CIJA supports Australian investigation into alleged Da’esh slave traders

In May 2026, two Australian women – mother-and-daughter Kawsar and Zeinab Ahmad – were arrested by the Australian authorities following their return from Syria. The duo have been charged with crimes against humanity of enslavement, as well as with slavery offences including possessing and using a slave and engaging with slave trading. These crimes are said to have taken place in the context of Kawsar’s and Zeinab’s broader support of Da’esh, after the two travelled to Syria in 2014 to allegedly join the group. CIJA supported the Australian authorities in their investigation of the case, hosting a delegation from the Australian Federal Police at CIJA HQ in September 2022 and subsequently responding to two Requests for Assistance, sharing in-depth CIJA analytical reports on Da’esh enslavement and trafficking operations in Northern Iraq and Syria.

The charges laid against Kawsar and Zeinab Ahmad relate to the enslavement and wider atrocities amounting to the genocide of the Yezidi people carried out by Da’esh in occupied areas of Iraq and Syria from August 2014. Across this period, Da’esh forces systematically killed Yezidi men, enslaved Yezidi women and children, and forced captives to convert, with Yezidi captives frequently exposed to sexual violence amongst other forms of inhuman and cruel treatment.

To date, CIJA has supported nine cases in which convictions have been secured or charges forwarded relating to Da’esh’ genocide of the Yazidi people, after its investigators collected tens of thousands of Da’esh documents and thousands of witness interviews from Iraq and Syria. Many of these materials, as well as CIJA-developed analysis of this body of evidence, have been shared with investigating and prosecuting authorities from across 20 countries as they seek to secure justice for Da’esh victims and survivors.