WUNRN
IRAQ - IS THIS MODERN DAY GENOCIDE?
- WOMEN & CHILDREN VICTIMS - INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION AGAINST GENOCIDE
International Business Times
IRAQ CRISIS - HUNDREDS OF YAZIDI
WOMEN HELD AS SLAVES BY ISLAMIC STATE MILITANTS
"The Yazidis are a religious minority, who practice an ancient religion with links to Zoroastrianism, that the Sunni Muslim radicals consider heretical."
Hundreds of Yazidi women are being held captive in
By Priya Joshi - August 8, 2014
An
Iraqi official has claimed that hundreds of Yazidi women have been taken captive
by Islamic State militants.
Kamil
Amin he spokesman for Iraq's Human Rights Ministry,said the women are below the age of 35 and are
being held in schools in Iraq's
second largest city, Mosul.
He
said the ministry were informed by the families of the women that they had been
kidnapped. Earlier reports indicated that capture Yazidi women were intended to be given to
young jihadists as wives.
Contemplating
the fate of the captured women, Amin said: "We think that the
terrorists by now consider them slaves and they have vicious plans for them. We
think that these women are going to be used in demeaning ways by those terrorists
to satisfy their
animalistic urges in a way that contradicts all the human and Islamic
values."
Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled when the Islamic
State group captured the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, near the Syrian border.
The
Yazidis are a religious minority, who practice an ancient religion with links
to Zoroastrianism, that the Sunni Muslim radicals consider heretical.
“30,000 families have been besieged on Mount Sinjar, without food
or water. Our women are being taken captive and sold on the slave-market. In
the name of humanity save us.'”
- Yazidi MP Vian Dakhil
ISIS
had issued an ultimatum to the Yazidi community to convert to Islam, pay a
religious fine, flee their homes or face death. The people fled to the mountains
on the border of Syria to escape persecution.
Tens
of thousands of Yazidi members now remain trapped on Mount Sinjar in Iraq
without food and water.
If
they choose to descend, they face being killed by Islamic State fighters, formerly
the ISIS, which has taken control of vast swaths of Iraq.
Marzio
Babille, the Iraq representative for the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF
reported from the scene saying: 'There are children dying on the mountain, on
the roads. "There is no water, there is no vegetation, they are completely
cut off and surrounded by the Islamic State. It's a disaster, a total disaster.'
Footage of Yazidi women and children fleeing in the Sinjar mountains have
emerged online. Long lines of Yazidi civilians walking rough paths along the
mountains and taking shelter in improvised tent encampments can be seen in a video filmed by
Kurdish TV channel ANF.
An
Iraqi member of parliament, who belongs to the Yazidi broke down in tears as
she pleaded with colleagues to help her community, warning that they are under
siege by the Islamic State jihadist group and face imminent destruction.
“There are children dying on the mountain, on the roads. There is
no water, there is no vegetation, they are completely cut off and surrounded by
the Islamic State. It's a disaster, a total disaster.”
- Marzio Babille, the Iraq representative for UNICEF
Yazidi
MP Vian Dakhil said: "We are being slaughtered, annihilated. An entire
religion is being wiped off the face of the
Earth. Brothers, I am
calling out to you in the name of humanity! In the name of humanity, save us! Mr.
Speaker, I want to. ... "
She
then burst into tears. Composing herself she continued to highlight the plight
of men and children who have been murdered, and women, who are being sold into
slavery.
"I
am standing here not in order to deliver a speech to the Iraqi people, but in
order to convey the bitter reality of the Yazidis currently in Mount Sinjar. Mr.
Speaker, under the slogan of 'There is no god but Allah,' 500 Yazidi boys and
men have been slaughtered up to now."
"Mr.
Speaker, our women are being taken captive and sold on the slave-market. ...
Please, brothers. ... Please, brothers. ... A genocide campaign is taking place
right now against the Yazidis."
In
her impassioned speech she pleaded for solidarity and support to end the atrocities
committed agisnt the Yazidis.
"Brothers,
despite all the political disagreements, we want human solidarity. I speak in
the name of humanity. Save us! Save us! For the past 48 hours, 30,000 families
have been besieged on Mount Sinjar, without food or water. They are dying.
Seventy children have died so far of thirst and suffocation. Fifty elderly
people have died because of the deteriorating conditions. Our women are being
taken captive and sold on the slave-market.
"Mr.
Speaker, we call upon the Iraqi parliament to intervene immediately to stop
this massacre. The Yazidis suffered 72 genocides, and it is being repeated in
the 21st century."
There
are now are only a handful of
Christians left in Mosul, where believers have lived for two millennia.
Isamic State have already massacred around 500 Yazidi people in the town of Sinjar. The group were being protected by Kurds, but were overrun by the Islamists, who are attempting to create a caliphate in the region.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
ICRC - International Committee of
the Red Cross
Convention
on the Prevention & Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 9 December
1948.
The Convention on Genocide was among
the first United Nations conventions addressing humanitarian issues. It was
adopted in 1948 in response to the atrocities committed during World War II and
followed G.A. Res. 180(II) of 21 December 1947 in which the UN recognised that
"genocide is an international crime, which entails the national and international
responsibility of individual persons and states." The Convention has since
then been widely accepted by the international community and ratified by the
overwhelmingly majority of States.
The jurisprudence of the
International Court of Justice considers the prohibition of genocide as
peremptory norms of international law ( see Reservations to the Convention on
Genocide, 1951 I.C.J. Rep. 15, 23; see also Case Concerning Barcelona Traction,
Light and Power Co. (Belg. v. Spain), 1970 I.C.J., Rep. 3, 32). Moreover, the
ICJ recognises that the principles underlying the Convention are principles
which are recognised by civilised nations binding on States, even without any
conventional obligation.
Noteworthy, the Convention provides
for a precise definition of the crime of genocide, in particular in terms of
the required intent and the prohibited acts (Article II). It also specifies
that the crime of genocide may be committed in time of peace or in time of war.
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1) Ratification
: a treaty is
generally open for signature for a certain time following the conference which
has adopted it. However, a signature is not binding on a State unless it has
been endorsed by ratification. The time limits having elapsed, the Conventions
and the Protocols are no longer open for signature. The States which have not
signed them may at any time accede or, in the appropriate circumstances,
succeed to them.
Accession : instead of signing and then
ratifying a treaty, a State may become party to it by the single act called
accession.
2) Reservation
/ Declaration : unilateral
statement, however phrased or named, made by a State when ratifying, acceding
or succeeding to a treaty, whereby it purports to exclude or to modify the
legal effect of certain provisions of the treaty in their application to that
State (provided that such reservations are not incompatible with the object and
purpose of the treaty).