3rd August, 2015
An estimated eight million people are living in territory in Iraq and Syria controlled by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to a UN expert.
Ben Emmerson, the UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, said ISIL (also known as IS), has engaged in widespread and systematic human rights abuses which "may amount to genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and widespread attacks on the civilian population".
“The brutal nature and overall scale of abuses appears to be intended to reinforce the group”s absolute monopoly on political and social life and to enforce compliance and conformity among communities under its control," he said in a report presented to the UN in July. "The result is that civilians who remain in ISIL-controlled areas live in a state of constant and almost unimaginable fear."
Mr Emmerson said ISIL has targeted religious and ethnic groups in Iraq and Syria which have been forced to assimilate, flee or face death. “In Iraq, violence against the Yezidis have been reported with men being separated from women and children, then taken to ditches and brutally executed,” he said.
The report said women, confined to their homes and forced to adhere to a strict dress code, are facing violence including sexual slavery, killings, enslavement, and rape while children as young as six have been raped, tortured and kidnapped.
Children as young as eight-years-old have also been trained and used in military roles. “They are reportedly made to watch videos of beheadings, and mass executions to desensitize them to forms of violence employed by ISIL," Mr Emmerson said.
The special rapporteur said more than 20,000 foreign fighters have now joined the ranks of non-state armed groups in the region, coming from about 80 countries around the world.
– DAVID ADAMS
