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Stop Genocide in Iraq: Tell UN to Act Urgently
Radical fundamentalists from the Islamic State
group are annihilating whole communities in Iraq, including Yezidis and
Christians. Urge Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to
take action now.
APPEAL FOR UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL EMERGENCY
SESSION ON IRAQ
To: UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights Navi Pillay...ir al enlace
Excellency,
Faced with shocking reports of mass
slaughter threatened by the Islamic State in Iraq (ISIS) against numerous
minority groups, possibly amounting to genocide, we, an international coalition
of parliamentarians, dissidents, and human rights activists, urge you—in the
name of humanity—to call for and take immediate action to convene an emergency
special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, to protect the right
to life of these vulnerable populations who are now in very grave
danger.
Besieged Yazidis stranded on an isolated
mountaintop are beginning to die of thirst. Ten of thousands of men, women and
children fled their
homes in northern Iraq, after Islamic State militants attacked the towns of
Sinjar and Zunmar. “Children have died because of dehydration and lack of food,”
Vian Dakheel, a Yazidi parliamentarian from Sinjar, said to the Iraqi parliament
through tears. “My people are being slaughtered.”
Consider the past month
alone:
- Islamic State militants destroyed a half dozen of places of worship, including a 14th century mosque in Mosul. Desperate to save their holy sites, residents of one town formed a human chain around an 840-year-old minaret to save it from the Islamic State militants.
- The UN Special Rapporteur on minorities expressed grave concern for the safety of Christians, Shia, Shabaks, Turkmen, Yazidis and other minorities in Iraq facing persecution on the grounds of their religion and ethnicity.
- The Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons stressed that the ongoing conflict has already displaced some 1.2 million people, mostly minority members who have fled the northwest of Iraq.
It
is unconscionable for the world’s highest human rights body—which is pledged,
under UNGA Resolution 60/251, to prevent human rights violations and respond
promptly to human rights emergencies—to continue turning a blind eye to the
massacre, abuse, and intimidation of Iraqi civilians.
Accordingly, we urge you to end the
silence and take action to convene a UNHRC Special Session that
will:
1. Mobilize world action to protect
vulnerable populations in Iraq from mass killing, war crimes, crimes against
humanity, and other gross and systematic violations of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, including the right to life;
2.
Establish an urgent, international and independent Fact Finding Mission to
investigate the Islamic State for acts committed to destroy, in whole or in
part, various national, ethnic, racial and religious groups in Iraq,
constituting genocide as defined in the Genocide Convention, and to recommend
urgent action to the UN Security Council, as well as to ensure individual
accountability before the International Criminal Court; and
3. End the unacceptable protection
gap of the past decade by reviving the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in Iraq which was terminated by the UNHRC without
justification in 2004, thereby ensuring an early warning mechanism for the
international community, with regular reporting to both the Council and the
General Assembly.
