Amal Clooney to Represent Yazidi Survivor, Isil Genocide Victims And Sex Slaves


Amal Clooney, a human rights barrister, will represent victims of Yazidi genocide and will make attempts to achieve action within the Criminal Court to investigate ISIL crimes against humanity.

In addition, Clooney will represent Nadia Murad, who is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and was enslaved and raped by over a dozen Islamic State fighters. Since the atrocious crime, Murad has become a campaigner and has attempted to draw attention to her experience and those endured by Iraqi and Syrian communities that live under ISIL’s rule of terror.

Murad testified in court in December sharing that after a failed attempt to escape, she was then gang-raped. The Telegraph shares the terrible circumstance that Nadia was thrown into after being taken from her home in 2014. During her speech, Murad indicates that she was taken by ISIL fighters in August of 2014 and taken to Mosul by bus. Amal stated that despite recognition of the terrible acts by ISIL members, there have still not been any prosecutions.

As the publication notes, it is believed that thousands of girls still remain under ISIL control and are suffering terrible horrors daily. Amal Clooney has highlighted the facts and made a plea to the criminal court to properly prosecute these members of the Islamic State.

“The European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the US government and the UK House of Commons have all recognized that there is a genocide being perpetrated by Isil against the Yazidis in Iraq. How can it be that the most serious crimes known to humanity are being carried out before our eyes but are not being prosecuted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague?”

The barrister went on to share statistics that thousands of Yazidi civilians have been killed and another thousand have been enslaved by the fighters and Islamic State who make it clear that they have full genocide intent. Additionally, Clooney reminded that governments are aware that rapes are constantly occurring.

“And yet no one is being held to account. It is time that we see Isil commanders in the dock in The Hague, and I am honoured to have been asked to represent Nadia and the Yazidi community in their quest for legal accountability.”

Amal Clooney is seeking the prosecution of the crimes committed against Murad and will also attempt to get justice for those young Yazidi girls and women in Iraq who are constantly subjected to cruel treatment and enslavement.

Nadia Murad has expressed her deep appreciation for Amal Clooney and George Clooney’s support throughout this ordeal and spoke highly of Amal’s treatment of her while working on the case.

“She did not talk to me as a well-known world figure that people would love to take a photo with, she talked to me as a sister and guardian. She has immense power that made me proud of being a woman.We are both defenders of justice, and peace seekers through justice. The final goal for us all is accountability to perpetrators of genocide, and justice for victims like myself.”

In February, an activist group contacted UK Prime Minister David Cameron, urging him to bring about a new manner in which ISIL terrorism is handled in courts. Since their urging, all jihadist attacks on Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East are now classed officially as genocide.

In addition to the statistics provided by Clooney in her speech, other details are shared by CBC News, including the fact that about 7,000 women and girls were enslaved by Sunni militants in 2014. Mainly, the girls came from the Yazidis faith which blends elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Islam. Approximately 3,500 are being held as sex slaves.

[Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images]

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