What Is The Progress With Bringing Daesh To Justice?
Daesh terrorist organization. Creative Commons Image.
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(OPINION) On August 3, 2014, members of the terror organization Daesh (commonly referred to as Islamic State or ISIL) launched a violent attack against Yazidis in Sinjar, Iraq. Daesh fighters killed hundreds, if not thousands of men. As part of the same campaign, Daesh fighters abducted boys to turn them into child soldiers and women and girls for sex slavery. Thousands of women and girls are still missing and their fate is unknown. A few days after the attack on Sinjar, Daesh also attacked the Ninevah Plains and forced over 120,000 people to flee for their lives in the middle of the night. Daesh committed murder, enslavement, deportation and forcible transfer of population, imprisonment, torture, abduction of women and children, exploitation, abuse, rape, sexual violence and forced marriage.
As the seventh anniversary of the atrocities approaches, there are certain questions regarding the responses to the atrocities that continue to cause concerns. Among them is the question of justice: what is the progress with bringing Daesh to justice?
In the pursuit of justice, on September 21, 2017, the UN Security Council passed a resolution establishing the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD) to collect and preserve the evidence of Daesh’s atrocities in Iraq and to support Iraqi domestic efforts to hold the perpetrators to account. Over the years, UNITAD has been fulfilling its mandate and taking steps towards accountability.
On May 10, 2021, Mr. Karim Khan QC, Special Adviser and Head of UNITAD, briefed the U.N. Security Council on recent developments, including UNITAD’s finalized two case briefs related to attacks committed by Daesh against the Yazidi community in Sinjar in August 2014 and the mass killing of unarmed Iraqi air force cadets from Tikrit Air Academy (Camp Speicher) in June 2014. Among others, UNITAD identified 1,444 suspected perpetrators responsible for the attacks against the Yazidis, including 14 members deemed most responsible for the atrocities classified as war crimes, crimes against humanity and even genocide. UNITAD further identified 20 members of Daesh most responsible for the attack on Camp Speicher. In addition, UNITAD finalized an initial case brief on companies and individuals involved in the financing of the Daesh atrocities and initiated investigations into the Daesh’s atrocities against prisoners in Badush Prison in Mosul in June 2014 and against Shia Turkmen, Shabak, Kaka’i, and Christian and Sunni communities.
Last, but not least, UNITAD opened a new investigation into the development and successful deployment of chemical and biological weapons by Daesh in Iraq.
What is being done with all the evidence? According to the resolution establishing UNITAD, the primary place for the use of the evidence is Iraqi domestic courts. However, UNITAD has received requests for assistance for domestic proceedings from 14 states. This is an important development, especially as currently there is no international tribunal that could conduct such prosecutions. During the May 2021 briefing at the U.N. Security Council, Nadia Murad, a tireless advocate for the Yazidi community, repeated her calls upon the U.N. Security Council to do more to prosecute the perpetrators, including by referring the atrocities to the International Criminal Court or establishing an ad-hoc tribunal.
The work of UNITAD should be used as a model for responding to atrocity crimes, especially where there is no international tribunal that could conduct this work. The plethora of evidence collected is a key to ensuring justice for the survivors and the families of victims. While many may be concerned about the state of the U.N., its limitations and shortcomings in responding to atrocity crimes, the work on collecting and preserving evidence, as done by UNITAD, must be duly recognized for its crucial contribution towards justice. However, we need to remember the words of Nadia Murad that: “Transforming evidence into accountability and justice requires action.”
Ewelina U. Ochab is a legal researcher and human rights advocate, PhD candidate and author of the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” and more than 30 UN reports. She works on the topic of persecution of minorities around the world. This piece was re-published from Forbes with permission.