Iraqi parliament ratified a law for reparation of Ezidi, Tukrmen, Christian and Shabak women survivors of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ISIS atrocities, Iraqi parliament media office said on Monday.
The Ezidi Female Survivors Law referred to the Iraqi parliament by the Iraqi President Barham Salih in March 2019, provides support and rehabilitation for the community, particularly the female members who escaped Islamic State abduction and slavery.
The law provides financial compensation for female and male survivors while it has not addressed other more sensitive issues, such as dealing with children who were the results of IS sexual abuse.
The bill provides Ezidi and other minority women who survived the IS massacre with financial support, health care, work opportunities, education, rehabilitation, and reconstruction in their villages and towns. With the establishment of a special governmental department for Ezidi affairs, the bill represents the first recognition in Iraqi history of the minority as a distinct group.
The Ezidi community hailed the ratification of the bill which was debated wo years in Iraqi parliament.
Ezidi female survivor, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and advocate for survivors of sexual violence Nadia Murad, tweeted, “Today's passage of Iraq’s Yazidi Survivors Bill is an important first step in acknowledging the gender-based trauma of sexual violence & need for tangible redress.”
Nadia Murad, tweeted, “Today's passage of Iraq’s Yazidi Survivors Bill is an important first step in acknowledging the gender-based trauma of sexual violence & need for tangible redress.”
“Implementation of the law will need to be focused comprehensively supporting & sustainably reintegrating survivors,” she adds.
Ezidis are an ethno-religious minority of about 550,000 people, mostly residing in Shingal, in northern Iraqi province of Nineveh. The militants of Daesh extremist group in 2014 attacked their communities, killing thousands of men and taking thousands of women and children, in an atrocity the U.N. said amounted to genocide. IS reportedly used the women and girls as sex slaves. Tens of thousands of Ezidis are still living in Internally Displaced People IDP camps in Iraqi northern province of Duhok.
The survivors are entitled to receive a monthly salary double of the minimum pension salary of a state employee. The government has to provide a plot of land plus construction advance bonus or a built house in their areas which should be reconstructed via projects to boost the infrastructure and basic public services.
Willing survivors can resume their education overlooking age and degrees. They have the priority of employment by the state once job opportunities available.
Two Ezidi survivors fled ISIS atrocities in an IDP camp in Syria. Photo by KirkukNow.
The law identifies crimes against the women survivors as genocide locally and internationally and pledged to file lawsuits against perpetrators. In 2019, Nadia Murad urged the world to hold IS extremists accountable for their crimes against different communities, specifically atrocities against Yazidis and Christians. Murad called for the creation of tribunals similar to the Nuremberg tribunals after World War II that brought Nazi war criminals to justice.
The Iraqi law is to commemorate ISIS atrocities against the Eizidis on August 3rd.
The Ezidi community hopes the Iraqi government can bring home the missing people and to retrieve the bodies of the dead and give them a proper burial.
“The ratification of the Yezidi Female Survivors law is a vital step towards justice and equal citizenship. The Iraqi Government is keen on implementing the law, provide a dignified living for all female survivors, work on freeing those in captivity, and support liberated areas,” Iraqi Prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said on Monday.
“The ratification of the Yezidi Female Survivors law is a vital step towards justice and equal citizenship. The Iraqi Government is keen on implementing the law, provide a dignified living for all female survivors, work on freeing those in captivity, and support liberated areas,” Iraqi Prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said on Monday.
Speaker of Iraqi Kurdistan parliament tweeted passing legislation to compensate Ezidi women survivors of "ISIS terrorists is a moral and constitutional duty of the Iraqi parliament. Such law will help erase part of the painful legacy of ISIS atrocities against these proud women.”
The victims eligible to benefit from the law must approach a committee composed of members from the ministries of justice and interior, the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG, and headed by a judge from the Supreme Judicial Council.
