Human Rights Iraq Project #29220

Justice for Yezidi Women and Girls

by Free Yezidi Foundation

Summary

We are helping women and girls that escaped out of ISIS captivity. These women and girls are survivors of a genocide perpetrated by ISIS in august 2014 in Sinjar, north Irak. They have been raped and abused. Until now 3 years later not even one single ISIS member has been prosecuted for the war crimes committed against the Yezidis. Governments are choosing the easy way, and that is indictment for terrorism. We want justice for the crime that was committed against the Yezidi women and girls

$770,000
total goal

$742,067
remaining

63
donors

0
monthly donors

2
years

Challenge

In August 2014, ISIS began a targeted campaign against the Yezidis, an ethno-religious minority, designed to "purify" ISIS-held territory in Iraq and eradicate Yezidis from existence. Mass executions, torture and other egregious human rights abuses occurred in the months following. During this genocidal campaign, ISIS kidnapped more than 5200 Yezidi women and girls as "sabaya" spoils of war under ISIS ideology. More than 3000 remain in ISIS captivity. These captives were enslaved, raped, and

Solution

While there have been efforts to charge these ISIS members with terrorism, there have been no attempts to charge them with war crimes against the Yezidis. Such charges would carry the deserved stigma of rape and sexual abuse of children. This stigma would bolster counter-extremism efforts and create a counter-narrative against ISIS's use of sexual slavery as a recruitment tool for foreign fighters. There is a critical need to collect evidence of these crimes, and to build cases.