What Is The Progress With Bringing Daesh To Justice?
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. pg gaming
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.
