ACLJ Urges UN Action to Aid Genocide Victims and Hold ISIS Accountable for Its Atrocities

Even though ISIS is reportedly weakened and running scared, the deadly genocide it waged against Christians has left an unimaginable humanitarian crisis.

The danger for survivors trying to return to their homes and rebuild is still very real.

The ACLJ just took direct action, presenting a critical submission at the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) – through our European affiliate, the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) – urging vital relief for the displaced victims of the ISIS genocide and to hold the terrorists accountable.

Even though ISIS is on the run, the damage that has resulted from the ISIS genocide has created a massive humanitarian crisis. In order to provide for the lasting resettlement of Christians and other ethnic minorities there are two actions the U.N. must take immediately.

First, the U.N. must declare that the atrocities ISIS has been carrying out against Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities constitute genocide. Second, the U.N. must provide the assistance and security necessary to allow recovery from the destruction caused by ISIS’s genocide and to allow for the lasting resettlement of the victims.

We again stressed to the HRC that it is essential that the Council officially recognize the atrocities committed by ISIS for exactly what they are – genocide.

The growing body of evidence demonstrates that the inhuman violence at issue, is in fact, genocide as defined by the Convention. The victims of ISIS’s genocide deserve the recognition and protection of the international community, yet the world’s premier international body has failed to recognise that they are indeed victims of genocide. Time is running out and action must be taken immediately, as one Christian survivor said of the U.N.’s inaction, ‘[N]o one cares about us like we are not human’.

While the ECLJ calls for swift and decisive action by the international community to address the genocide and protect its victims, it also understands that first the U.N. must recognise that the atrocities ISIS has been committing constitute genocide. A declaration by this Council that ISIS is engaged in genocide against Christians and other religious minorities and action by this Council calling for the U.N. Security Council (and other appropriate organs of the U.N.) to follow suit would carry significant weight.

We’ve told you how the U.N. Security Council passed Security Council Resolution 2379, which called for the creation of an Investigative Team for the purposes of “collecting, preserving, and storing evidences in Iraq of acts that may amount to war amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed by the terrorist group [ISIS] (Da’esh) in Iraq, to the highest possible standards.”

The Resolution also directed the Secretary-General to appoint a Special Adviser to lead the investigative team.

It’s time for action. The victims of ISIS’s bloody campaign of terror need help and protection now if they’re ever going to resettle and rebuild their communities.

The international community must unite to bring ISIS to justice for its atrocities and provide the necessary assistance and relief the victims desperately need.