ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—In a rare show of unity, British MPs today voted to declare that the treatment of Yazidis and Christians in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State (ISIS) amounts to genocide. “The British people are horrified by what they hear and see regarding the treatment of these minority groups in Syria and in Iraq,” said MP Derek Thomas, “and they rightly expect that this House will use whatever tools are available to us to work to bring this to an end and achieve peace in this troubled part of the world.” With the vote, the British House of Commons condemned the actions of ISIS and moved to refer the issue to the United Nations Security Council. The government, however, has given no indication if they will act on the motion voted on today. The UK Foreign Office instructed its ministers and parliamentary aides to abstain from the vote with the minister maintaining that the issue is one for the courts and not government. "This ultimately is a matter for courts to decide,” said Foreign Officer minister Tobias Ellwood. “It is not for governments to be the prosecutor, the judge or indeed jury." His comments provoked jeers from his fellow lawmakers and many MPs defied the instructions to abstain. Before the vote, MPs heard the personal testimony of a 16-year old Yezidi girl, which MP Fiona Bruce described as “harrowing.” “Recognising the actions of Daesh as genocide should therefore help inject further momentum into the international efforts to stop the killings,” Bruce stated. While individual states can refer cases to the ICC, a referral from the UN Security Council gives the Court broader jurisdiction. An effort to refer the situation in Syria to the ICC in 2014 was vetoed by UN Security Council members Russia and China. The European parliament, the Council of Europe, United States Congress, and the US administration have all recognized the Islamic States’ treatment of the Yezidi minority as genocide.
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