Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney is urging Iraq and the world’s nations not to let the Islamic State extremist group \u00ab\u00a0get away with genocide. \u00ab\u00a0.<\/b>
Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney urged Iraq and the world’s nations on Thursday not to let the Islamic State extremist group \u00ab\u00a0get away with genocide. \u00a0\u00bb
The wife of actor George Clooney, who represents victims of IS rapes and kidnappings, told a U. N. meeting that what’s \u00ab\u00a0shocking\u00a0\u00bb is not just the group’s brutality but the \u00ab\u00a0passive\u00a0\u00bb response by the world’s nations to the campaign to investigate its crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice.
She urged Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to send a letter to the U. N. Security Council so it can vote to set up an investigation into crimes by the group in Iraq where IS once controlled about 40 percent of the country’s territory but is now being routed by government and coalition forces.
\u00ab\u00a0Justice is what the victims want… \u00a0\u00bb Clooney said, \u00ab\u00a0but justice will be forever out of reach if we allow the evidence to disappear, if mass graves are not protected, if medical evidence is lost, if witnesses can no longer be traced. \u00a0\u00bb
Clooney expressed frustration that nothing has happened since she came to the U. N. six months ago seeking accountability for victims of the Islamic State group, also known by the acronym ISIS and the Arab name Daesh.
\u00ab\u00a0Killing ISIS on the battlefield is not enough. We must kill the idea behind ISIS by exposing the brutality and bringing individual criminals to justice,\u00a0\u00bb she said.
Clooney represents Nadia Murad, a Yazidi woman captured by IS in Iraq in 2014, who has spoken out about since her release about being raped, sold as a sex slave, and praying for death while in captivity.
Murad, now a goodwill ambassador for the U. N. Office on Drugs and Crime for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking, told the meeting that victims have patiently waited for over a year for the investigation of IS to start \u00ab\u00a0to be able to at least bury our dead. \u00a0\u00bb
\u00ab\u00a0Why it is taking so long? I cannot understand why you are letting ISIS get away with it, or what more you need to hear before you will act,\u00a0\u00bb Murad said, her voice breaking with emotion. \u00ab\u00a0So today, I ask the Iraqi government and the U. N. to establish an investigation and give all the victims of ISIS the justice they deserve. \u00a0\u00bb
Clooney addressed prime minister al-Abadi saying it was initially Iraq’s idea to involve the U. N. and sending a letter \u00ab\u00a0would silence those who doubt your commitment to bring Daesh to justice. \u00a0\u00bb
If no letter is forthcoming, she said the Security Council could act without Iraq’s consent, or it could refer the extremist group to the International Criminal Court, or the General Assembly could establish \u00ab\u00a0an accountability mechanism\u00a0\u00bb as it did for crimes in Syria in December. U. N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres could also launch an investigation, she said.
\u00ab\u00a0But none of this has happened,\u00a0\u00bb Clooney said. \u00ab\u00a0Instead, mass graves in Iraq lie unprotected and un-exhumed, witnesses are fleeing and not one ISIS militant has faced trial for international crimes anywhere in the world. \u00a0\u00bb
Clooney urged all countries \u00ab\u00a0to stand up for justice\u00a0\u00bb and demonstrate \u00ab\u00a0moral leadership\u00a0\u00bb to make sure that ISIS is held accountable.
Britain’s U. N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told the meeting he looks forward to finalizing the Security Council resolution with Iraq \u00ab\u00a0very, very soon. \u00a0\u00bb He said the aim is to assist Iraq \u00ab\u00a0with the difficult but crucial challenge of preserving the huge amount of evidence of Daesh crimes committed on Iraqi territory. \u00a0\u00bb
Iraq’s U. N. Ambassador Mohamed Alhakim said the government plans to try cases involving low and mid-level members of Daesh but it will have to work with the international community to bring the top leaders to justice.
He made no mention, however, of U. N. help in preserving evidence or the required letter.<\/p>\n

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