UN urges Justice for Iraq sex abuse victims by ISIL

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Iraq must ensure that thousands of women and girls who survived sexual violence by ISIL have access to justice and reparations, Iraq state media reported on Tuesday.

The report said the UN Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) and the UN rights office warned that the children born as a result of the sexual violence risked facing a lifetime of discrimination and abuse.

An 11-year-old Yazidi girl who was reportedly kidnapped and sold as a slave by the ISIL in 2014 after she was freed by Iraqi forces on April 20, 2017. /AFP Photo

"The physical, mental and emotional injuries inflicted by (ISIL) are almost beyond comprehension," UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

Tuesday's report pointed to the horrific abuse suffered by women and girls, especially from the Yazidi minority, in ISIL-controlled areas, including rape, abduction, slavery and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

In 2014, ISIL jihadists massacred Yazidis in Sinjar, forcing tens of thousands of them to flee, and capturing thousands of girls and women as spoils of war to be used as sex slaves.

Haifa, a 36-year-old woman from Iraq's Yazidi community who was taken as a sex slave by ISIL‍ fighters, stands on a street during an interview with AFP journalists in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk on November 17, 2016. /AFP Photo

The women were sold and traded across the jihadists' self-proclaimed "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq. Around 3,000 are believed to remain in captivity.

Based on interviews with survivors, the report found that support for the victims must come with significant changes to the criminal justice system to prove effective.

The UN report also stressed that Baghdad was responsible under domestic and international law to prosecute the perpetrators and help ensure reparations for the victims. It gave an example as hundreds of children born to women in ISIL-controlled areas without birth certificates or with ISIL-issued documents were not accepted by Baghdad.

A displaced Iraqi girl, who had fled the violence around the northern Iraqi city of Mosul as a result of a planned operation to retake the Iraqi city from jihadists, stands at the Jadaah camp on the outskirts of Al-Qayyarah, south of Mosul, on July 19, 2017. /AFP Photo

The report comes three days after Iraqi security forces launched their offensive to retake the city of Tal Afar, one of the ISIL’ last remaining strongholds in Iraq.

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters ,Xinhua News Agency