2024 Zovighian Public Office
Yazidi survivors and Yazidi French community will continue their advocacy following this successful event.
Ten years later, many Yazidi women survivors are still seeking justice in a court of law. So far, there has been a lack of global judicial response to Da’esh crimes: only a handful of cases were prosecuted in Germany, although Da’esh militants were recruited from over 80 countries and millions of civilians in Iraq and Syria were affected. The only international mechanism established to collect evidence in Iraq, UNITAD, will prematurely close its mandate by September 17, 2024. Around two months to closing, and there is still no roadmap on how this evidence will be accessible to countries that are willing to prosecute Da’esh members for crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Furthermore, the calls of survivors to establish an international or hybrid tribunal continue to not be acknowledged.
“As conflicts continue in other regions, our suffering is often forgotten. Justice is important. We urge attention on the International Criminal Court and the establishment of a mixed court to hold Da'esh members accountable, regardless of their nationality,” said Yazidi survivor Nasrin Hassan Rasho, who was enslaved for two years before her escape. She is a member of the YSN and the Survivors Voice Network (SVN).
Many who have returned to their families now live in critical conditions in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Iraq with little to no access to medical, mental, and other healthcare services. Young girls who were reunited with their families as adults have not been able to finish their schooling or seek jobs or entrepreneurial opportunities. With no international systemic efforts to understand and address their many needs, Yazidi women survivors have never been so vulnerable and Yazidi families have never been so affected by trauma and loss.
A decade later, the lack of adequate security, infrastructure, and political support has left survivors and their families languishing in displacement camps, struggling to rebuild their lives amidst ongoing uncertainty and trauma. With diminished access to aid and funding as international agencies shift their attention towards other conflicts and areas of need, local organizations are finding it even harder to support the needs of affected families and survivors.
“Thousands of Yazidis remain displaced within Iraq even after 10 years. They endure difficult conditions without access to basic necessities. There are no work opportunities, and most are clinging to the hope of leaving Iraq to live a life of dignity and safety abroad,” said Yazidi survivor Shireen Khero Khudeeda, who is also a member of the YSN and SVN. She survived captivity after three years.
Today, the humanitarian crisis continues with thousands of Yazidis still displaced. Over 200,000 Yazidis remain in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps. An estimated 160,000 Yazidis have left the country and the Middle East region.
“The international community has an indispensable responsibility to help Yazidi survivors achieve justice and rebuild their lives. Every woman deserves a life worth living,” said Lynn Zovighian, Founder of the Zovighian Public Office, which is committed to empowering survivors and communities facing crisis and crimes of atrocity.
Diplomats and advocates also experienced “Nobody’s Listening,” a virtual reality exhibition co-documented with Yazidi survivors, to see firsthand witness accounts of the destruction of Sinjar by Da’esh.
This session was made possible with the support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Zovighian Public Office.
[End of Press Release]
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For media inquiries, please contact:
Farhad Ali
Media and Communication Officer
Yazda Organization
Yazda is a global community-led organisation providing critical humanitarian assistance and promoting accountability and justice for the atrocities committed by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as ISIS, IS or by its Arabic acronym Da’esh, against the Yazidi community and other groups in Iraq. Yazda was established in 2014, three weeks after the genocidal campaign commenced in Sinjar, northern Iraq, and was among the first organisations on the ground providing lifesaving assistance to survivors. Yazda was the first actor to document Yazidi survivor accounts of crimes committed by ISIL.
The Yazidi Survivors Network (YSN) was launched in February 2019 by Yazda as an advocacy platform for Yazidi survivors to express their challenges and needs. All members of the network have been trained on advocacy, transitional justice and ethical engagement with media. Over the past five years, members of the YSN members have engaged in high level advocacy with various stakeholders in the world and in Iraq.
The
Zovighian Public Office was established in 2015 to serve communities facing crises and crimes of atrocity by amplifying their voices through research, advocacy, and diplomacy.
