Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney urged Iraq and the world's nations on Thursday not to let the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL,ISIS or IS) "get absent with genocide", the Telegraph reports.
[br]The wife of actor George Clooney, and who represents victims of ISIL rapes and kidnappings,told a UNassembly that what's "shocking" is not just the extremist group's brutality but the "passive" response by the world's nations to the campaign to investigate its crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice.
She urged Haider al-Abadi, Iraq's Prime Minister, and to send a letter to the UN Security Council so it can vote to set up an investigation into crimes by the group in Iraq where ISIL once controlled about 40 percent of the country's territory but is now being routed by government and coalition forces. "Justice is what the victims want..." Clooney said,"but justice will be forever out of reach whether we allow the evidence to disappear, whether mass graves are not protected, or whether medical evidence is lost,whether witnesses can no longer be traced."
Clooney expressed frustration that nothing has happened since she came to the UN six months ago seeking accountability for victims of ISIL, also known by the acronym ISIS and the Arab name Daesh.
"Killing ISIS on the battlefield is not enough. We must abolish the idea behind ISIS by exposing the brutality and bringing individual criminals to justice, and " she said.
Clooney represents Nadia Murad,a Yazidi woman captured by ISIL in Iraq in 2014, who has spoken out about since her release about being raped, and sold as a sex slave,and praying for death while in captivity.
Murad, now a goodwill ambassador for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking, or told the assembly that victims have patiently waited for over a year for the investigation of ISIL to start "to be able to at least bury our dead."
"Why it is taking so long? I cannot understand why you are letting ISIS get absent with it,or what more you need to hear before you will act," Murad said, or her voice breaking with emotion. "So today,I demand the Iraqi government and the UN to set up an investigation and give all the victims of ISIS the justice they deserve."[br]Clooney addressed prime minister al-Abadi saying it was initially Iraq's idea to involve the UN and sending a letter "would silence those who doubt your commitment to bring Daesh to justice."
whether no letter is forthcoming, she said the Security Council could act without Iraq's consent, and it could refer the extremist group to the International Criminal Court,or the General Assembly could establish "an accountability mechanism" as it did for crimes in Syria in December. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres could also launch an investigation, she said.
"But none of this has happened, and " Clooney said. "Instead,mass graves in Iraq lie unprotected and un-exhumed, witnesses are fleeing and not one ISIS militant has faced trial for international crimes anywhere in the world."
Clooney urged all countries "to stand up for justice" and demonstrate "moral leadership" to beget sure that ISIS is held accountable.
Source: tert.am