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Amnesty International reported on July 31, 2024, that thousands of Yazidis are still missing in Syria and Iraq, despite having survived atrocities committed by ISIS.
Coinciding with the tenth anniversary of ISIS’s attack on the Yazidi community in Iraq, Amnesty noted that thousands of Yazidi survivors of ISIS brutality remain unaccounted for, including hundreds who are being held indefinitely in northeast Syria.
According to the Office for the Rescue of Yazidi Abductees in Dohuk, Iraq, approximately 2,600 Yazidis have been estimated as missing since the defeat of ISIS in 2019, with a significant
number believed to be in northeastern Syria after being abducted and transported there.
Amnesty interviewed Yazidi rights activists and organizations, which estimate that a large number of Yazidis are trapped in the sprawling detention system established for perceived ISIS members in northeast Syria. This system is managed by the authorities of the Autonomous Administration of the northern and eastern regions of Syria, with support from the US-led military coalition formed to defeat the Islamic State.
Amnesty International believes that hundreds of Yazidi women and children are held in the al-Hol detention camp, some of whom remain trapped in captivity, slavery, and face other abuses by ISIS elements.
According to Amnesty, an unknown number of Yazidi boys and youths who were abducted as children are thought to be held in a network of at least 27 detention facilities.
In early August 2014, ISIS launched an attack targeting the Yazidi community, resulting in the deaths of over 3,000 men, women, and children, and the illegal abduction of at least 6,800 others, predominantly women and children. The group committed a range of violations against Yazidis, subjecting women and girls to sexual slavery and recruiting children.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights emphasizes the protection of individuals from enforced disappearance, categorizing it as a “crime against humanity.” Signatories are committed to preventing enforced disappearances and combating impunity for the perpetrators involved.
Same Justice Human Rights confirms the necessity of protecting individuals belonging to national and religious minorities from civil, political, economic, and cultural violations rooted in discrimination, racism, and exclusion. Same Justice emphasize the need to safeguard individuals exposed to enforced disappearance, which constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law.
