The United Nations on Friday voted to extend for one more year the investigation into Islamic State (ISIS) crimes in Iraq after Yazidi and human rights organizations raised alarm that the probe may be wrapped up.
“The UN Security Council has unanimously voted to renew the @Unitad_Iraq mandate until September 2024,” the British mission to the UN posted on X (formerly Twitter), referring to the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by ISIS (UNITAD).
ISIS committed genocide against Iraq’s Yazidi minority when it seized control of the Shingal region in 2014, massacring men and older women, enslaving women and children, destroying many villages and towns, and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.
Shingal was liberated in 2015 and ISIS was declared territorially defeated in Iraq two years later.
UNITAD was established in 2017 to investigate ISIS crimes, including assisting in exhuming mass graves. Eighteen countries have requested UNITAD evidence to aid in prosecution of more than 300 alleged ISIS members, according to the United States mission to the UN.
Ahead of the Security Council’s vote on Friday, reports that UNITAD’s mandate might not be renewed sparked concern among Yazidi and human rights organizations.
“Many survivors and the undersigned organizations see UNITAD as the only hope to achieve meaningful justice in Iraq. For its work to stop so abruptly, when not a single ISIL [ISIS] member has been tried in Iraq for core international crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes), would be a disaster for survivors, Iraq, and the international community. It would send the signal that justice is not a real priority, that trust with survivors was built for nothing and that their testimonies and continuous calls for justice were in vain,” read a Tuesday statement from 48 Iraqi and international organizations.
Yazidi community leader Mir Hazim Tahsin was in the US this week to secure the support of American and UN officials.