Other Islamic institutions and contexts Other Islamic authority or family context Sinjar District, Iraq · 2016

UN commission finds that ISIS committed genocide against the Yazidis

Record class

Institutional event

Evidence status

Official finding

Authority role

armed organization claiming religious and governmental authority, religious and ideological leadership enforcing ISIS doctrine

Organization

Islamic State in Iraq and Syria

Spiritual nexus

The commission found that ISIS targeted Yazidis as an allegedly infidel religious group, sought to destroy their religion, imposed forced conversion and religious re-education, and used its own ideological and religious rulings to organize killing, enslavement, sexual violence and the transfer of children.

Prophecy or divine command
Religious marriage or family control
Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2016-06-15 · official international fact-finding report

Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. The commission found that ISIS had committed genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Yazidis and that the genocide was ongoing.

Documented coercion mechanisms

forced conversion
religiously justified enslavement and sexual slavery
indoctrination of children
mass killing and destruction of religious life

Primary record

Sources

official un fact finding report genocide and atrocity finding Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, 'They came to destroy: ISIS Crimes Against the Yazidis,' A/HRC/32/CRP.2 (June 15, 2016).: The UN commission's full report documents the attack, ISIS's stated religious classification of Yazidis, forced conversion, sexual slavery, transfer and indoctrination of children, killings and destruction of religious life, and concludes that ISIS committed genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
official un release finding summary OHCHR, 'UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria: ISIS is committing genocide against the Yazidis' (June 16, 2016).: The official release summarizes the commission's genocide finding, the acts and ideological nexus, and its accountability recommendations.

Related record

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