UN Human Rights Council to Send Mission to Iraq to Probe ’IS’ Crimes

Local Editor

The UN Human Rights Council on Monday unanimously agreed to send an emergency mission to Iraq to investigate the so-called "Islamic State" [IS] atrocities.

Diplomats on Monday agreed by unanimous consent to approve a nearly $1.2 million UN fact-finding mission at a daylong special session of the 47-nation Human Rights Council about Iraq and the extremist group.

Iraq's request for the UN to investigate abuses by IS was included in a resolution that more broadly condemns the group's severe tactics.

The investigators, who will have a budget of $1.2 million, will be expected to give an update to the Council at its next regular session which starts next week, and a full report at a session starting in February.

Its aim is to provide the Geneva-based council with a report and evidence next March that could shed further light on IS atrocities and be used as part of any international war crimes prosecution.

Meanwhile, Iraq's human rights minister Mohammad Shia Al-Sudani , said that, "We are facing a terrorist monster," decrying acts "equivalent to genocide and crimes against humanity."

Sudani stressed that, "The acts of the IS are a threat not only to Iraq but to the whole region," warning they posed "an imminent danger for all countries of the world."

He told the session that IS was threatening the makeup of his country. "The land of ancient Babylon is subjected to threats starting to its very independence; they are attempting to change its demographic and cultural composition."

Additionally, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Flavia Pansieri said that, "There is "strong evidence" IS and allied groups have carried out targeted killings, forced conversions, sexual abuse and torture in Iraq.

Pansieri said she was particularly worried about the persecution of Christians, Izadis, Shias, Turkmen and other ethnic groups by IS forces that have swept through western and northern Iraq.
"These communities have lived side by side, on the same soil, for centuries and in some cases for millennia," she added. Such "ethnic and religious cleansing" may amount to crimes against humanity.

"The reports we have received reveal acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale," she told the UN Human Rights Council, on its first meeting about the latest surge in violence.

Moreover, Russia and Syria blamed Western and Arab states for allowing the extremists to thrive in the region.

Russia and China supported Monday's resolution, raising hopes that the United Nations Security Council, which refers cases to the ICC [International Criminal Court], will not remain as hopelessly deadlocked on Iraq as it has been on addressing the conflict in neighboring Syria.

The resolution adopted on Monday called on the office of the UN's brand new High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jordan's Prince Zeid al-Hussein, who will officially be sworn in on Thursday, to dispatch investigators to Iraq.

The fact-finding mission will count 11 investigators who should make it to Iraq within the next couple of weeks, a spokesman for the U.N. human rights office said.

IS has grabbed large areas of Iraq and Syria, declaring a cross-border so-called "caliphate" and driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

At least 1,420 people were killed in Iraq in August alone, UN figures showed on Monday.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team