Megan Pociask
Staff Writer
It’s not difficult to sympathize with the heartbreak caused by the atrocities formed at the hands of terrorists. Though, fully grasping the depth of that heartbreak is something most likely rather unknown to those who have not been directly impacted.
Nadia Murad, a person whose name has become familiar over recent years, is a member of the Yazidi ethnic and religious group, now a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and someone who grasps the true depth of heartbreak.
Formerly of Kocho, Iraq, Murad was just 19 years old when ISIS attacked her Yazidi village and massacred 600 Yazidi men. In 2014, at 21 years old, Murad was kidnapped by the Islamic State and sold into sex slavery. After three months, she escaped.
Murad then made her way to a refugee camp, where she was eventually met with the opportunity to find a home in Germany. Since then, she has become an outspoken activist against ISIS and the devastation they leave in their wake.
Now, the once victim of ISIS’s abhorrent cruelty, Murad is taking even further action. She recently has been joined by Amal Clooney, a specialist in international and human rights law. Together, they will be attempting to take ISIS to trial.
According to their 60 minutes interview, both see just as much reason to take ISIS to court as America saw for the Nazi’s in the Nuremburg Trials. In their most recent interview with 60 minutes, Clooney states, “it was the US under President Roosevelt and President Truman that said, ‘No we have to have trials because there must be a judicial record of the atrocities committed by the Nazis,’ because today you do have people denying that there were gas chambers and what do you have to point to? You can go back and say ‘well there are four thousand documents that were submitted as exhibits in the Nuremburg Trials and the Yazidis deserve nothing less than that…’ ”
In 2015 Nadia Murad, with Amal Clooney by her side, called on the United Nations Security Council to, “hold ISIS accountable.”
Eventually, in 2019, the UN Security Council furthered its case with exhuming some of the known mass Yazidi graves. However, whether or not this evidence will be tried for genocide against the Yazidi people remains in question.
In the 60 minutes interview, Clooney stated her belief that though the US has managed to dismantle ISIS, there is still a lack of justice for the Yazidis.
“You know, if you speak to Yazidi witnesses, victims, survivors, they will say ‘It doesn’t help me if somebody’s killed in a drone strike,’” stated Clooney. According to the human rights lawyer, what will help is confronting the “abusers” and sharing their story.
“…That hasn’t happened yet,” she said.
Categories: Features
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