FoRB Podcast: Justice and Accountability for the Yazidi Genocide Ten Years On

In Episode 4 of The FoRB Podcast, Merilin Kiviorg and Dmytro Vovk invite Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law to discuss political, legal, and social responses to the 2014 Yazidi genocide committed by ISIS. Jocelyn elaborates on the roots of the genocide and addresses the challenges and threats Yazidi communities have faced post-genocide. She also discusses state responsibility and measures, often ineffective, implemented by the Iraqi government and other national and international actors to hold perpetrators accountable. Jocelyn further explains why detention camps for former ISIS members and their families can foster a new circle of violence and how the Yazidi genocide has changed our understanding of international criminal law.

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Institutions as Agents of Persecution and Inclusion of Minority Faiths

Brett G. Scharffs is Rex E. Lee chair and professor of law at J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, and is director of the Law School’s International Center for Law and Religion Studies. The following post is based on his remarks at the AMAR Windsor Dialogue conference held at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, England, 24–25 June 2024. It was published as part of the Talk About blog feature “Marking the 10th Anniversary of the Yazidi Genocide.”

My engagement with the AMAR International Charitable Foundation began as a participant in the 2018 Windsor Dialogue conference held in Baghdad, where I and others discussed the experience of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and their journey “from persecution to inclusion.”[1] The hope was that the Latter-day Saints’ journey might have salience, relevance, and resonance with the Yazidi community. I later discussed the Latter-day Saints’ journey at a 2022 Notre Dame University Symposium, “Re-Thinking the Law to Protect Religious Minorities,” and published a related essay in Notre Dame Law Review Reflection.

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Marking the 10th Anniversary of the Yazidi Genocide

On 3 August 2014, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) invaded the Sinjar region of Iraq, instigating genocide against the Yazidi people. ISIL/Daesh killed more than 3000 Yazidis and abducted more than 6800, mostly women and girls. Ten years later, 2600 of the abducted remain missing. And more than 150,000 Yazidis still residing in IDP camps face an uncertain future, as camps face defunding and closure.

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