EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report urges immediate international recognition of the suffering of the Yazidi people in light of the genocide perpetrated by ISIS. Under the Genocide Convention and the ICC Rome Statute, ISIS genocidaires are guilty by the commission, in a systematic manner, of all five enumerated acts of genocide: 1) killing, primarily of Yazidi men by targeted execution; 2) causing serious bodily or mental harm, primarily to Yazidi women by sexual violence and enslavement; 3) deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction, primarily by besieging trapped Yazidi civilians; 4) imposing measures to prevent births, primarily by forced abortions and the separation of Yazidi men and women; and 5) forcible transfer of children, primarily by abduction. Sufficient evidentiary findings support the legal inference of a requisite specific intent “to destroy, in whole or in part,” the Yazidis as a protected group. Therefore, the Kurdish Regional Government should exercise its jurisdictional authority to establish a fully hybrid tribunal, supported with international resources and legal expertise, to enable proper prosecution of the crimes perpetrated by ISIS genocidaires within its territory. Pursuant to the authority conferred to domestic enforcement by the Genocide Convention, Article 6, the Kurdish Regional Government has and should exercise such authority to prosecute the genocide of the Yazidi people. The Kurdish Regional Government deserves international financial, technical, professional, and logistical assistance in pursuit of justice for the Yazidi, Kurdish, and Iraqi peoples against the gross atrocities of ISIS genocidaires. INTRODUCTION crime is carefully defined as the The rapid spread of ISIS (Islamic State of commission of some enumerated act, such Iraq and al Sham) over northern Iraq since as killing, joined with a specific intent “to June 2014 has caused the displacement of destroy, in whole or in part, a national, more than 2 million people and resulted in ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such.” severe human rights abuses, imperiling local Under the Genocide Convention minority groups in particular. Atrocities and the ICC Rome Statute, the Yazidis are a committed by ISIS terrorists have included protected group, both ethnic and religious. targeted execution, forced conversion, rape, Under the Genocide Convention sexual enslavement, child abduction, and and the standards of the Rome Statute, ISIS destruction of locations of religious and genocidaires have formed the requisite cultural significance. The full weight of intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the these atrocities is increasingly well Yazidis as a group. Evidence establishes documented in authoritative reports, even this legal inference from the general context though their full scope remains unknown as of planned violence: the specific, investigation is continuing. This report discriminatory nature of the attacks against documents the legal conclusion that this the Yazidis, the targeted destruction of plan of violence by ISIS militants has Yazidi cultural and religious sites, a motive constituted a systematic pattern to destroy, to wage jihad against the Yazidis, a plausible in whole or in part, the Yazidis as an Iraqi premeditation of such a campaign against group. As such, members of ISIS stand the Yazidis, statements by ISIS propaganda guilty not only of innumerable war crimes calling for extermination of the Yazidi and crimes against humanity, but of a people, and finally a widespread and manifest pattern of genocide. systematic pattern to its organized violence. The Yazidis are a minority group of Under the Genocide Convention northern Iraq, centered on Sinjar within and the Rome Statute, ISIS genocidaires are Nineveh Province. As a group, Yazidis have guilty of commission, in systematic manner, been specifically targeted by ISIS members of all five enumerated acts of genocide: 1) and have suffered some of the worst of its killing, primarily of Yazidi men by targeted atrocities. ISIS genocidaires have execution; 2) causing serious bodily or systematically executed Yazidi men and mental harm, primarily to Yazidi women by abducted Yazidi women and children en sexual violence and enslavement; 3) masse. They have implemented a brutal deliberately inflicting conditions of life policy of ‘death or conversion’ against the calculated to bring about physical Yazidis, destroying much unique culture destruction, primarily by besieging trapped and forcing Yazidis away from their cultural Yazidi civilians; 4) imposing measures to homelands. These Yazidis suffering at the prevent births, primarily by separation of hands of ISIS terrorists implicate the Yazidi men and women; and 5) forcible international law on genocide. transfer of children, primarily by abduction. Genocide is defined in Article 2 of This report demands international the United Nations Genocide Convention, recognition of the suffering of the Yazidis and Article 6 authorizes enforcement by at the hands of ISIS genocidaires. Further, domestic legislation as well as ad hoc the Kurdish Regional Government should tribunals. The International Criminal Court exercise its jurisdictional authority to enable Rome Statute expressly incorporates a fully hybrid tribunal, supported with genocide as a crime under Article 6. The international resources and legal expertise, 1 pursuant to the authority conferred to such domestic enforcement under the Genocide Convention, Article 6, and in pursuit of justice for the Yazidi, Kurdish, and Iraqi peoples. 2 WHAT HAPPENED? persecuted as heretical at numerous times ISIS forces stormed the mostly Yazidi city throughout their difficult history as a group. of Sinjar on August 2 2014, capturing it in In reaction, they have developed a closed one day due to the defensive retreat of the and tight-knit community that accepts no KRG Peshmerga forces. This precipitated religious converts and forbids any marriage the forced flight of over 200,000 civilians, outside of their ethnic and religious group. mostly Yazidis, who were caught unaware ISIS propaganda has exploited these by the rapid advance and forced to escape misinterpretations of Yazidi beliefs to plan into the desert and mountains near Sinjar. a campaign of jihad and brutal treatment of ISIS fighters threatened to kill all Yazidis Yazidis in particular. In the published views who did not convert to Islam, besieging of ISIS on Qur’anic “orthodoxy,” Yazidis almost 50,000 civilians trapped on Mt. are distinct from other Kurdish groups, in Sinjar without access to food or water. that Yazidis are kufr (apostates). Whereas These victims were mostly rescued by Abrahamic individuals (Christians, Jews, coordinated US and Peshmerga forces by and Sunni and Shiite Muslims) have a August 14. Yet, ISIS fighters still executed purported right to live under the jizya (tax), around 1,000 captives, including captured ISIS policy claims Yazidis do not have any Yazidis who had refused conversion. rights, only a choice of ‘conversion or death.’ Enacting this policy, ISIS fighters WHO ARE THE YAZIDIS? have committed gross atrocities against the The Yazidis form an ethno-religious group Yazidis, on a size and scale that threatens centered on the Kurdish region of Nineveh their continued viability as an Iraqi group. and Dohuk Governorates of north-western “Prior to the taking of Sinjar, Sharī’ah Iraq. The majority of Yazidis reside in Iraqi students in the Islamic State were tasked Kurdistan, with diaspora in other Middle- to research the Yazidi to determine if Eastern and Western countries. While the they should be treated as an originally main religion within Kurdistan is Sunni mushrik group or one that originated as Islam, the Kurdish people represent a more Muslims and then apostatized … [T]he diverse minority linked by common ties of apparent origin of the religion is found in ethnicity, geography, and Kurdish language. the Magianism of ancient Persia, but Within this diverse yet related ethnic group, reinterpreted with elements of the Yazidis are unique as a monotheistic Sabianism, Judaism, and Christianity, and people whose beliefs blend elements of ultimately expressed in the heretical Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, and vocabulary of extreme Sufism. pre-Abrahamic Mesopotamian religions. Accordingly, the Islamic State dealt with The Yazidi belief system includes this group as the majority of fuqahā’ have angels, with a main figure named “Melek indicated how mushrikīn should be dealt Taus.” Portrayed in peacock traits, Melek with. Unlike the Jews and Christians, Taus is benevolent and intrinsically good, there was no room for jizyah payment. following a reconciliation with God that Also, their women could be enslaved reflects on the mortal condition of sin. Yet unlike female apostates who the majority in mainstream Islam, a similar theological of the fuqahā’ say cannot be enslaved and narrative (without reconciliation) represents can only be given an ultimatum to repent the evil “devil” figure. Further, the Yazidi or face the sword.” dualism has been misunderstood as mushrik [-- Dabiq, Issue 4] (polytheistic). Thus, the Yazidis have been 3 WHAT IS GENOCIDE? crime of genocide under the more explicit The ICC Rome Statute incorporates the ICC Rome Statute, which satisfies the text of the Genocide Convention in Genocide Convention. specifying the legal elements that establish The unique requirement of the specific genocide.1 The enumerated acts must be intent “to destroy, in