KRG Delegation attends a meeting on ISIS crimes at UN Headquarters

Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq (GOV.KRD) - On June 10, 2022, the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD) in collaboration with the permanent representative of Iraq to the United Nations has held a meeting in the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The title of the meeting was "The Methods of Mass Killing, ISIS Crimes in Iraq and Speicher as an example".

The meeting was attended by Christian Ritscher, UNITAD's Special Adviser, Mohammed Hassan Bahr al-Alum the Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations, and the representatives of the European Union, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and other international organizations. 

At the beginning of the meeting, the Special Advisor of UNITAD delivered a speech and spoke about the work and activities of the team in Iraq and stressed on KRG's rigorous cooperation and coordination with the team. 

Mr. Ritscher's speech was followed by Dr. Dindar Zebari's remarks. Zebari, the Coordinator for International Advocacy and KRG's representative to the National Coordination Committee (NCC) to coordinate with UNITAD stated that “after the ISIS attacks and the crimes they committed against components, especially against Yazidi Kurds, from abducting, killing and forced displacement, KRG welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees and has tried to rescue the abductees from terrorists while establishing a committee tasked with documenting the crimes of ISIS and to recognise them as genocide internationally."

On the importance of the Kurdistan Region’s participation in this event, Dr. Zebari said “in the fighting to liberate areas under the control of ISIS the Peshmerga Forces have suffered heavy casualties, including 1,800 martyrs, 10,369 wounded and 47 missing troops."

"KRG is working to provide legal assistance to the victims of ISIS and their families. On the other hand, KRG with the support of UNITAD submitted a bill to the Kurdistan parliament to establish a specialized court to investigate ISIS crimes and to prosecute them on the basis of international crimes. These crimes are considered to be war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Unfortunately, The Federal Supreme Court rejected the project, which was a new precedent. We believe that this project should not be blocked so that the terrorists can be prosecuted and the families of the victims can be compensated," Zebari said.

KRG Coordinator further added that "For the purpose of recognizing the crimes of ISIS terrorists, the regional government has documented the dossiers of thousands of abductees. So far 5,170 case files are registered, of which more than 2,324 are concluded in the courts, 2,000 are still under investigation and 2,916 are registered as missing. Social and psychological support was provided to more than 2,234 victims. To document ISIS crimes, KRG has cooperated with UNITAD within the framework of the Iraqi National Coordination Committee (NCC), and succeeded in digitally archiving more than 73,912 pages for these crimes. The regional government made unrelenting efforts to liberate the abductees, so it sat up a committee to collect information and conduct follow up on the abductees dossier and earmarked a budget for this purpose. Towards February 22, 2022, 3,552 people have been rescued: of whom 1,207 are women, 339 are men, and 2,719 people are still missing."