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	‘Barbaric’ violence perpetrated by militant cult group (IS) in Iraq by UN News, agencies   Feb 2015   Report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict in Iraq: 11 September – 10 December 2014 from UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Assistance Mission for Iraq.   A UN report released documents widespread human rights violations of an increasingly sectarian nature in Iraq, as well as a deterioration of the rule of law in large parts of the country.   It documents serious violations of international humanitarian law and gross abuses of human rights perpetrated over a three month period by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), with an apparent systematic and widespread character. These include killings of civilians, abductions, rapes, slavery and trafficking of women and children, forced recruitment of children, destruction of places of religious or cultural significance, looting and the denial of fundamental freedoms, among others. “Members of Iraq’s diverse ethnic and religious communities, including Turkmen, Shabaks, Christians, Yezidi, Sabaeans, Kaka’e, Faili Kurds, Arab Shi’a, and others have been intentionally and systematically targeted by ISIL and associated armed groups and subjected to gross human rights abuses, in what appears as a deliberate policy aimed at destroying, suppressing or expelling these communities permanently from areas under their control,” the report says.   The report also details the murder of captured members of Iraqi security forces and of people suspected of being associated with the Government by ISIL. Individuals suspected of being disloyal to ISIL, including religious, community and tribal leaders, journalists, doctors as well as female community and political leaders have been particularly targeted. During the reporting period, at least 165 executions were carried out following sentences by so called “courts” in ISIL-controlled areas.   “Many of the violations and abuses perpetrated by ISIL may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and possibly genocide,” the report notes.   The report also details violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law reportedly committed by the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and affiliated armed groups during the same period, including failures to abide by the principles of distinction and proportionality in the conduct of military operations.   “Armed groups claiming to be affiliated to or supporting the Government also perpetrated targeted killings, including of captured fighters from ISIL and its associated armed groups, abductions of civilians, and other abuses,” the report says.   Militias and other armed groups – some of which appear to be operating outside of Government control according to reports - are active in several governorates, particularly in Diyala and Salah-al-Din. Allegations of human rights abuses by these militias have been received, including summary executions and abductions, according to the report.   At least 11,602 civilians have been killed and 21,766 wounded from the beginning of January until 10 December 2014. Between 1 June and 10 December 2014, when the conflict spread from Anbar to other areas of Iraq, at least 7, 801 civilians were killed and 12,451 wounded. “ISIL’s goal remains to destroy the Iraqi state and society by fermenting violence and division,” said Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq Nickolay Mladenov, noting that the figures provided should be regarded as absolute minimums, given the limitations on UNAMI/OHCHR capacity to verify reports of civilian casualties and allegations of human rights abuses.   “Iraqi leaders need to move immediately and implement the Government’s agenda of national unity and reconciliation in order to put an end to the heinous crimes committed by ISIL, and ensure that all armed groups are under state control,” Mr. Mladenov added.   The report also notes that the number of civilians who have died from the secondary effects of violence, including the lack of access to food, water or medical care, remains unknown. Large numbers remained trapped or displaced in areas under the control of ISIL during the reporting period, with limited access to humanitarian assistance. Children, pregnant women, persons with disabilities and elderly people proved particularly vulnerable in these difficult circumstances. “I continue to be deeply shocked by the gross human rights violations committed by ISIL and associated armed groups. The targeting of civilians based on their faith or ethnicity is utterly despicable and we must not spare any effort to ensure accountability for these crimes,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, who once again called on Iraq to join the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court or to accept the exercise of its jurisdiction with respect to the current situation facing the country.   http://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/report-protection-civilians-armed-conflict-iraq-11-september-10-december-2014-enar http://www.unhcr.org/542011f06.html http://www.minorityrights.org/13031/press-releases/between-the-millstones-iraqs-minorities.html http://www.minorityrights.org/12721/reports/from-crisis-to-catastrophe-the-situation-of-minorities-in-iraq.html   Oct 2014   Human Rights Council convenes a Special Session on abuses committed in Iraq by ISIL.   Since the emergence of the so-called Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated groups, widespread and systematic human rights violations against civilians have dramatically increased.   In parts of Anbar, Diyala, Ninewa, and Salah-al-Din governorates in the northern half of Iraq, violations include targeted killings, forced conversions, abductions, trafficking, slavery, sexual abuse and torture, destruction of places of religious and cultural significance, and the besieging of entire communities because of ethnic, religious or sectarian affiliation.   Speaking at the special session held by the Human Rights Council in Geneva on the human rights situation in Iraq, in light of the abuses committed by ISIL and its associates, the Deputy UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Flavia Pansieri, said that over one million people have been forced to flee their homes to survive the violence.   “Christian, Yezidi, Turkmen, Shabak, Kaka’e, Sabaeans and Shi’a communities have been targeted through particularly brutal persecution, as ISIL has ruthlessly carried out what may amount to ethnic and religious cleansing in areas under its control. The full extent of casualties is difficult to determine,” Pansieri said.   The Deputy High Commissioner noted that at least 850,000 people belonging to ethnic and religious groups under attack have found refuge in displacement camps set up by the Government of the Kurdish Region, while others were being hosted by local communities where resources are scarce. “Some 180,000 people entered the Kurdistan Region in the course of a single day,” she highlighted.   ISIL has intentionally destroyed Sunni and Shia shrines, and Christian places of cultural and religious significance. “These communities have lived side by side, on the same soil, for centuries, and in some cases, millennia. These individuals have an undeniable right to continue living in their own country, in peace, equality and dignity,” Pansieri stressed.   She added that ISIL had intentionally committed widespread and systematic persecution of these ethnic and religious groups, depriving them of their right to life and to freedom of religion; denying them of their identity; and compelling many “to wander in fear in desolate and dangerous areas”.   “These inhumane and odious offences constitute a serious and deliberate attack on human dignity and on human rights, likely amounting to a crime against humanity,” she said.   Children belonging to ethnic and religious communities targeted by ISIL have also been put at risk. The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui, said that the impact of armed violence on children had reached unprecedented level during the current crisis.   “The most reported violations remain the killing and maiming of children. Six-hundred and ninety-three child casualties have been reported since the beginning of the year,” Zerrouigui said, noting that most casualties were due to indiscriminate attacks by Government forces and armed groups including ISIL and affiliates. She also highlighted that young boys had been executed along other civilians by armed opposition groups, including ISIL.   Zerrougui referred to reports of sexual violence and forced marriages that have emerged in the last few months, saying that young girls from minority groups were being abducted for these purposes.   http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/HRCSpecialSessionIraq.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14904&LangID=E   August 2014   ‘Barbaric’ sexual violence perpetrated by extremist militant cult group (IS) in Iraq – UN   Two senior United Nations officials today condemned in the strongest terms the “barbaric acts” of sexual violence and “savage rapes” the armed group (IS) has perpetrated on minorities in areas under its control.   In a joint statement from Baghdad, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence (SRSG) in Conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov urged the immediate protection of civilians.   "We are gravely concerned by continued reports of acts of violence, including sexual violence against women and teenage girls and boys belonging to Iraqi minorities,” Ms. Bangura and Mr. Mladenov said.   “Atrocious accounts of abduction and detention of Yazidi, Christian, as well as Turkomen and Shabak women, girls and boys, and reports of savage rapes, are reaching us in an alarming manner," Ms. Bangura and Mr. Mladenov stated, pointing out that some 1,500 Yazidi and Christian persons may have been forced into sexual slavery.   The officials condemned, in the strongest terms, the explicit targeting of women and children and the barbaric acts IS has perpetrated on minorities. Acts of sexual violence are grave human rights violations that can be considered as war crimes and crimes against humanity, they warned.   Mr. Mladenov called on regional Governments and the wider international community for the immediate release of the women and girls held in captivity and to support the Government of Iraq’s efforts to protect its citizens. He pledged that his Office would closely monitor the situation to ensure accountability and advocate for support to the survivors of the “barbaric acts.”   IS insurgents massacred some 300 members of Iraq"s Yazidi minority in a village in the country"s north, according to officials.   "They arrived in vehicles and they started their killing this afternoon," senior Kurdish official Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters. "We believe it"s because of their creed: convert or be killed."   http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/21/indonesia-president-says-islamic-state-embarrassing-muslims.html   UN warns Iraqi refugees plight still severe   In Geneva, the United Nations said around 80,000 people had fled to the relative safety of Dohuk province on the Turkish and Syrian borders, part of the 1.2 million Iraqis who have been displaced inside the country this year.   Dan McNorton of the UNHCR refugee agency said their plight was severe. "People are exhausted, people are very thirsty, these are searing temperatures," he told a news briefing, adding that children and old people were among those forced to walk for days without food, water or shelter.   Several thousand remained on the barren tops of the Mount Sinjar range, where members of the Yazidi religious minority fled the militants, who consider them "devil worshippers".   The enslavement of Iraq’s minority women. (Guardian News)   Evidence that women belonging to the Yazidi and Christian religious minorities in Iraq are being raped and sold into slavery by the extremist militant cult group (IS) is mounting. One of the first to speak out was Vian Dakheel, the only Yazidi female MP who addressed the Iraqi parliament last week. “Mr Speaker, our women are being taken as slaves and being sold in the slave market,” she said.   A spokesman for Iraq’s human rights ministry, Kamil Amin, confirmed that the Islamist group had captured Yazidi women under 35 years old, that it is holding them in schools and likely to use them as slaves.   The news was reaffirmed by the Iraqi Red Crescent and the international press, which reported that those fleeing had received phone calls from their daughters, wives or sisters saying they were being taken as brides or warned to convert or die. The issues has also been documented by US state department and the UN.   Gender, religion and location are intersecting to produce a situation in which women belonging to minority religions are being targeted.   As Isis has taken over cities with large religious minority populations in Northen Iraq, they have targeted women belonging to minorities.   The Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq has decried the abduction of women and their rape under the Isis banner of jihad al-nikah (sex for the pursuit of struggle). Many Iraqi women who have suffered the worst backlash against their rights in IS-controlled areas.   http://www.walkfree.org/iraq-slavery-icc/ http://reliefweb.int/report/iraq/escape-hell-torture-sexual-slavery-islamic-state-captivity-iraq Visit the related web page
	Aid workers saving lives while fearing for their own by Carole Landry Agence France-Presse   Aug 2014   Aid workers rushing to save lives worldwide are increasingly becoming targets for attack, in a worrying development for NGOs trying to ease suffering in hostile war zones.   From South Sudan, where roaming militias killed six aid workers this month - three of them in an ambush - to Gaza, where 11 UN staff were killed in attacks on UN-run shelters, relief workers are living dangerously.   Over the past decade, the number of aid workers killed in attacks has tripled, reaching over 100 deaths per year, UN officials say.   Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Syria now rank as the most dangerous countries for humanitarian staff.   "Fifteen years ago, the greatest risk to the lives of aid workers were road traffic accidents. That is no longer the case. Violent incidents claim the lives of more aid workers than anything else," said Bob Kitchen, from the International Rescue Committee.   With operations in more than 40 countries, the IRC has lost 12 staff over the past six years: five were executed by the Taliban in 2011 and two were killed in April in a horrific attack on the UN base in Bor, South Sudan.   Kitchen, who heads the IRC''s emergency response team, attributes the increase to the changing nature of warfare, with more civilians being displaced internally, either unable or unwilling to flee the country.   "We are increasingly seeing the need for aid organizations to go into environments of war," he said.   Armed groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq consider aid workers a legitimate target, either as a quick way to earn money or to punish those who help their enemies.   "More and more, we''re seeing parties to conflicts around the world ignore the rules of war to achieve a political end," said John Ging, head of operations for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.   "I believe unfortunately that we are seeing more attacks on humanitarian workers as part of a growing deficit of humanity in conflict and in global politics."   The UN Security Council is to discuss ways of better protecting aid workers during a meeting that coincides with World Humanitarian Day, which marks a 2003 attack on the UN compound in Baghdad when 22 UN staff were killed.   For UN aid worker Ken Payumo, helping civilians in South Sudan meant standing up to armed soldiers who demanded access to the UN compound in Bor after thousands had sheltered there, including probably rebel supporters.   On January 19, Payumo ordered the gates of the compound shut and refused to let the soldiers in. He stood unarmed with two other UN officials outside the compound refusing to let them in as some 80 battle-weary men pointed rifles at him.   "I remember making a decision at that time that everyone in that compound was really more important than I was," said Payumo, a 46-year-old former New York police officer.   "If we didn''t show how serious we were in protecting civilians right there and then, it would have been a very different story and we would have had to live with it."   The soldiers finally decided to leave, but a few months later, the compound was attacked, leaving close to 50 dead.   Payumo had by then left Bor, after receiving death threats, but the experience has not deterred him.   "The reality is that wherever humanitarians are working, it''s not because it''s a peaceful environment -- something has gone wrong somewhere," he said.   Researcher Larissa Fast said that the rise in the number of attacks on aid workers is "just the tip of the iceberg."   "The everyday incidents, such as being stopped at a checkpoint, being denied access to populations, a threat communicated via SMS or letter, or the theft of equipment or supplies proportionally have a much greater effect in terms of preventing or hindering the work of aid agencies and the delivery of aid.   "Yet these types of incidents receive far less attention," said Fast, who tracks threats to aid workers at the Kroc Institute of the University of Notre Dame.   Fast said aid agencies need to pay more attention to risk management.   On that front, many non-governmental organizations are putting much effort in developing "community liaison," relying on local residents to help keep their staff safe.   "Just unloading food from the back of a truck is no longer how we work," said the IRC''s Kitchen.   Developing ties with local communities means "they will say to us, ''Listen, it''s not safe for you to come today.'' That makes a massive difference for our security." Visit the related web page
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