State Responsibility and the Genocide of the Yazidis

In 2020, the Yazidi Justice Committee began investigating allegations of State responsibility for the genocide committed against the Yazidis, beginning in 2013, at the hands of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The Committee's primary objective was to determine whether there were reasonable grounds to conclude that the atrocities committed against the Yazidis constitute genocide and, if so, whether in addition to the individual perpetrators, certain States may be responsible for the commission of, or the failure to prevent and punish, the genocide. The evidence and the Committee's conclusions have been compiled in this comprehensive fact-finding report.

The report's findings show that there are strong grounds to conclude that genocide against the Yazidis, as a protected religious group, was committed by the armed group, ISIS, in contravention of the Genocide Convention and that this genocide, at the time of writing, is ongoing. The report finds that there are reasonable grounds to conclude that at least three States - Syria, Iraq and Turkey - are in breach of one or more obligations under the Genocide Convention with respect to the genocide committed by ISIS. The allegations in respect of other States initially considered could not, with some exceptions, be substantiated by the information publicly available.

This is not just a report. It is a call to all States Parties to the Genocide Convention to take immediate steps to ensure justice and accountability for what happened to the Yazidis, to uphold the integrity of the Convention, and to ensure that crimes committed against them are never repeated.

REVIEWS / ENDORSEMENTS

"We live in troubled times. The international rules-based order and rule of law generally are under attack and international crimes continue to proliferate. This report provides some measure of hope that not only will violations of international law not go unheard but they will also not go unpunished. It provides the first highly detailed analysis of the Yazidi genocide and also the first evidentiary record of the failure of states in upholding their obligations under the Genocide Convention. The world cannot merely read this report and carry on as normal - we owe it to the Yazidi community, who remain in a highly precarious situation, to ensure responsible states are held accountable and we owe it to humanity to guarantee genocide does not re-occur." Prof. Dr. Rianne Letschert, President of Maastricht University

"State responsibility goes beyond the role of direct perpetration of genocide, and, as is clear from the legal and factual findings of this report, certain States knew and failed in their duty to act for a variety of inhumane reasons. This report is the first to address the responsibilities of States in the attempt to destroy the Yazidis. If we are serious about the obligations on States under the Genocide Convention, and about ensuring justice for the Yazidi victims and survivors of the Daesh genocide, we must tackle this difficult topic of responsibility and complicity and failure to act in accordance with the Convention, when ample opportunity was available. We must do so now before those horrors are repeated." Baroness Helena Kennedy QC & Prof. Lord David Alton

"Taking away from an entity, a part of any entity that is beautiful, individual, with its own integrity, identity and culture is bad enough. Taking away a part of a single, sometimes beautiful, planet when that planet needs every element of goodness and intelligence on its surface, the better to exist and to save it from its own self-destruction is madness heaped on evil. That is what the genocide of the Yazidis has been - madness heaped on evil." Sir Geoffrey Nice QC