German lawmakers on Thursday recognized the 2014 massacre of Kurdish-speaking Yazidis by ISIS militants in Iraq’s northwest as a “genocide,” following the lead of UN investigators.
“The recognition of the genocide is an essential step to overcome the traumas for the Yazidi community,” said Greens MP Max Lucks, highlighting the precarious situation faced by survivors still living in Iraq.
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“A safe life, peace... must be our ambition for the Yazidi community,” he said.
Germany, home to a large Yazidi diaspora, is one of the few countries to have taken legal action against ISIS.
Last November, a German court convicted an Iraqi militant of genocide against the Yazidi minority, a first in the world that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad hailed as a “victory” in the fight for recognition of the abuses committed by ISIS.
The Yazidi minority has been particularly persecuted by the extremist organization, which forces its women into sexual slavery and killed men in their hundreds.
A special UN investigation team announced in May 2021 that it had collected “clear and convincing evidence” that militants had committed genocide against the Yazidis.
Read more: ‘Conflict, destruction’ prevent return to Iraq’s Yazidi heartland: Report
