Nadia Murad’s Statement on the 10th Anniversary of the Yazidi Genocide

The resilience of survivors must be met with resolve from the international community.

In August 2014, I experienced the darkest side of humanity. When ISIS surrounded my village in northern Iraq, my family’s simple life was thrown into chaos and destruction. Within days, my brothers, Jalo, Pise, Massoud, Khairy, Elias, and Hajji were killed. A few days later, ISIS militants murdered my mother, Shami, who up to that point had made it her life’s work to make sure we had everything we needed. I was taken into ISIS captivity alongside my sisters and nieces, where we were trafficked, raped, and enslaved.

When ISIS attacked the Yazidis, they had a cynical long-term plan in mind, particularly for women and girls. Taking their cues from some of the worst perpetrators throughout history, they took up sexual violence as a weapon of war, employing it in a deliberate strategy to dismantle the Yazidi community from within and inflict intergenerational trauma. The systematic use of such heinous tactics against Yazidi women was not just an attack on individuals, but an assault on the very fabric of our society. The aim was to unravel our community and tear apart the social bonds that women like my mother worked tirelessly to weave.

I was able to survive and tell my story–but for far too many, the nightmare is ongoing. Over 2,000 Yazidi women and girls remain in captivity, held by ISIS members or sympathizers in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. The trauma they have endured over the past ten years is unimaginable and the international community must work together to bring them home. We cannot leave them to spend the rest of their lives in captivity.

Survivors of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) have shown remarkable resilience in the aftermath of the atrocities they faced; but they cannot rebuild their lives without meaningful justice. Despite the horrific nature of their crimes, few ISIS fighters have been held accountable for their actions. I believe that transparent trials, using an international hybrid court mechanism remains the best way to ensure impunity does not prevail. By successfully holding murderers and wartime rapists to account we can provide a deterrent against a crime that has only become more prevalent in the years since 2014.

My homeland of Sinjar was a rural, quiet region before the violence a decade ago. When ISIS attacked, 70% of our infrastructure, homes, and farms were destroyed, making it impossible for survivors to return home. While some progress has been made in rebuilding parts of the region, much more is needed if the remaining community is to leave the displacement camps and return home. This cannot be done without the governments of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region agreeing on a plan for stability and security. Such a plan must be informed by the input and participation of survivors. Only once this is achieved, and funding for reconstruction is delivered can we ensure the community is safe from the vulnerabilities that led to the atrocities in the first place.

Despite the horrors and hardships they have faced, Yazidi survivors are leading the way in the fight to rebuild and achieve justice. However, it is not something they can do alone. Nor should they have to. The crimes they were subjected to represent a collective moral failure, and the only acceptable response is tangible, survivor-centric support and meaningful steps that lead toward justice. The time for mere condemnation is long past. The resilience of survivors must be met with resolve from their governments and the international community.

As we commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Yazidi genocide, I urge the international community to redouble efforts to rescue the missing Yazidi women and children; establish a viable legal mechanism to prosecute ISIS perpetrators of genocide and CRSV; and provide Yazidi survivors the support they need to stabilize and rebuild their homeland.

These actions would yield two crucial outcomes: justice for survivors and prevention of the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. 

Sadly, the horrors my community and I endured ten years ago were not an isolated event. Many more vulnerable communities have experienced conflict, displacement, and CRSV in the years since the Yazidi genocide. We must do everything in our power to prevent the recurrence of these acts; and when they do take place, we must hold all responsible parties accountable. Today, we find ourselves at an inflection point – and only bold action will allow us to change course toward a safer, more just world for future generations.

Nadia Murad

President and Chairwoman of Nadia’s Initiative

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

UNODC Goodwill Ambassador