Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/11/isil-committed-genocide-against-yazidis-un-investigation
After years of thorough examination, UN investigators have determined there is “clear and compelling” conclusive evidence that ISIL groups in Iraq committed brutal genocide in 2014 against their Yazidi minority populations. This genocide included torture, rape, mass killing and enslavement, and biochemical weapons like mustard gas. Evidence was also solidified that they committed war crimes against majority Shia personnel of an unmilitarized air academy in the city of Tikrit.
The Yazidis are an ethnoreligious minority group primarily found in northwestern Iraq, with their faith being Yazidism, whom are considered to be heretical by extremist groups such as ISIL. ISIL demanded of Yazidis to either convert to their faith or face death; consequently, thousands were killed, and yet thousands more enslaved to be subjected to physical and sexual brutalities– often leading to death as well.
Although ISIL’s regional influence has declined, Yazidi populations still face oppression and many are left enslaved from ISIL’s imposition. This is the international imperative posed by the developments of this investigation: thousands of children among countless other Yazidis face lasting trauma and poverty due to the genocide, and the UN is organizing to provide for some of this care as is possible by regional authorities. Furthermore, the UN will utilize this to prosecute the offenders within national courts, pressuring Iraq to remove ISIL members from their society in order to protect minority groups such as the Yazidis within their diverse borders.
Finally, in the international theatre this investigation on top of other conclusive crimes committed by ISIL will almost guarantee that global powers will continue to eliminate Islamic State groups from seats of power in the MENA region pursuant to protecting the human rights of these ethnic and religious groups targeted by Islamic extremism. I expect that although the US will not intervene further in Syria as we had in Iraq or Afghanistan, we will continue escalating our pressure against them in order to put Syria under siege by international security forces, mitigating the growth of their ideology and preventing violence against neighboring countries; however, we will occupy valuable land where it is possible in order to promote the ultimate goal of eliminating ISIL altogether.