Amal Clooney to represent Ezidi victims in ICC

Amal Clooney, human rights lawyer and wife of the American celebrity, George Clooney, confirmed on Thursday that she will represent the victims of Yezidi (Ezidi) genocide to investigate the Islamic State (IS) crimes against humanity in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Amal Clooney, human rights lawyer and wife of the American celebrity, George Clooney, confirmed on Thursday that she will represent the victims of Yezidi (Ezidi) genocide to investigate the Islamic State (IS) crimes against humanity in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Following the occupation of the city of Sinjar (Shingal) by IS in August 2014, many Kurdish Ezidi people of the city were tortured, kidnapped, executed and massacred by the jihadists. IS enslaved Ezidi women and sold them in markets in Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.

On Thursday in a statement to Women in the World, in association with the New York Times, Clooney confirmed that she will represent victims of the Ezidi genocide, including Nadia Murad, IS survivor and Noble Peace Prize nominee.

“The European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the US government and the UK House of Commons have all recognized that there is a genocide being perpetrated by IS against the Ezidis in Iraq,” Clooney said in a statement to Women in the World.

She asked, “How can it be that the most serious crimes known to humanity are being carried out before our eyes but are not being prosecuted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague?”

Clooney stated there is evidence that IS committed genocide against Ezidi people. She noted that the terrorist group has publicly proclaimed its genocidal intent then, and continues to systematically rape Ezidi women. Yet, no one is being held accountable.

“It is time that we see IS commanders in the dock in The Hague, and I am honored to have been asked to represent Nadia and the Yazidi community in their quest for legal accountability,” Clooney added.

Women in the World recently interviewed Nadia Murad, who was one of the thousands of Ezidi women kidnapped by IS. She was enslaved and raped by more than 12 IS insurgents over a period of three months.

“Daesh [IS] took my family, my future, my life. But what I have in my heart, and what I’ve always had, is justice,” Murad told Women in the World in an interview earlier 2016. “All of the women and girls who are in their hands have justice on their side.”

On November 14, 2015, Shingal was liberated by the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, supported by the international coalition airstrikes.

In December 2015, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Director of Ezidi Affairs in the Ministry of Endowment, Khairi Bozani told Kurdistan24 that jihadists massacred more than 1,280 Ezidis and left 960 children orphans.

Bozani reported that 7,000 Ezidis emigrated to Europe and the United States of America, while nearly 6,000 others were kidnaped by IS, including nearly 3,200 women and 2,650 men.

 

Editing by Ava Homa