Targeting of Yazidis

The Yazidis are one of the oldest ethno-religious minorities in Iraq, and their number is estimated to reach up to 700 000. They were mostly located in Northern Iraq, in the region around Sinjar, and in areas south of and bordering the KRI, including the Ninewa plains. Since 2014, the minority has been severely targeted by ISIL, which justified the attacks against Yazidis by labelling them as heretics and devil worshippers.⁸⁸²

In August 2014 ISIL overran the territories where the Yazidis settled, at that time held by the Kurdish Peshmerga and the ISF. In the course of this military offensive, ISIL forces and other groups allied to it systematically targeted the Yazidi community, killing and capturing thousands from their villages in the Ninewa Governorate. Tens of thousands fled to Sinjar Mountains, where they were surrounded by ISIL, and many others escaped towards the KRI.

In total, UNAMI and UNHCR reported that between 2 000 and 5 500 Yazidis were killed by the

873 UNAMI/OHCHR, Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Iraq: 6 July – 10 September 2014, 02 October 2014, url, pp. 11-12.

874 MRG, From Crisis to Catastrophe: the situation of minorities in Iraq, 14 October 2014, url, pp. 20-21.

875 MRG, From Crisis to Catastrophe: the situation of minorities in Iraq, 14 October 2014, url, pp. 20-21.

876 MRG, From Crisis to Catastrophe: the situation of minorities in Iraq, 14 October 2014, url, p. 9

877 UNAMI/OHCHR, Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Iraq: 11 September – 10 December 2014, 23 February 2015, url, p. 12; UNAMI/OHCHR, Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Iraq:

11 December 2014 - 30 April 2015, 13 July 2015, url, pp. 18-19; UNAMI/OHCHR, Report on the Protection of Civilians in the Armed Conflict in Iraq: 1 May – 31 October 2015, 11 January 2016, url, p. 16 .

878 UNAMI/OHCHR, Report on the Protection of Civilians in the Armed Conflict in Iraq: 1 November 2015 – 30 September 2016, 30 December 2016, url, p. 15.

879 UNAMI/OHCHR, Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Iraq: 11 December 2014 - 30 April 2015, 13 July 2015, url, p. 19.

880 Australia, DFAT Country Information Report Iraq, 9 October 2018, url, p. 15.

881 USDOS, Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2017 - Iraq, 20 April 2018, url.

882 France, OFPRA, The Security situation of religious and ethnic minorities, 14 November 2017, url.

Islamic State. More than 6 000 were abducted in August 2014, including 3 500 women and girls, who were subsequently sold or offered as sex slaves to ISIL members. The almost 3 000 men and boys in captivity were enrolled as fighters.⁸⁸³

In January 2018, UNAMI reported that 3 158 Yazidis (1 472 women and 1 686 men) were still in ISIL captivity.⁸⁸⁴ The October 2018 UN Security Council report informed that ‘on 29 August, the Department of Yazidi Affairs in the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs in the KRG reported that of the 6 417 Yazidis (3 548 women and 2 869 men) abducted by ISIL since August 2014, fewer than half have been freed or escaped. On the same day, the Department also reported that 3 095 Yazidis (1 845 children and 1 250 women) remained in ISIL captivity or were missing. No men remain in ISIL captivity. Those abducted have either escaped or been freed, or have been executed by ISIL.’⁸⁸⁵

In her report on her mission to Iraq in 2016, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues of the United Nations considered the following, in view of a possible qualification of the crimes committed by ISIL against the Yazidis as genocide:

‘While further detailed investigation is required, information provided to the Special Rapporteur, including public videos and statements by ISIL itself, strongly supports allegations that the threshold required for a finding of genocide has been surpassed in the case of the Yazidis. The intention to destroy the Yazidi group in whole or in part can be inferred from the deliberate and systematic targeting of members of that community, including execution or forced conversion.’⁸⁸⁶

According to the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic ISIL has committed the crime of genocide as well as multiple crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Yazidis:

‘ISIS has sought to destroy the Yazidis through killings; sexual slavery, enslavement, torture and inhuman and degrading treatment and forcible transfer causing serious bodily and mental harm; the infliction of conditions of life that bring about a slow death; the imposition of measures to prevent Yazidi children from being born, including forced conversion of adults, the separation of Yazidi men and women, and mental trauma; and the transfer of Yazidi children from their own families and placing them with ISIS fighters, thereby cutting them off from beliefs and practices of their own religious community, and erasing their identity as Yazidis.’⁸⁸⁷

The August 2016 UN report, A Call for Accountability and Protection: Yezidi Survivors of Atrocities Committed by ISIL, based mainly on accounts obtained from survivors and witnesses of human rights abuses, collected accounts of the following types of human rights abuses against Yazidis:

883 France, OFPRA, The Security situation of religious and ethnic minorities, 14 November 2017, url, p. 6;

UNAMI/OHCHR, A Call for Accountability and Protection: Yezidi Survivors of Atrocities Committed by ISIL, 12 August 2016, url, p. 4.

884 UNAMI/OHCHR, Report on Human Rights in Iraq: July to December 2017, 8 July 2018, url, p. 15.

885 UN Security Council, Implementation of resolution 2421 (2018) Report of the Secretary-General [S/2018/975], 31 October 2018, url, p. 10.

886 UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues on her mission to Iraq, 9 January 2017, url, p. 16.

887 UN, Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, They came to destroy: ISIS crimes against the Yazidis, 15 June 2016, url, p. 1.

 Forced displacements

 Forced conversions

 Abduction, deprivation of liberty,

 Cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment

 Systematic and widespread killing

 Sexual violence/sexual slavery⁸⁸⁸

During the ISIL offensive against Sinjar, thousands of Yazidis were forced to flee, either to Sinjar Mountain, to the Syrian border or towards the KRI. On Mount Sinjar, the population was trapped on top of the mountain without sufficient supplies and under siege by ISIL. In a report from the Special Rapporteur for the United Nations on minority issues on her mission to Iraq from 9 January 2017, community leaders estimated that about 400 000 Yazidis were displaced ‘trying to survive under the threat of extinction’.⁸⁸⁹

Those Yazidi who survived the initial onslaught, but were intercepted by ISIL, were told to convert to Islam or be killed. Those who refused were killed, often in front of other captured Yazidi. OHCHR and UNAMI jointly stated that ‘those who complied under this extreme duress were nonetheless subjected to severe ill-treatment and sexual violence’ from ISIL.⁸⁹⁰

Those Yazidis who were captured were moved between different locations, subjected to severe ill treatment and suffered a lack of basic supplies, including food and water. Children, the elderly and people with disabilities had to endure the same treatment. Families were separated, young children taken away by force, and captives were forced to drink sewage water. Many Yazidi reported being beaten frequently while in captivity. Those Yazidi who were allowed to live outside captivity, had to perform forced work, and minor offences against the rules imposed by ISIL were subject to corporal punishment like public flogging. Children above the age of five were forcibly converted and had to learn the Quran. Boys above twelve years old received weapons training by ISIL instructors.⁸⁹¹

After the taking of Sinjar city and surrounding Yazidi villages, multiple witnesses reported to OHCHR and UNAMI that ISIL killed scores of Yazidi civilians. Men, women, children and elderly people were randomly killed, including mass executions of captives.⁸⁹² The exact number of Yazidis killed by ISIL is not known, but a retrospective household survey to estimate the number and demographic profile of Yazidis killed and kidnapped, conducted between 4 November and 25 December 2015 by four scientists of different domains revealed the estimated probabilities of killings and kidnappings of Yazidis by ISIL. Nearly 25 out of 1 000 people were either killed or kidnapped. The likelihood of being killed was 7.6 per 1 000, and the likelihood of being kidnapped 17.0 per 1 000. Furthermore, this study estimated that, assuming a Yazidi population of 40 000 in Sinjar when ISIL attacked, the overall toll was 9 900 people. Around 3 100 Yazidis were killed (1 400 were executed, and 1 700 died on Mount

888 UNAMI/OHCHR, A Call for Accountability and Protection: Yezidi Survivors of Atrocities Committed by ISIL, 12 August 2016, url, p. 2.

889 UNAMI/OHCHR, A Call for Accountability and Protection: Yezidi Survivors of Atrocities Committed by ISIL, 12 August 2016, url, pp. 8-10; UN Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues on her mission to Iraq, 9 January 2017, url, pp. 12-13.

890 UNAMI/OHCHR, A Call for Accountability and Protection: Yezidi Survivors of Atrocities Committed by ISIL, 12 August 2016, url, p. 10.

891 UNAMI/OHCHR, A Call for Accountability and Protection: Yezidi Survivors of Atrocities Committed by ISIL, 12 August 2016, url, pp. 11-12.

892 UNAMI/OHCHR, A Call for Accountability and Protection: Yezidi Survivors of Atrocities Committed by ISIL, 12 August 2016, url, pp. 12-14.

Sinjar during the ISIL siege). The estimated number kidnapped was put on 6 800. At the time of the survey in November and December 2015, an estimated 2 500 Yazidis were still missing.⁸⁹³

After the capture of numerous Yazidi civilians, ISIL systematically separated the men from the women and children. Often ISIL took away the younger girls away from their families. Girls above a certain age (8 years, according to OHCHR/UNAMI) were taken, and women with younger children or who were pregnant could not count on being spared from sexual harassment or rape. ISIL regarded sexual slavery as acceptable regarding female captives, and referred to them as ‘slaves’, or ‘spoils of war’. ISIL even issued a pamphlet allowing to have sexual intercourse with a girl who has not yet reached puberty, and stating that the slave is considered as a property of the owner.⁸⁹⁴

OHCHR/UNAMI listed numerous accounts of rape, sexual slavery and mistreatment of Yazidi women and girls by members of ISIL⁸⁹⁵, and likewise did Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International in similar reports.⁸⁹⁶

USDOS noted that ‘since 2014, ISIS militants have kidnapped and held captive thousands of women and children from a wide range of ethnic and religious groups, especially Yazidis, and continue to sell them to ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria, where they are subjected to forced marriage, sexual slavery, rape, and domestic servitude.’⁸⁹⁷ Other sources explained that ISIL trafficked Yazidi women and children ‘at slave markets or on specialized websites via applications like Telegram and Signal. One online resale chat group, called “The Great Mall of the Islamic State” had up to 754 members’ where ISIL member could buy women or children.⁸⁹⁸

According to the findings of two missions conducted by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) to the KRI in February and August 2017, ‘Since August 2014 and over a period of several years, ISIL systematically and on a horrifying scale committed SGBV [Sexual- and Gender-Based Violence] amounting to genocide and crimes against humanity, as well as other acts amounting to crimes under international law, against the Yazidi population.’⁸⁹⁹ According to USDOS, 360 000 Yazidis displaced to Dohuk in KRI remained displaced due to the

‘confused security situation’ in Sinjar.⁹⁰⁰

For further information on targeting of Yazidis under societal norms see section 3.4.3.

893 Cetorelli, V. et.al., Mortality and kidnapping estimates for the Yazidi population in the area of Mount Sinjar, Iraq, in August 2014: A retrospective household survey. PLoS Med 14(5): e1002297, url.

894 UNAMI/OHCHR, A Call for Accountability and Protection: Yezidi Survivors of Atrocities Committed by ISIL, 12 August 2016, url, p. 14; Human Rights Watch, Slavery: The ISIS Rules, 5 September 2015, url.

895 UNAMI/OHCHR, A Call for Accountability and Protection: Yezidi Survivors of Atrocities Committed by ISIL, 12 August 2016, url, pp. 14-16;

896 Human Rights Watch, Iraq: ISIS Escapees Describe Systematic Rape. Yezidi Survivors in Need of Urgent Care, 14 April 2015, url; AI, Escape from hell Torture and sexual slavery in Islamic State captivity in Iraq, 23 December 2014, url.

897 USDOS, Trafficking in Persons Report 2018 - Country Narratives - Iraq, 28 June 2018, url.

898 Kinyat Organisation for Documentation/FIDH, Sexual violence against Yazidis: ISIL foreign fighters should be prosecuted for genocide and crimes against humanity, 25 October 2018, url, pp. 23-26.

899 Kinyat Organisation for Documentation/FIDH, Sexual violence against Yazidis: ISIL foreign fighters should be prosecuted for genocide and crimes against humanity, 25 October 2018, url, p. 49.

900 USDOS, 2015 Report on International Religious Freedom – Iraq, 10 August 2016, url.