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WASHINGTON DC - As the United Nations-led investigation into crimes committed by the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq comes to an end, the United States said the world must ensure the work continues in order to bring justice to the victims a decade after the genocide began.
“The work of UNITAD has been incredibly important in terms of facilitating justice around the world. They were gathering evidence, potential evidence that can be used in cases, refining that evidence to really understand the causes and consequences of the ISIL [ISIS] genocide, developing witness statements, all kinds of refined information about the order of battle and the chain of command,” United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack told Rudaw earlier this week.
“So it's critical that the international community finds a way to continue these key functionalities of UNITAD. That can happen both within the government of Iraq itself, sharing information with investigators and prosecutors around the world, but also there's a role for the United Nations to take over these functions,” she added.
UNITAD (United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL) was established in 2017 by the United Nations Security Council at the request of the Iraqi government to ensure that the members of ISIS are held accountable for their crimes.
The investigative team, however, had a difficult relationship with the Iraqi government, reportedly due to UNITAD’s reluctance to share information with Iraqi authorities over concerns about the use of the death penalty. Iraq requested UNITAD end its mission and its mandate will expire in September.
Yazidi civil society leaders, in a meeting last month with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, raised their concerns that ending UNITAD’s investigation before it is completed will negatively impact their pursuit of justice.
“We were there [at the State Department] as a delegation of Yazidis who have been working with the Yazidi community for a decade now and we came with a policy paper. This policy paper contains eight points, one of them is justice and accountability,” Natia Navrouzov, executive director of Yazda, told Rudaw following their meeting.
“In Iraq, we still only have terrorism trials. No ISIS member has been prosecuted for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. In fact, the situation is worsening, because the only mechanism that was set up, and which is UNITAD, the UN investigative team, is being closed in two months without any plan on how this evidence will remain accessible to allow justice to continue,” she said.
UNITAD's closure will also impact the exhumations in Shingal, where, according to Yazda, there are at least 30 mass graves.
“Among the almost 700 remains that were taken to Baghdad for identification, only 200 were identified. So, who will… support the Iraqi forensic team to continue that work” Navrouzov asked.
The exhumation of mass graves is a concern for the US government as well.
“UNITAD was working with the technical authorities within Iraq to do good exhumations, to protect that information, the evidence that gets exhumed, but also to return those remains to the family so they have a sense of closure and can engage in whatever legal, administrative remedies that they're entitled to by virtue of having a death in the family,” said Ambassador Van Schaack.
“We need to work with the government of Iraq and with the international community to ensure that that work continues, so that these cases can continue,” she added.
Another area of concern for Yazidis in Iraq is the ability to return to their homes and communities where there has been a lack of reconstruction and restoration of basic services and security.
There are about 157,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPs), many of them Yezidis, living in camps across the Kurdistan Region that the Iraqi government wants to close permanently. The original deadline for the closure of the IDP camps was July 30, but that has been delayed.
The prospect of shutting down the camps and forcefully returning families to the Yazidi heartland of Shingal in northern Iraq has raised concerns among the Yazidi community and the US government. In addition to a lack of reconstruction, there is a security concern in Shingal because of the presence of several armed groups.
“They're too insecure. The infrastructure has not been rebuilt. There are not economic opportunities for those individuals. The schools don't exist for their children. So, we need to continue to invest in those regions in order to create an environment where Yazidi and other minority components of Iraq can survive, but also can thrive,” said Ambassador Van Schaack.
“We need to take care of the humanitarian needs in the short term, but put more and increased investment into enabling individuals to return to a community that can thrive and that can succeed economically,” she said.
Since 2014, the US government has invested some $500 million in humanitarian assistance for Yazidis and other communities that were most affected by ISIS to lay the groundwork for a safe and dignified return to their homes in Shingal and the Nineveh Plain, according to the State Department.
“The work of UNITAD has been incredibly important in terms of facilitating justice around the world. They were gathering evidence, potential evidence that can be used in cases, refining that evidence to really understand the causes and consequences of the ISIL [ISIS] genocide, developing witness statements, all kinds of refined information about the order of battle and the chain of command,” United States Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack told Rudaw earlier this week.
“So it's critical that the international community finds a way to continue these key functionalities of UNITAD. That can happen both within the government of Iraq itself, sharing information with investigators and prosecutors around the world, but also there's a role for the United Nations to take over these functions,” she added.
UNITAD (United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL) was established in 2017 by the United Nations Security Council at the request of the Iraqi government to ensure that the members of ISIS are held accountable for their crimes.
The investigative team, however, had a difficult relationship with the Iraqi government, reportedly due to UNITAD’s reluctance to share information with Iraqi authorities over concerns about the use of the death penalty. Iraq requested UNITAD end its mission and its mandate will expire in September.
Yazidi civil society leaders, in a meeting last month with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, raised their concerns that ending UNITAD’s investigation before it is completed will negatively impact their pursuit of justice.
“We were there [at the State Department] as a delegation of Yazidis who have been working with the Yazidi community for a decade now and we came with a policy paper. This policy paper contains eight points, one of them is justice and accountability,” Natia Navrouzov, executive director of Yazda, told Rudaw following their meeting.
“In Iraq, we still only have terrorism trials. No ISIS member has been prosecuted for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. In fact, the situation is worsening, because the only mechanism that was set up, and which is UNITAD, the UN investigative team, is being closed in two months without any plan on how this evidence will remain accessible to allow justice to continue,” she said.
UNITAD's closure will also impact the exhumations in Shingal, where, according to Yazda, there are at least 30 mass graves.
“Among the almost 700 remains that were taken to Baghdad for identification, only 200 were identified. So, who will… support the Iraqi forensic team to continue that work” Navrouzov asked.
The exhumation of mass graves is a concern for the US government as well.
“UNITAD was working with the technical authorities within Iraq to do good exhumations, to protect that information, the evidence that gets exhumed, but also to return those remains to the family so they have a sense of closure and can engage in whatever legal, administrative remedies that they're entitled to by virtue of having a death in the family,” said Ambassador Van Schaack.
“We need to work with the government of Iraq and with the international community to ensure that that work continues, so that these cases can continue,” she added.
Another area of concern for Yazidis in Iraq is the ability to return to their homes and communities where there has been a lack of reconstruction and restoration of basic services and security.
There are about 157,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPs), many of them Yezidis, living in camps across the Kurdistan Region that the Iraqi government wants to close permanently. The original deadline for the closure of the IDP camps was July 30, but that has been delayed.
The prospect of shutting down the camps and forcefully returning families to the Yazidi heartland of Shingal in northern Iraq has raised concerns among the Yazidi community and the US government. In addition to a lack of reconstruction, there is a security concern in Shingal because of the presence of several armed groups.
“They're too insecure. The infrastructure has not been rebuilt. There are not economic opportunities for those individuals. The schools don't exist for their children. So, we need to continue to invest in those regions in order to create an environment where Yazidi and other minority components of Iraq can survive, but also can thrive,” said Ambassador Van Schaack.
“We need to take care of the humanitarian needs in the short term, but put more and increased investment into enabling individuals to return to a community that can thrive and that can succeed economically,” she said.
Since 2014, the US government has invested some $500 million in humanitarian assistance for Yazidis and other communities that were most affected by ISIS to lay the groundwork for a safe and dignified return to their homes in Shingal and the Nineveh Plain, according to the State Department.
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