Act now to prevent industrial scale human rights violations

Act now to prevent industrial scale human rights violations by ISIL – UN expert calls on the Security Council

GENEVA (22 June 2015) – United Nations human rights expert Ben Emmerson today urged the UN Security Council to take effective action to enforce international law and protect civilians in areas under the control of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL).

“The Security Council has an obligation to act,” said the Special Rapporteur on the protection and promotion of human rights while countering terrorism, during the presentation of his report* on the gross violations committed by ISIL and the pressing need for accountability.

“Given the reports of genocide, all members of the Security Council may now have a specific responsibility to take action to prevent this most serious of international crimes,” he said. “But whether these dreadful crimes qualify as genocide or not the time has come to recognise that permanent members have a responsibility to refrain from using their veto powers to block action aimed at ending atrocity crimes.”

The Special Rapporteur noted that this approach now has the support of many States, civil society organisation and entities of the UN. “This mandate,” he stated, “also unequivocally supports efforts to bring about this desperately need reform.”

In his report, Mr. Emmerson describes how different entities have found clear evidence of persecution and summary execution of religious and ethnic minority communities on a mass scale, arbitrary execution of community leaders, journalists, intellectuals and others, mass disappearances, forced religious conversions and systematic torture. As many as 700 people were reportedly murdered in one such massacre.

The enforcement of summary justice in areas under ISIL control includes public beheading, shooting, stoning, lashing and amputation. Mutilated corpses are put on public display as a deterrent. Systematic gender-based violence, rape and sexual slavery are a part of everyday life. Homosexual men are routinely targeted on grounds of their sexuality.

Children have been subjected to summary execution, arbitrary detention and torture, and forced to take part in military training. Significant religious and cultural sites have been systematically destroyed.

“In short, those living under the terror of ISIL are in daily fear for their lives,” the expert said. “These shocking crimes are being committed on an industrial scale and amount to an affront to the conscience of the entire international community.”

The Special Rapporteur noted that, so far, the UN Security Council has only determined that ISIL represents a threat to international peace and security and it has stressed the need to bring perpetrators to justice. “But the Council has conspicuously failed to either authorise military action under Chapter 7 of the Charter, or to refer the situation in Iraq and Syria to the International Criminal Court,” he said.

“States are under an obligation to take measures to protect civilian populations from widespread and systematic acts of violence and terrorism,” Mr. Emmerson concluded. “It is essential that any response be grounded in respect for international law, including international humanitarian law, international human rights law and refugee law.”

(*) Check the Special Rapporteur’s report (A/HRC/29/51): http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session29/Pages/ListReports.aspx

ENDS

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