Identifying Genocide: The Yazidi Massacre in the Context of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide 1948

Jade Potot-Warren

doi:10.19164/sjppar.v2i1.922

Abstract

In August 2014 ISIS conducted a coordinated attack on the Yazidi population of the Mount Sinjar area. As a result, the entirety of this Yazidi population was displaced[1], and an estimated total of 3,100[2] Yazidis were killed (approximately half were executed, and the rest died whilst fleeing[3]) and 6,800[4] were kidnapped and subjected to numerous abuses, including torture and forced religious conversion. The “genocide” is ongoing[5] and as of August 2014, there are an estimated 3,200[6] women and girls still in ISIS captivity. This article will explore these events in the context of the elements of genocide and with references to the findings of the Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic and the Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the human rights situation in Iraq in the light of abuses committed by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and associated group. This article will critically examine if, and to what extent, these attacks constitute a genocide within the meaning of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide (‘Genocide Convention’) 1948.In August 2014 ISIS conducted a coordinated attack on the Yazidi population of the Mount Sinjar area. As a result, the entirety of this Yazidi population was displaced[1], and an estimated total of 3,100[2] Yazidis were killed (approximately half were executed, and the rest died whilst fleeing[3]) and 6,800[4] were kidnapped and subjected to numerous abuses, including torture and forced religious conversion. The “genocide” is ongoing[5] and as of August 2014, there are an estimated 3,200[6] women and girls still in ISIS captivity.This article will explore these events in the context of the elements of genocide and with references to the findings of the Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic and the Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the human rights situation in Iraq in the light of abuses committed by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and associated group. This article will critically examine if, and to what extent, these attacks constitute a genocide within the meaning of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide (‘Genocide Convention’) 1948.

Highlights

The Yazidis are a longstanding ethnic and religious community, the majority of whom live in Northern Iraq7 in the Mount Sinjar area, where the IslamicState of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) had been systematically targeting minority groups in the region in a brutal drive to “purify” it of non-Islamic influences9.On 3 August 2014, IslamicState of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) launched an attack targeting the Yazidis and advanced convoys into the Sinjar area, surrounding the neighbouring towns and villages, and forcingYazidis to seek refuge on Mount Sinjar, which ISIS subsequently encircled leaving the Yazidis trapped without supplies or shelter10
Identifying Genocide: The Yazidi Massacre in the Context of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide 1948 Jade Potot-Warren, Northumbria University In August 2014 ISIS conducted a coordinated attack on the Yazidi population of the Mount Sinjar area
The acts committed by ISIS against the Yazidis satisfy the statutory definition of genocide as set out by the Genocide Convention of 1948: genocidal acts were committed, the Yazidis constitute a protected group, and ISIS appear to have the requisite genocidal intent to destroy, at least in part, the Yazidi community

Summary

Background

The Yazidis are a longstanding ethnic and religious community, the majority of whom live in Northern Iraq in the Mount Sinjar area (approximately 400,0008 people), where the Islamic. State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) had been systematically targeting minority groups in the region in a brutal drive to “purify” it of non-Islamic influences. On 3 August 2014, ISIS launched an attack targeting the Yazidis and advanced convoys into the Sinjar area, surrounding the neighbouring towns and villages, and forcing. Yazidis to seek refuge on Mount Sinjar, which ISIS subsequently encircled leaving the Yazidis trapped without supplies or shelter. Girls and boys were kidnapped: the women and girls who had attained the age of 913 were used and/or sold into sexual or domestic slavery and the young boys who had attained the age of 714 were sent to training camps to be indoctrinated into ISIS as fighters or suicide bombers

Amnesty International ‘Ethnic cleansing on a historic scale

A Group ‘in Whole or in Part’

Conclusion