Press Statement by Nadia Murad and Amal Clooney on Renewal of UNITAD Mandate

Press Statement by Nadia Murad and Barrister Amal Clooney

September 12, 2023

We want to highlight our continued support for the UNITAD mission in Iraq as it documents crimes committed by ISIS and provides critical support to criminal investigations in the home states of ISIS foreign fighters.

Over the past five years, the UN investigative team in Iraq has collected evidence and testimonies, and demonstrated the depth of ISIS’s brutality. It has documented not only the genocide and sexual violence perpetrated by ISIS against the Yazidi people, but also its crimes against other minorities in Iraq.

Yet, UNITAD’s work is not complete. The renewal of their mandate is of utmost importance so the mission can be completed, including the preservation of evidence for use in fair and independent criminal proceedings and the building of Iraq’s capacity in international crimes investigations and prosecutions.

It would be profoundly distressing for all the survivors who entrusted UNITAD with their testimony, as well as other victims, if this work was terminated before the mandate is fulfilled, and it would send a message that justice for ISIS victims is not only delayed but denied.

Genocide is the gravest crime against humanity and every possible step must be taken to ensure it is never repeated.

Facing the truth head-on through collecting and cataloguing evidence and testimonies is the first step to ensuring these crimes are not denied or forgotten.

So, we call on the Iraqi government and the United Nations Security Council to renew the mandate, and provide steadfast support for UNITAD’s mission.