MESOP MIDEAST WATCH : Turkey & Yazidi (SYRIA)

The Yazidi Justice Committee (YJC) released a report that found that Syria, Iraq, and Turkey all failed to fulfill international obligations to prevent the genocide of the Yazidi minority group on Syrian and Iraqi territory. 

• Islamic State (IS) fighters enslaved, sexually assuaulted, and killed Yazidi people, with a UN investigation finding that “genocide was committed by ISIL against the Yazidi as a religious group.”
• The YJC, which consists of a group of prominent human right lawyers, said that Syria and Iraq bear responsibility for failing to take steps such as preemptively evacuating at-risk civilians, punishing perpetrators, and enacting policies to comply with the Genocide Convention. The report also says that Turkey is “complicit in the commission of genocide” by allowing IS fighters to cross its borders and smuggle resources.
• The lawyers called for the relevant states to be brought before the International Court of Justice and for Turkey in particular to cease its “indiscriminate attacks” in northern Iraq and Syria and “targeting of Kurdish and Yazidi civilians.”