U.N. Takes Critical Step to Hold ISIS Accountable for Genocide in the Middle East with Appointment of Key Special Adviser
Your voice is being heard at the U.N.
Real progress is underway and we are seeing the fruit of our efforts to demand justice and accountability in the aftermath of ISIS’s cruel genocide against Christians and others in the Middle East. The wheels of justice are turning.
As we had previously announced, 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 team in its crucial work.
Now, we are pleased to report that our work, and your voice, played a major role in a new, significant step at the U.N.: That Special Adviser has been appointed.
UNSC Resolution 2379 and the Special Adviser’s appointment, however, did not happen overnight. Rather, it happened as a result of a focused and persistent legal advocacy campaign urging action at the U.N. Here are some of the highlights.
On July 24, 2017, we sent a letter to the British government detailing the atrocities that have been carried out against Christians. We also stressed the need for the “international community [to] join together to stop [the] growing threat.”
On August 14, 2017, the British Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa responded to our letter:
I share your anger at the human suffering of Christians, Yezidis and other minorities in Iraq, Syria, and the wider Middle East, many of whose communities have been devastated at the hands of [ISIS]. I want to see Christians and other minorities continuing to live, worship and prosper in the Middle East. We are doing all we can to make this happen – providing humanitarian assistance to all those who need it, including minority communities and consistently underlining with the region’s political leaders the importance of upholding freedom of religion and belief.
He also told us that the United Kingdom was working with Iraq to draft a new U.N. resolution addressing these critical issues.
Also as part of our ongoing campaign, we wrote to the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng. He wrote back on September 12, 2017, affirming our “passionate call for justice and accountability for the crimes committed by [ISIS],” and thanking us for “provid[ing] testimony of the gross abuses committed by the so-called Islamic State (ISIL) against Christians, Yezidis and other religious and ethnic minority communities in Syria and Iraq. He told us that he shared our “belief that, given that the acts committed by [ISIS] may constitute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, they should be examined and prosecuted by independent and competent courts,” and that he had shared some of our key policy recommendations with the Iraqi government.
Then, on September 21, 2017, both Iraq and the United Kingdom co-sponsored an important U.N. Security Council resolution, Resolution 2379, which unanimously passed.
This resolution tasked the Secretary-General with two critical assignments: the first, to prepare and submit his Terms of Reference setting forth the Investigative Team’s mandate and procedures; and the second, to appoint a Special Adviser who will lead the Investigative Team. A few months ago, we reported that the Secretary General had, in fact, submitted the Terms of Reference, which were subsequently approved by the Security Council. (You can read a more detailed summary of our legal campaign here.)
On May 25, 2018, we submitted a written statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) stressing the importance of appointing the Special Adviser quickly. Here is part of what we said:
The Council and all Member States must demand that the Special Adviser be appointed immediately. It will take time for the Investigative Team to collect and preserve the evidence of the ISIS genocide. Meanwhile, the victims are still suffering, and while ISIS is now on the run, the damage that has resulted from the ISIS genocide has created a massive humanitarian crisis.
In a welcome development, just six days after we filed our submission urging action, the Secretary-General appointed Karim Asad Ahmad Khan to serve as the Special Adviser of the Investigative Team. The U.N. described his credentials in a press release:
He is a barrister and Queen’s Counsel in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with more than 25 years or professional experience as an international criminal law and human rights lawyer. Mr. Khan has extensive experience in acting as prosecutor, victim’s counsel and defense lawyer in domestic and international criminal tribunals, including, but not limited to, the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
Now that a Special Adviser has been appointed, the important task of collecting and preserving the evidence of ISIS’s genocide against Christians and others can begin. Then, those who perpetrated and supported the genocide can be held accountable in international tribunals. We applaud the U.N. for taking action and stand ready to help in any way we can. In the meantime, though, we will continue communicating with international leaders, including the newly appointed Special Adviser and doing our part to ensure this task is thoroughly and expeditiously completed.
The victims of ISIS’s genocidal atrocities have waited long enough. We must do everything in our power to make sure justice is done, and that the victims get the assistance and relief they so desperately need. Stand with us. The time is now.
Sign our Petition today.