On the 30th of november, AISU’s educational committee organised a lecture in collaboration with the Yazidi Legal Network in which multiple speakers talked about the ongoing situation concerning the Yazidis in Northern Iraq. In the lecture we learned that they are a religious and ethnic minority with a population of around 700.000 people. Sadly, they have a history of persecution as their faith is not accepted by some muslims in the region.
The Yazidi Legal Network
One of the speakers was Laura Petkovic, a researcher of crimes committed by IS fighters. She gave us an overview of the topic and of the work of the Yazidi Legal Network.
We learned from her that the network’s mission is to support Yazidis who seek accountability for international crimes committed against them. Through cooperation with national and international accountability mechanisms, NGO’s and legal experts they work towards recognition of the harm suffered and reparations for the victims. Furthermore, they work on a database in which information about the crimes committed against Yazidis is stored, so researchers and prosecutors have a pool of information and can connect individual incidents.
2014 Genocide
The most recent incident of extreme violence took place in 2014 when IS invaded Iraq. 5000 Yazidis were killed, 7000 kidnapped and 400.000 displaced and internationally this is recognized as a genocide.
Many of those who were displaced fled to Europe to seek asylum, which in the first years after the genocide was often granted. Here, they are rebuilding their community and trying to overcome their traumatic experiences. However, the future for many Yazidis is uncertain and since the territory is no longer controlled by IS, many are facing the prospect of having to return back to their destroyed homeland. Many towns and villages are destroyed, there is no infrastructure and barely any hospitals.
Apart from their personal and material loss that many Yazidis experienced, the path to justice is difficult. In many cases, conviction of the perpetrators is impossible because their identities are unknown. This is why the database is important, as it might help identifying certain perpetrators if they appear in multiple witness statements.
Furthermore, the Yazidi’s fate is widely unknown in the world and a lack of recognition leads to a lack of pressure on international actors to seek accountability. The difficulty of identifying perpetrators is also hindering the prosecution because it is unclear which court is responsible for it.
This is why Yazidis and human rights activists worldwide are working hard to raise awareness and achieve recognition and understanding of the Yazidi’s situation. Among them Wahhab Hassoo, a Yazidi Legal Network ambassador and founder of NL helps Yazidis. He started a UNHCR petition requesting the unification of families who were separated due to the genocide, and the endless asylum processes that follows.
Witness Stories
The other speaker of the lecture was Amjad, a Yazidi who fled his home when IS took control of the territory and now lives in the Netherlands. He shared his personal story of friends that were captured, and most likely killed, by IS and his grandfather’s farm that was blasted into pieces. He also talked about the psychological long term effects the genocide has on the Yazidi community and their daily remembering of these traumatic events and the people who lost their lives. He, as many others, will never be able to forget what they have been through, and that’s why it is important that we, and the rest of the world, don’t forget about them.
What can you do?
The steps of action we can take is to keep on raising awareness of the Yazidi's situation. By spreading their stories, supporting the Yazidi Legal Network either by attending their informative events, volunteering or supporting them financially, and signing petitions!
Useful links:
https://www.unhcr.org/nl/petitie-gezinshereniging/