“Accountability for IS Crimes Against the Yezidis”
The Islamic State’s campaign against the Yazidi community – and other minorities – was driven by an ideology of extermination and enslavement which was controlled through a highly-organised and well-regulated bureaucracy. A new TOAEP policy brief by Stephanie Barbour and William Wiley explores how evidence gathered from IS’s own records by CIJA investigators has contributed to a growing number of prosecutions in Europe. Courts have increasingly convicted IS members on cumulative charges of terrorism and international crimes, including genocide and crimes against humanity for the enslavement, murder and rape of Yezidis. These trials have served to better capture the crimes perpetrated and more broadly establish the judicial truth concerning the Yezidi genocide. However, in the absence of a comprehensive policy for case selection and prioritization that would enable the prosecution of higher-level perpetrators, they conclude that the full evidence of IS’s genocidal plan to eradicate the Yezidis has yet to be unfurled.
Read the Policy Brief: https://www.toaep.org/pbs-pdf/192-barbour-wiley/
Stephanie Barbour and William H. Wiley, Accountability for Islamic State Crimes Against Yazidis, TOEAP Policy Brief Series No. 192 (2025)