Yazidi genocide

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) committed a genocide against the Yazidis in Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2017. The ISIS killed as many as 5,000 men, and sold as many as 10,000 Yazidi women as slaves. Some boys were also enslaved by the ISIS.

A Yazidi mass grave in Sinjar, Iraq, 2015.
Yezidi Genocide Memorial Day in Diyarbakır August 3, 2015.

Findings

In November 2015, the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) issued the first legal analysis to conclude that the ISIS was committing a genocide against the Yazidis.

The USHMM recorded extensive accounts of mass rape, torture, displacement, kidnapping and forced conversions targeting the Yazidis. Over 800,000 Yazidis were displaced by ISIS's genocidal campaign.

Reactions

Yazidi demonstration in front of the US Embassy in Berlin on October 22, 2014.

Iraq

Kurdistan Regional Government

On August 3, 2024, the Kurdistan Regional Government commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Yazidi genocide. The Kurdistan Regional Government said that it supported the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da'esh/ISIL (UNITAD) to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Free Yezidi Foundation

Pari Ibrahim of the Iraqi Kurdistan-based Free Yezidi Foundation said to the Voice of America (VOA):

[It is k]ey for the prevention of future genocide against our community to make sure that those who funded the Islamic State structure are held accountable.

Germany

The German parliament voted in January 2023 to recognize the Yazidi genocide. The Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, made a speech confirming this.

United States

The United States Department of State recognized the Yazidi genocide twice, in 2016 and again in 2017. On March 14, 2016, the United States House of Representatives voted unanimously by 393-0 that ISIS's war crimes against the Yazidis, Syriac Christians, Shias and other groups were acts of genocide.

United Kingdom

The UK Government acknowledged the Yazidi genocide in August 2023.

United Nations

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) stated in March 2015 that ISIS's war crimes against the Yazidis were a genocide.

Switzerland

In a significant move, the Swiss parliament has officially recognized the atrocities committed by the Islamic State (ISIS) against Iraq’s Yazidi community as constituting genocide. The motion, passed on Tuesday, condemns the systematic expulsion, rape and murder of Yazidis, and the destruction of their cultural sites.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ An Islamist terrorist group.
  2. ↑ An ethnoreligious group of Kurdish origin.
  3. ↑ German: Demonstration von Jesiden vor der US-Amerikanischen Botschaft in Berlin am 22.10.2014.

References

  1. ↑ "The Islamic State (Terrorist Organization)". RAND. Retrieved May 4, 2025.
  2. ↑
  3. 1 2
  4. ↑ Cetorelli, Valeria; Sasson, Isaac; Shabila, Nazar; Burnham, Gilbert (May 9, 2017). "Mortality and kidnapping estimates for the Yazidi population in the area of Mount Sinjar, Iraq, in August 2014: A retrospective household survey". PLOS Medicine. 14 (5) e1002297. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002297. PMC 5423550. PMID 28486492.
  5. ↑ "Ten years after she was captured by Isis, 21-year-old Yazidi woman is finally freed". The Independent. October 4, 2024. Retrieved October 5, 2024.
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ "Yezidi genocide and the struggle for recovery". Atlantic Council. July 29, 2024. Retrieved May 5, 2025.
  8. 1 2 3 "Marking the Six-Year Anniversary of the Yezidi Genocide". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). August 3, 2020.
  9. 1 2 "Holocaust Museum urges action to stop IS genocide of Yazidi". Times of Israel. November 12, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2025.
  10. ↑ "Swedish woman convicted of genocide for IS crimes against Yazidis". BBC News. February 11, 2025. Retrieved May 5, 2025. In early August 2014 IS invaded Yazidi settlements in the Sinjar region launching a genocidal campaign against them.
  11. 1 2 "The Kurdistan Regional Government's Ongoing Commitment: 10th Anniversary of Yazidi Genocide and Pursuit of Justice". Kurdistan Regional Government. August 3, 2024. Retrieved May 5, 2025.
  12. ↑ "About Us". Free Yezidi Foundation. Retrieved May 5, 2025.
  13. ↑ "Yazidis seek justice on 10th anniversary of Islamic State genocide". Voice of America (VOA). August 4, 2024. Retrieved May 5, 2025.
  14. ↑ "German parliament condemns IS crimes against Yazidi as genocide". Euractiv. January 20, 2023. Retrieved May 5, 2025.
  15. ↑ "Speech by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on the occasion of the recognition and commemoration of the genocide of the Yazidis". Auswärtiges Amt. January 19, 2023. Retrieved May 5, 2025. I am thus so grateful that we here in the Bundestag are accepting this obligation today across party lines by calling this crime by its name: the genocide of the Yazidis [...] This decision today is not just a decision taken by politicians but one taken by our whole country. Germany as a society recognises the genocide suffered by the Yazidis. For that, I say thank you.
  16. ↑ Buchwald, Todd F. (2019). "By Any Other Name. How, When, and Why the US Government Has Made Genocide Determinations" (PDF). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). Archived (PDF) from the original on March 12, 2024. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  17. ↑ Labott, Elise (March 17, 2016). "U.S. to declare genocide in Iraq and Syria". CNN. Archived from the original on March 17, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2016.
  18. ↑ "UK acknowledges Yazidi genocide by Daesh/Islamic State". The House of Commons Library. August 9, 2023. Retrieved May 3, 2025.
  19. ↑ "UN: ISIS May Have Committed Genocide Against Yazidis". Huffington Post. March 19, 2015. Archived from the original on August 16, 2015. Retrieved August 4, 2015.
  20. ↑ Law, James Joseph | Queen's University Belfast School of; GB (2024-12-19). "Swiss parliament recognizes ISIS crimes against Yazidis as genocide". www.jurist.org. Retrieved 2026-10-04.