Iraq

On August 3, 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) initiated a genocidal campaign against the Yazidis, an ethno-religious minority group who are indigenous to Northern Iraq. Over the following years, ISIS forced thousands of women and girls into sexual slavery and subjected them to forced marriages, daily rapes, and other forms of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). 

Iraqi authorities passed legislation to provide reparations to Yazidi survivors of CRSV in March 2021. But implementation of this law has been slow and has seen obstacles.

We are partnering with Nadia’s Initiative, an international organisation founded by ISIS survivor and Global Survivors Fund (GSF) co-founder Nadia Murad, to co-create and implement interim reparative measures with Yazidi survivors. These measures, designed to help survivors rebuild their lives while advocating for and supporting national authorities to implement survivor-centric reparations, include:

• Compensation in the form of cash, livelihood, or shelter support
• Psychosocial support
• Medical care
• Education
• Legal and documentation services

In consultation with the wider community, survivors have also decided to build a memorial statue and garden at the entrance of Sinjar as a collective interim reparative measure.