Nadia Murad Speaks at UNSC Meeting on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Advocates for German-led Resolution

On Tuesday, April 23rd, Nadia Murad and the Nadia’s Initiative team attended the United Nations Security Council’s meeting on sexual violence in conflict. Nadia, her fellow Nobel Laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege, and human rights lawyer Amal Clooney addressed the council prior to a vote on a German-drafted resolution to reduce sexual violence in conflict and end rape as a weapon of war:

Ms. Murad said that some Yazidi women who had been subjected to sexual violence at the hand of ISIS had “broken the barrier of silence” and “told their stories to the world,” hoping for justice.

“However, so far, not a single person was tried for sexual enslavement crimes against the Yazidis,” she informed the Council, adding that more than 350,000 Yazidis are still displaced in camps.

“After five years since the genocide against my people, as the world stood and watched, no clear steps have been taken to save the surviving Yazidis,” she said.

Asking that those perpetrators who “used Yazidi women as weapons of war” be brought to justice, Ms. Murad urged that they be tried before an international tribunal “for crimes of genocide and sexual violence against women and children” to send a message to others that would “prevent such crimes in the future."