A key goal from the investigative team is to support Iraq in holding ISIL members accountable for international offences. Moreover, they are part of UN system-wide efforts to move forward on repatriation of nationals from camps in adjoining countries, such as Syria. “At this pivotal stage of our mandate, please allow me to state that my Group has now reached the next level at the path of holding ISIL perpetrators accountable for the primary international crimes they committed”, he said.
Preserving evidence
He cited crimes committed against Christians for example enslavement and forced transformation; “notable progress” on the advancement and use of chemical plus biological weapons; and home inspections on the destruction of worldwide protected cultural heritage sites. And UNITAD remains committed to improving information writing with its Iraqi counterparts and has expanded arrangements with the country’s judiciary to allow sharing surrounding ISIL’s financial crimes, he told ambassadors. Christian Ritscher, Special Adviser and Head of the Investigative Group, briefs the Security Council conference on threats to international peace and security. He hoped that the recently formed authorities would prioritize legislation, reminding that – bound by UN policies and guidelines – sharing evidence with all the Iraqi judiciary for felony proceedings can only take place after the respective legal requirements plus standards are met. “We encourage the Iraqi Council of Representatives to consider adopting adequate domestic laws on core international crimes, such as war crimes, offences against humanity, and genocide”, said the Special Adviser, offering UNITAD’s technical support.
Accountability for terrorists
UNITAD is also bolstering the particular Joint Investigation Team within surfacing evidence for prosecuting ISIL’s crimes against the Yazidi minority in 2015, when thousands endured a genocidal campaign of sexual violence and enslavement, mass accomplishments, forced conversions and other intense crimes. “UNITAD will not stop to ensure that justice is delivered for the thousands of victims and survivors who have been impatiently waiting to see their day in court”, he spelled out. “This work is key in ensuring that ISIL perpetrators, those who committed such heinous international crimes are kept accountable before competent courts, wherever they are”. As such, it has held intensive one-week training courses intended for judges from across the country in addition to a pilot training course on global crimes case-building with judges and prosecutors from the Kurdish Region of Iraq. He explained that the team “supports this effort through focused interviews with Yazidi witnesses both in Iraq and abroad; the collection of battlefield proof related to Yazidi enslavement networks; as well as specific searches against evidence in our holdings”.
Prosecuting the particular guilty
UN Photo/Loey Felipe Highlighting the progress made by Investigative Team to Promote Accountability meant for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD), he said proof collected and analysed, substantiated preliminary findings from his previous report. “As part of this programme, psychosocial support training is provided to Iraqi authorities to make sure international best practice is certainly maintained when dealing with victims and survivors”, said Mr. Ritscher.
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Avenging Yazidis
He highlighted the excavation of several ISIL-related mass graves in Iraq and detailed that UNITAD offers agreed with Germany to collect data and DNA reference point samples from the Yazidi neighborhood residing there for a advertising campaign to identify human remains within Iraq, “allowing survivors to eventually mourn their dearest ones”. UNITAD has also been supporting other Associate States in their investigations plus prosecutions for ISIL offences throughout the world. So far, he or she said, 17 Member Says have requested assistance from the particular UN team, to support national prosecutions.
Delivering proper rights
“The ability of the Team to gather testimonial evidence from witnesses in direct response to these requests, combined with its capability to identify corroborating internal ISIL documentation from battlefield proof, has been of significant help in supporting investigations by national jurisdictions within these types of Member States”, said the particular senior UN official. Many Yazidi family members fled their homes and took refuge in the Bajet Kandala camp for internally displaced people in northern Iraq. (file) Up to now, his team had transformed 5. 5 million physical pages of documentary proof of ISIL-related crimes into electronic formats and is currently supporting digitization at six different Iraqi sites.
In closing the Special Adviser said his team was moving much more rapidly to assist in getting alleged ISIL members to justice, “regardless of exactly where they may reside”.
