Turkiye should face International Court over Yazidi genocide, UK report says

British human rights lawyer, Helena Kennedy, has said that Turkiye should face charges before the International Court of Justice for being complicit in acts of genocide against the Yazidi people, The Guardian reports.

According to the report, Kennedy endorsed an investigation against Syria and Iraq for failing to prevent the killings.

The lawyers, known as the Yazidi Justice Committee (YJC), asserted that States are held accountable under the Genocide Convention to prevent genocide, the report says.

Sir Geoffrey Nice, QC, Chair of the YJC, described the genocide of the Yazidi people as “madness heaped on evil”.

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“Mechanisms in place could have saved the Yazidis from what is now part of their past, and part of their past partial destruction,” he said.

“Turkish officials knew and/or were willfully blind to evidence that these individuals would use this training to commit prohibited acts against the Yazidis,” the report said.

The Turkish Ambassador to the UK, Ümit Yalçın, called the criticisms baseless and unfair.

“Turkiye, starting from the early years of the conflict in Syria, played a key role in the protection of Syrian civilians and minorities, including Yazidis, in the region against the attacks and violations of terrorist groups,” Yalcin said.