Iraq's cabinet allocates half a billion dinars to Yazidi survivors

Iraq's Cabinet has decided to allocate half a billion Iraqi dinars to the Yazidi female survivors during its meeting on Tuesday, while the Iraqi Parliamentary Women's Committee welcomed the decision.

"The Cabinet’s decision is good and is a step taken towards implementing the Yazidi Survivors Law," Member of the Parliamentary Committee and PUK bloc MP, Rezan Sheikh Dler, told PUKmedia on Wednesday.

MP Rezan Sheikh Dler also called for speeding up the procedures for implementing the law and forming bodies and directorates affiliated with the General Directorate of Refugee Affairs in the governorates in which the survivors reside.

Last March, the Iraqi Parliament passed the Yazidi Female Survivors Law which recognizes ISIS crimes against Iraq’s Yazidi community as genocide and mandates compensations for Yazidi women survivors. 

The law also recognizes conflict-related sexual violence and its particular usage by ISIS against Yazidi women. However, the law has still not been implemented on the ground. 

Background of the Yazidi genocide 

The ISIS attacks n the Yazidis in Iraq that began on 3 August 2014 resulted in thousands being killed: the United Nations estimates that 5,000 Yazidi men died in the massacre. Yazidi men who refused to convert to Islam were executed and dumped in mass graves; many boys were forced to become child soldiers. Over 6,000 Yazidi women and girls, some as young as nine were enslaved and forcibly transferred to locations in Iraq and eastern Syria. 

Held in sexual slavery, survivors reported being repeatedly sold, gifted, or passed around among ISIS fighters. ISIS gained full control of one-third of Iraq until 2017 when Iraq announced victory over the terrorists.



PUKmedia