Nadia Murad's Statement on 8th Anniversary of Yazidi Genocide
Eight things wrong with the international response to genocide – and how to fix them
Nadia Murad, August 2nd, 2022
Eight years ago, the Islamic State (ISIS) attempted to eradicate my people. Ever since, I have been telling my community’s story, supporting survivors, and advocating for change.
Last year, on the seventh anniversary of the Yazidi Genocide, I wrote about my hope that Yazidis would not still be in the same dire position on the eighth anniversary. And yet, here I am a year later with the same message: genocides do not occur overnight, and neither does recovery. The Yazidi people cannot recover and rebuild without meaningful change and international support.
To commemorate the genocide’s eighth anniversary, I have identified eight areas where the international response is falling short and how we can fix them.
· Leaving families uncertain about the fate of their loved ones
· Focusing aid only on displacement camps
· Attempting to resolve the Sinjar dispute without Yazidi input
· Giving false hope of resettlement
· Waiting on regional stability to rebuild Sinjar
· Failing to hold perpetrators accountable for genocide
· Using standardized humanitarian solutions
· Prioritizing short-term aid over sustainable solutions
1. Leaving families uncertain about the fate of their loved ones.
Although the world sees me as a survivor of sexual violence, when I look at myself, I see a sister whose brothers lie in mass graves, a daughter whose mother has not been given a dignified burial, and an aunt whose nieces and nephews are still in ISIS captivity. These are the open wounds that eat away at me.
Every Yazidi I know has gone to bed each night for the last eight years with the same question on our minds: where are our missing loved ones?
More than eighty mass graves have been identified around Sinjar, but less than a handful have been exhumed. Exhuming the remainder of mass graves, identifying bodies, and providing proper burials is crucial to enabling survivors to honor their loved ones and find closure.
And we still hope to reunite with those who have been enslaved. Nearly 2,800 Yazidi women and children are still missing, and many are still in captivity. We cannot give up on these women and children. Knowing our loved ones remain captive without the power to save them is another form of torture.
The international community has devoted huge amounts of time and resources to hunt down terrorists. They can and must show the same commitment to finding and rescuing their victims.
WHAT WE CAN DO: Expedite the exhumation of mass graves and create a task force to coordinate search and rescue efforts for women and children in captivity.
2. Focusing aid only on displacement camps.
After I escaped from ISIS, I reunited with what was left of my family and lived for months in an internally displaced person (IDP) camp in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
I soon came to feel like the camps were a new kind of prison. There was no privacy for me to nurse my wounds, no opportunity for me to return to school, no place where I truly felt safe, and no real options for me to help myself and my community.
IDP camps are built to be temporary solutions, but they trap you in a cycle of day-to-day survival, rather than allowing you to progress toward recovery. Today, knowing that my actions can create tangible change for my community is what pushes me to get out of bed every morning. Staying busy and working to support fellow survivors keeps me sane.
But hundreds of thousands of Yazidis remain in IDP camps, with no path to start building a better life and no hope that tomorrow will be different. This lack of hope has led to high rates of suicide, increased instances of violence, early marriages, and other harm.
No kind of refugee empowerment programs can change the fundamental facts about life in an IDP camp. Camps are built for people in limbo, and limbo is where they keep you.
But there is another option – redirect aid to support Yazidis’ return to our homeland in Sinjar. Investing in Sinjar lays a foundation for long-term growth and ensures there will be something for future generations to inherit. Quality education, healthcare, and economic opportunities in Sinjar will enable Yazidis to regain dignity, self-sufficiency, and preserve our culture.
ISIS’ campaign of violence destroyed lives, but also resources and infrastructure. Yazidis cannot return home en masse without international support to rebuild what was destroyed. We need to direct more resources to where they can make the most significant and sustainable impact.
WHAT WE CAN DO: Direct aid to rebuilding essential services in Sinjar, so Yazidis can return home and restart their lives.
3. Attempting to resolve the Sinjar dispute without Yazidi input.
After the genocide, I anxiously anticipated the day when Sinjar would be liberated from terrorist control. That day came and went. Today, despite the ‘Sinjar Agreement’ of 2020, territorial disputes continue between the Iraqi Federal Government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil.
Instead of ISIS, Federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government, as well as proxies of neighboring countries, vie for control of Sinjar. The conflict endangers the lives of Yazidis who have returned home and prevents the governance and security needed to stabilize the region.
Sadly, the situation is not surprising. Since the ‘Sinjar Agreement’ was signed, no progress has been made on implementation. The international community supported the creation of the Agreement, now they need to put their political weight behind ensuring its terms are carried out.
International actors can also help support the Yazidis by making sure the community’s perspective is heard and valued when it comes to the governance and security of Sinjar. For peacebuilding efforts to succeed, Sinjar’s residents must be empowered to participate in the conflict resolution, democratic administration, and security of our homeland.
WHAT WE CAN DO: Advocate for the implementation of the Sinjar Agreement, ensure meaningful Yazidi representation in diplomatic efforts to resolve regional disputes, and support a community-nominated Yazidi candidate for mayor.
4. Giving false hope of resettlement.
Because of the ongoing conflict in Sinjar, many leaders ask, “Wouldn’t Yazidis rather resettle elsewhere than return to the site of genocide in Sinjar?” Unfortunately, resettlement is not a choice many Yazidis have the luxury of taking.
Other countries have proven themselves unwilling to accept hundreds of thousands of Yazidi refugees. During the last eight years, only a handful of Yazidis, primarily women and children who survived and escaped ISIS captivity, were able to resettle internationally.
The last round of resettlement took place in 2019. Since then, Yazidis who feel they have no other choice have taken grave risks to seek asylum abroad. Last year, far too many Yazidi families seeking asylum were trapped on the borders of Eastern Europe and Belarus for weeks. They were denied emergency aid. And today, they wake up in the same IDP camps that they fled.
False hope of resettlement incentivizes Yazidis to remain in IDP camps, or worse, embark on dangerous and pointless journeys across Europe. This lie is costing lives.
WHAT WE CAN DO: Be transparent about the fact that resettlement is unlikely and facilitate a safe return to Sinjar.
5. Waiting on regional stability to rebuild Sinjar.
Those who want to support the Yazidi community often tell me that they are holding off aid to rebuild Sinjar until the region has stabilized. To that, I say, if the region was already stable, the community would not need support. We would already be able to rebuild our homes, go to school, and find work.
Compared to rebuilding Sinjar, supporting IDP camps seems easy. Camps appear to be a way of minimizing the risks of humanitarian investment. But little risk yields little payoff. The easy way out rarely leads to meaningful change.
Stability comes from investment that allows for basic services like education, healthcare, and economic opportunities. Deferring investment in Sinjar has a real cost in human life. There are children who have been born in IDP camps and know nothing else and adults who have endured instability for years.
Waiting for stability in Sinjar to invest in its rehabilitation only prolongs the suffering my people have endured.
WHAT WE CAN DO: Invest in Sinjar’s reconstruction and services now; rebuilding will increase stability for Yazidis and the region.
6. Failing to hold perpetrators accountable for genocide.
In 2017, I advocated alongside my friend and lawyer Amal Clooney for the United Nations (UN) Security Council to establish a special committee to enable justice. Our resolution passed, creating the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes committed by Da’esh/ISIS. The team has since collected irrefutable evidence of ISIS’ mass atrocities. But what has been done with this evidence?
Currently, individual countries must decide to prosecute their nationals for genocide and sexual violence. So far, Germany has been the only nation to do so and secure a victory against ISIS. These victories are momentous, but not enough.
Other nations that have prosecuted ISIS members have only done so on charges of terrorism, not the specific crimes of genocide and sexual violence. Accountability must be specific if we want to discourage others from repeating these crimes.
Justice not only has consequences for the perpetrator; it impacts survivors. Accountability shows survivors that our rights matter, and that criminals cannot abuse us with impunity. Comprehensive international trials for the Yazidi Genocide could deliver justice to survivors and promote human rights around the world.
WHAT WE CAN DO: Send the Yazidi case to the International Criminal Court or create an international court by treaty to address the scale of ISIS’ atrocities, end impunity for genocide and sexual violence, and seek justice for survivors.
7. Using standardized humanitarian solutions.
In my advocacy work, survivors get asked to relive their trauma over and over again. Everyone wants to know what it was like in captivity and are surprised to find that I am not consumed by my trauma. I will not deny that it is a heavy burden. But my experience does not inhibit my work, it inspires it. It drives me to keep pushing to better support my community. I know many Yazidis who are doing the same.
Impacted communities are humanitarians and development specialists. They are the first ones on the scene when disaster strikes, and the last ones left continuing to support each other long after international organizations have moved on to the next crisis.
The role of international development should not necessarily be to build new – but, rather, to build upon local programs. To realize this model, we need to listen to diverse voices, not just traditional leaders. We need to listen to women, survivors, and marginalized people. The more inclusive we are, the more equitable and sustainable the solutions will be.
One of the best ways to support localized aid is through reparations. Reparations restore survivors’ power to make decisions and shape their own lives. So much of sexual abuse is about taking away freedom – taking away choice. It is powerful for survivors to get to choose their own path to recovery and have the resources to transform their choices into reality. The passage of the Yazidi Survivors Law (YSL) in early 2021 was an important legislative milestone for survivors in Iraq. The international community should encourage the Iraqi government to implement the YSL in a swift and survivor-centered manner.
WHAT WE CAN DO: Support community-led programs and reparations for survivors of sexual violence.
8. Prioritizing short-term aid over sustainable solutions.
Today, I am more afraid for the future of my community than I was when I first escaped ISIS. Too little progress has been made. Too many people are still suffering. The international response to the Yazidi genocide has enabled my community to survive, but not to achieve a dignified future.
The current model of humanitarian aid is designed to alleviate emergencies. Too often, the unintended consequence is that this model keeps people in a state of crisis rather than empowering them with the tools and resources to rebuild. Comprehensive recovery requires long-term commitment.
Eight years is not enough time to recover from genocide. And yet, it is far too much time for Yazidis to remain trapped in IDP camps without the support we need to rebuild our lives. The news cycle moves on, support is harder to come by, and the humanitarian attention span is short. There are always new crises to attend to, new conflicts breaking out, new communities being persecuted and displaced. All communities affected by conflict deserve our attention, but short-term responses do not comprehensively help anyone.
If we want to sustainably support communities, we must interrupt cycles of marginalization and violence. This means promoting gender equality, reducing poverty, investing in education, and enabling inclusive governance and security.
WHAT WE CAN DO: Invest in programs that address the root causes of instability and marginalization.
Although I speak about the Yazidi experience, there are conflict-affected communities in every corner of the world. The international community responds the same way to crisis after crisis, somehow thinking that this time will be different. As humanitarians and advocates for human rights, we must recognize our successes alongside our shortcomings and rethink our approach to conflict and displacement. I hope these eight points can be a place to start.