Global Justice Center sends Letter to the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC Asking Them to Investigate Genocide and Gender Crimes Against Yazidi Women and Girls
Dear Prosecutor Bensouda,
The Global Justice Center writes to you in support of the Article 15 submission by Yazda and the Free Yezidi Foundation requesting the opening of a preliminary investigation into genocide and other crimes committed against the Yazidis. Created in 2005, the Global Justice Center is an international legal human rights organization focused on using international law for strategic change and to achieve sustainable justice, peace and security. Amongst other activities, the GJC works globally to develop and implement legal strategies to define, establish and protect human rights and gender equality.
It is imperative that all possible measures are taken to investigate, address and deter the heinous crimes being committed by the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham/Greater Syria (“ISIS” aka “ISIL”, “Daesh” or “IS”, hereinafter “ISIS”). There currently exists credible information and evidence to believe that ISIS is committing a wide range of crimes against civilians and minority populations in the areas in which it operates. This includes: genocide against Yazidis; genocide against the Shia Shabak and Shia Turkmen; and crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and war crimes against minority populations, including Yazidi, Shabak, Turkmen, Christian, Sabeab-Mandaean and Kaka’i, and civilians under its control. Women and girls have been intentionally and strategically targeted by ISIS on ideological grounds and systematically raped, enslaved, killed and tortured.
In April of this year, you stated that “I remain profoundly concerned by this situation and I want to emphasise our collective duty as a global community to respond to the plight of victims whose rights and dignity have been violated.”
Accordingly, we implore your Office (the Office of the Prosecutor (“OTP”)) to act on this duty by opening a preliminary examination into crimes committed by ISIS that fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) and to ensure that any such examination takes into account and integrates the specific gender dynamics of ISIS’s strategies and policies.