Yazidi MP Vian Dakhil Addresses Human Rights Council
In Response to New Report Finding Genocide

English video | Arabic video

GENEVA, June 24, 2016 -- Iraqi MP Vian Dakhil, whose impassioned plea in the Iraqi Parliament brought the plight of the Yazidi people to the world's attention, addressed the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday on behalf of Geneva-based human rights organization UN Watch, in response to the new UN report recognizing that ISIS is committing a genocide against the Yazidis. See speech text and video below.

Ms. Dakhil, invited by UN Watch to come for the session from Iraqi Kurdistan, addressed the council plenary after its 4-member commission of inquiry presented a new report recognizing the Yazidi genocide.

Dakhil also spoke at a press conference organized by UN Watch and the association of UN correspondents in Geneva.

"ISIS gives the Yazidi people two options: convert or be killed," she said. Dakhil urged the international community to "support the report and work with the Security Council."

Dakhil's remarks were reported by Reuters, Agence France Presse and Swiss Television ATS, and she appeared in a live interview with Al Jazeera.

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Text of Vian Dakhil's UN speech

English video | Arabic video

Translated from original Arabic

My name is Vian Dakhil. I am a member of the Iraqi People's Assembly, and I am a Yazidi woman. I have the honor to speak on behalf of UN Watch.

I came here from my country to pose this question to the world: Now what?

For two years now we have witnessed the displacement of people: we all live as Internally Displaced Persons. More than 2,500 men and children have been murdered – mass graves bear witness to these crimes.

The world has seen that our women have been raped then sold in markets as slaves, that 5,800 women and girls have been abducted by ISIS.

In this respect I would like to thank the UN commission in charge of investigating the crimes committed in Syria and Iraq, and their conclusion that what is taking place in our community should be considered as genocide.

This report, unfortunately, is late. For two years we have been subjected to unprecedented levels of torture. Is it not time for the human conscience to wake up?

We know that ISIS is a terrorist group that does not belong to any religion or nationality, and that it is fighting the world at large. But we are the ones who pay the biggest price.

The international community has to support us, to call upon the UN Security Council to recognize what is happening to us as genocide, and to refer our case to the International Criminal Court.

It has to help more than 3,200 women and girls who remain in ISIS captivity, to rehabilitate the survivors, and to rescue 1,000 children still in ISIS’s hands.

Thank you.
www.unwatch.org

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