Yazidi genocide justice far too slow, Nadia Murad says

Nadia Murad, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner and a survivor of Islamic State sexual enslavement, said Thursday that justice for Yazidis remains far too slow 12 years after the group's atrocities in Iraq.

Murad spoke at a press conference organised by France at the United Nations in Geneva to commemorate the events of 2014. She said survivors were still waiting for missing women and children, unidentified remains, the chance for displaced Yazidis to return home and justice for those responsible.

“For 12 years we have been repeating the same issues,” Murad said. “Progress has been made, but it's very slow.” She said many families still wait in tents and that some people remain in captivity.

Islamic State seized large parts of northern Syria and Iraq in 2014. In August that year, it captured Sinjar, the Yazidis' ancestral homeland, murdered thousands of Yazidi men and took thousands of women and girls into Syria to be sold as sex slaves. UN investigators found that the actions amounted to genocide.

Khawa Ali, another survivor of Islamic State sexual enslavement, said some Islamic State members had returned to Europe and were now “walking free”, while victims still lived in fear. She welcomed the conviction in Belgium last year of the man who held her captive and urged the international community to continue holding trials.