14th August, 2014
Up to 1,500 Yazidi and Christians in Iraq may have been forced into sexual slavery, UN representatives said this week.
Zainab Hawa Bangura, special representative of the UN secretary-seneral on sexual violence in conflict, and Nickolay Mladenov, special representative of the secretary-general for Iraq, said in a joint statement they were "gravely concerned by continued reports of acts of violence, including sexual violence against women and teenage girls and boys belonging to Iraqi minorities".
“Atrocious accounts on the abduction and detention of Yazidi, Christian, as well as Turkomen and Shabak women, girls and boys, and reports of savage rapes, are reaching us in an alarming manner”, the statement said, noting that some 1,500 Yazidi and Christian persons may have been forced into sexual slavery.
“We condemn, in the strongest terms, the explicit targeting of women and children and the barbaric acts the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” has perpetrated on minorities in areas under its control, and we remind all armed groups that acts of sexual violence are grave human rights violations that can be considered as war crimes and crimes against humanity."
Mr Mladenov called on regional governments and the wider international community for the immediate release of the women and girls held in captivity and for support for Iraqi Government efforts to protect its citizens.
Earlier this week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "profoundly dismayed" by barbaric acts of violence carried out by IS fighters. These have reportedly included summary executions including beheadings and crucifixions, the use of boys as child soldiers and the abduction and trafficking of girls as sex slaves.
Canon Andrew White, the "Vicar of Baghdad", told an Anglican news service last week that a boy he had christened several years ago had been "cut in half" during the IS attack on the town of Qaraqosh.
– DAVID ADAMS