UN Team to Collect Evidence of Daesh Crimes in Iraq
Local Editor
The United Nations Security Council on Thursday approved the creation of a UN investigative team to collect, preserve and store evidence in Iraq of acts by the Wahhabi Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"] that may be war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.
The 15-member council unanimously adopted a British-drafted resolution, after months of negotiations with Iraq, that asks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish a team "to support domestic efforts" to hold the militants accountable.
Use of the evidence collected by the team in other venues, such as international courts, would "be determined in agreement with the Government of Iraq on a case by case basis."
UN experts said in June last year that Daesh was committing genocide against the Yazidis in Syria and Iraq to destroy the minority religious community through killings, slavery and other crimes.
International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and Nadia Murad have long pushed Iraq to allow UN investigators to help.
The Security Council met during the annual gathering of world leaders for the UN General Assembly.
Iraq's foreign minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari officially requested international help in a letter to the Security Council last month. The council could have established an inquiry without Iraq's consent, but Britain wanted Iraq's approval.
Daesh's self-proclaimed caliphate effectively collapsed in July, when US-backed Iraqi forces completed the recapture of Mosul, the militants' capital in northern Iraq, after a nine-month campaign.
iraq | isis | isil | united nations
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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