Nadia Murad granted UN Goodwill ambassador

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Nadia Murad, who was held captive by the Islamic State (IS) as a sex slave, was appointed UNODC Goodwill Ambassador on Friday.

In a special ceremony on the World Peace Day, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon granted Nadia Murad the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking.

In a speech during the ceremony, Nadia said that “I stand here to represent the ones who have gone; we are here to fight for those who cannot fight.”

Murad added that “Daesh [IS] came to, kill, murder and rape. This is genocide because thousands of people were killed and enslaved just because they were Ezidis.”

Urging the world leaders to free all other Ezidi captives, get rid of IS extremists, bring the perpetrators to justice, Murad said, “We must work to free the other Ezidis who have been enslaved in the ISIS-held territories.”

“IS does not represent Islam. They just uses Islam to justify their crimes,” Murad said, asking the Muslim world to do not let their religion be distorted by extremists.

Murad, a 23 year-old Ezidi Kurdish girl, asked for an international budget to compensate the victims and allow them to rebuild the Ezidi populated areas liberated from IS by Peshmerga forces.

“Today I speak on behalf of thousands of refugees who live in refugee camps in Kurdistan, Iraq, and other countries.”

Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General, in a speech during the ceremony said, “Crimes by ISIS against Ezidis are war crimes, war against humanity and genocide.”

Amal Clooney, the lawyer representing Nadia Murad said “What Nadia told us [about the Ezidis] is genocide,” but as she says “states are failing to recognize genocides due to their interests.”

In August 2014, IS took control of the Kurdish Ezidi populated city of Sinjar (Shingal), enslaving women and committing mass execution and inhumane crimes against the Ezidi people.

The city was liberated on Nov. 14, 2015, by Kurdish Peshmerga forces with the aerial support of international coalition warplanes.

When Murad was captured during the occupation of Shingal by IS, she was 19-years-old.

Editing by Ava Homa