ISIS’s 2014 Genocide Against the Yezidis

Yezidis are one of the most oppressed minorities in the Middle East and, having been relegated to the margins of Iraqi society, largely live as poor farmers and unskilled workers in northern Iraq.  As a non-Muslim religion, Yezidis are a specific target of ISIS, which committed an internationally recognized genocide against the Yezidi people starting in 2014. The genocide remains ongoing.

ISIS’s 2014 genocide against the Yezidi people is uncontroverted and, 

most recently, formally confirmed by officials at the United Nations (UN). 

On May 10, 2021, the former Special Advisor and head of a UN team investigating the atrocities by ISIS in Iraq, Karim Khan, reported to the United Nations Security Council 

that the investigators have established “clear and convincing” 

evidence of genocide against the Yezidi religious minority. 

The UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD) has finalized preliminary case briefs on two key priorities, i.e., the attacks against the Yezidi community in the Sinjar region of Iraq and the June 2014 killings of predominantly Shia unarmed cadets and military personnel at the Tikrit Air Academy. Reporting on his sixth and final report, Khan noted that ISIS’s crimes, especially its ultimatum to convert or die [directed towards Yezidis], 

has “shocked the conscience of humanity.” 

The evidence collected by UNITAD confirms crimes of murder, rape, torture, enslavement, sexual slavery and persecution against the Yezidis. ISIS was defeated

 in Iraq in 2017, but the UN says the group left behind more than 200 mass graves 

that could contain up to 12,000 victims.