Intervening on Behalf of Christian Victims of ISIS Genocide at the U.N.

This week we delivered an oral intervention before the United Nations (U.N.) Human Rights Council through our affiliate, the European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ), urging the U.N. to take immediate action to provide for the lasting resettlement of Christians in Iraq and Syria.

In our intervention we urged the U.N. to act immediately to provide aid and security for Christians who have faced horrific genocide at the hands of ISIS. You can read our intervention as prepared below:

Thank you Mr President,

The ECLJ calls on the Human Rights Council to act now to provide for the lasting resettlement of religious and ethnic minorities in Syria and Iraq and to hold those responsible for the genocide accountable.

While ISIS is now on the run, the damage that has resulted in the wake of the war has created a massive humanitarian crisis. In order to provide for the lasting resettlement of the refugees in Syria and Iraq, we call on the international community to not only hold ISIS accountable but also provide aid, security, and assistance so that those who were forced to flee can now return home.

In order to accomplish this, the ECLJ calls on this Council and its members to formally recognize that the atrocities ISIS has been committing against Christians, Yazidis, and other minorities in the region constitute genocide.

Therefore, we call on every State, especially those of origin of the foreign fighters, to fulfill their responsibility to punish acts of genocide in accordance with the 1948 Genocide Convention. Moreover, countries of origin of foreign fighters shall not interfere with those procedures in order to grant them undue protection. If these States do not fulfill their duties, we call on the U.N. to consider establishing a special judicial mechanism for investigating and trying crimes committed by ISIS.

This presentation comes just weeks after we submitted a critical legal submission to the U.N. outlining our call to action.

Join us as we continue to advocate on behalf of the Christians facing genocide at the hands of ISIS to ensure they receive the relief and assistance they so desperately need.