Yazidi Survivors Turn to New Truth Commission As Justice Stalls
(ANALYSIS) More than a decade after an ISIS group unleashed a campaign of genocide against the Yazidis, a people group in northern Iraq, the search for justice remains unfinished.
Yazidis, a religious and ethnic minority whose faith combines elements of Islam, Christianity and a Zoroastrian-like reverence for fire as a manifestation of God, have long been a target for extremists in the area.
Although governments around the world have formally recognized the atrocities as genocide, accountability has lagged far behind those declarations. Now, a new international initiative seeks to confront that failure.
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In June, several experts, including the world-renowned lawyer Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws LT KC, announced the establishment of a first-of-its-kind Community-Based Truth Commission. The initiative aims to address the failure of the international community and nation to deliver justice for the Yazidis, an ethno-religious minority group targeted by Daesh (also known as the Islamic State, or ISIS) during its genocidal campaign in Iraq and Syria.
The Truth Commission will be held at the German Bundestag this November, where more than 30 victims, survivors and experts are expected to testify over three days of oral hearings.
The Yazidis came to international attention in 2014 when Daesh launched one of the most brutal campaigns of violence in recent history. A non-state terrorist organization that emerged in Iraq in the early 2000s, Daesh attacked the Sinjar region on Aug. 3 2014, devastating the Yazidi community.
Thousands were killed, with men and elderly women deliberately targeted for execution. Boys were abducted and forcibly recruited as child soldiers. Thousands of women and girls were kidnapped, sold into sexual slavery, and subjected to systematic violence. Nearly 2,600 Yazidi women and children remain missing today.
The atrocities extended well beyond murder. Daesh systematically enslaved, deported, imprisoned, tortured, abducted, exploited, abused, raped and forced women into marriages throughout territories under its control, according to reports and victims. As the violence spread across the Nineveh Plains, another 120,000 people fled their homes in the middle of the night in a desperate attempt to survive.
International bodies and governments have acknowledged what happened. The atrocities have been recognized as genocide by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria and by several governments and parliaments, including those of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada.
Yet recognition has not been matched by action. States have repeatedly failed to fulfill their obligations under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) to prevent and punish genocide. Meanwhile, assistance to affected communities has steadily declined, even as many Yazidis remain unable to return safely to their ancestral homeland.
There has been progress, though it has been limited. Domestic courts in Germany, Sweden, France and the Netherlands have prosecuted several Daesh members, providing important moments of accountability for survivors. But these cases represent only a fraction of the crimes committed by the organization and the thousands of foreign fighters who traveled from around the world to join its ranks.
For years, much of the evidence was gathered by the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/ISIL, established in 2017. Beyond preserving evidence, UNITAD worked with prosecutors in approximately 14 countries to support criminal proceedings, including those based on the principle of universal jurisdiction. That effort effectively ended in September 2024 after the Iraqi Government requested the mechanism's closure and the international community failed to renew its mandate. Today, much of the evidence remains in U.N. archives with limited opportunities for prosecutors to access or use it.
The new Truth Commission hopes to change the conversation. Its purpose is not only to refocus international attention on the Yazidi community but also to examine practical pathways toward justice, including wider use of universal jurisdiction and the possible establishment of a dedicated international tribunal to prosecute perpetrators.
During the hearings, oral testimony will be presented before a panel of international experts from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ukraine, South Africa and Afghanistan. Their findings will form the basis of a report containing concrete policy recommendations, which will later be presented in the UK Parliament in 2027.
Among those expected to testify is a Yazidi woman now living in Germany who survived more than two years in Daesh captivity. Her testimony will recount not only her own experiences but also the crimes she witnessed, including the abduction of girls and the beatings inflicted on mothers who attempted to protect their children.
The Truth Commission is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body supported through a grant-in-aid from the UK Government. Germany was selected as the venue because it is home to one of the world's largest Yazidi populations, reflecting both earlier migration and the humanitarian resettlement efforts that followed the 2014 genocide.
As global attention has shifted elsewhere, the need for justice has only become more urgent. Holding perpetrators accountable for the international crimes committed against the Yazidis is not simply about addressing the past. It is an essential step toward preventing future atrocities and reaffirming the international commitment to protect vulnerable communities.
A small number of criminal prosecutions cannot accomplish that task alone. The Truth Commission seeks to remind the world that justice delayed need not become justice denied — and that the responsibility to act still belongs to the international community.
Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab is a human rights advocate, author and co-founder of the Coalition for Genocide Response. She is on X @EwelinaUO.