ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A consortium of Iraqi and international NGOs said on Sunday that while progress has been made in the aftermath of the atrocities committed by the Islamic State (ISIS) towards Yazidis, the path toward full justice and recovery remains incomplete and increasingly fragile amid renewed threats and waning international attention. “Today marks the 11th anniversary of the genocide committed by ISIL against Yazidis and other minority groups in Iraq. A day to mourn, honor the victims, and elevate the voices of survivors—and a reminder that the rights, needs, and aspirations of those impacted by this cataclysmic event should shape the path forward,” The Coalition for Just Reparations (C4JR) said in a joint statement with numerous other NGOs. The group urged stakeholders to revisit its 2023 report, “10 Demands, 10 Years After the Genocide by ISIL,” which outlines priorities such as securing safety, providing education and healthcare, searching for the missing, facilitating access to reparations under the Yazidi Survivors Law (YSL), and enabling the safe return of displaced communities to the Yazidi heartland of Shingal (Sinjar) in Nineveh province. Iraq’s parliament passed the YSL in 2021, aiming to provide assistance to victims of ISIS atrocities. C4JR cites it as one of Iraq’s most important legal responses to the genocide. This year, the coalition said, “We encourage local and international stakeholders to revisit those demands, assess what has changed, and acknowledge the work that remains.” “Some survivors have not been able to access the reparations program due to their lack of civil documentation or inability to meet the burdensome evidentiary requirements,” the coalition said. “Others have faced considerable process delays. Those who have been approved for benefits may still grapple with an underfunded healthcare sector, limited livelihood opportunities, and viable housing, land, and property solutions that have yet to materialize.” The Kurdistan Region’s leaders also commemorated the 11th anniversary of the Yazidi genocide on Sunday, calling on Baghdad to implement a key 2020 agreement with Erbil aimed at restoring stability and services in Shingal. President Nechirvan Barzani, in a statement, reiterated the Kurdistan Region’s “full support” for the ethnoreligious community, while lamenting that “after eleven years, nearly half of the Yazidis still live in difficult economic, social, and psychological conditions in camps.” In 2020, the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) signed the Shingal Agreement to restore governance, security, and stability to the district and resolve a number of issues that have prevented the return of its inhabitants. Under that deal, Baghdad was to assume responsibility for security, expelling all armed groups and establishing a new armed force recruited from the local population. The agreement has never been fully implemented and thousands of Yazidis are still unable to return home. ISIS launched a brutal offensive across northern and western Iraq in June 2014. By August, it began its onslaught on the Yazidis in Nineveh province, killing an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 men and elderly women. The jihadists abducted about 7,000 women and girls for sexual slavery and human trafficking. Around 400,000 Yazidis were forced to flee, with most seeking refuge in the Kurdistan Region, according to the Office for Rescuing Abducted Yazidis, operating under the Kurdistan Region Presidency. Under ISIS rule, Yazidis faced mass killings, destruction of towns and villages, and what the United Nations has recognized as genocide. Although Iraq declared the full liberation of its territory from ISIS in 2017, around 21,000 Yazidi families remain displaced, primarily in camps in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province.
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