Investigative team reaches ‘next level’ in bid to bring ISIL terrorists to justice — Global Issues

Emphasizing the progress made by the Investigation Team to strengthen accountability for crimes committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD), he said the evidence collected and analyzed, substantiated the findings. Preliminary presentation from his previous report.

He cited crimes against Christians such as slavery and forced conversion; “remarkable progress” in the development and use of chemical and biological weapons; and inspections of the destruction of internationally protected cultural heritage.

“At this critical stage in our mission, please allow me to declare that my Team has now reached the next level on the road to holding ISIL perpetrators accountable for these international crimes. core economy they have caused,” he said.

Preservation of evidence

He highlighted the excavation of several ISIL-related mass graves in Iraq and detailed that UNITAD had agreed with Germany to collect data and DNA reference samples from the Yazidi community residing there for the war. translation identifies human remains in Iraq, “allowing the last survivors to mourn their loved ones”.

“As part of this program, Iraqi authorities provided training in psychosocial support to ensure that international best practices are maintained when dealing with victims,” said Ritscher. people and survivors”.

To date, his team has converted 5.5 million pages of physical evidence of ISIL-related crimes into digital format and is currently supporting digitization at six different Iraqi locations.

Furthermore, they are part of the United Nations’ system-wide effort to promote the repatriation of citizens from camps in neighboring countries, such as Syria.

And UNITAD remains committed to improving information sharing with Iraqi partners and has expanded agreements with the country’s judiciary to enable sharing around ISIL’s financial crimes, he told the BBC. ambassadors.

Responsibility for Terrorists

The main objective of the investigation team is to assist Iraq in holding ISIL members accountable for international crimes.

As a result, it has organized week-long intensive training courses for judges around the country as well as a pilot training course on international crime case construction with judges and prosecutors. from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

“We encourage the Iraqi Representative Council to review through full domestic legislation on core international crimes, such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.” The special advisor recommended technical support to UNITAD said.

He hopes that the new government will prioritize the rule of law, reminding that – bound by United Nations policies and best practices – the sharing of evidence with the Iraqi judiciary on proceedings Criminal proceedings can only take place after the respective legal requirements and standards are met.

“Share information with the Iraqi judiciary…it means more than just handing over a huge box of evidence documents that can be compared with thousands, even millions of pieces,” Ritscher said, describing it as a “means to provide appropriate support appropriate to the needs of the respective magistrate or court of inquiry”.

Prosecution of the guilty

UNITAD has also been assisting other Member States in the investigations and prosecutions of ISIL crimes around the world.

So far, 17 member states have requested assistance from the UN team, he said, to assist with national prosecutions.

“The ability of the Team to gather corroborating evidence from witnesses to directly respond to these requests, combined with its ability to identify corroborating internal ISIL documents from battlefield evidence, has supported significantly in assisting investigations by national jurisdictions in these Member States,” said the senior UN official.

Vengeance for the Yazidis

UNITAD is also assisting the Joint Investigative Team in producing evidence to prosecute ISIL crimes against the Yazidi minority in 2015, when thousands suffered from a campaign of genocide of sexual violence and slavery. decriminalization, mass executions, forced conversions, and other atrocities.

He explained that the group “supports this effort through focused interviews with Yazidi witnesses both in Iraq and abroad; the collection of battlefield evidence related to the Yazidi slave network; as well as specific searches for evidence in our properties.”

“This work is key to ensuring that the perpetrators of ISIL, who commit such heinous international crimes, are held accountable to the competent courts, wherever they may be.”

Bring justice

Finally, the Special Counsel said his team acted even faster to assist in bringing alleged ISIL members to justice, “regardless of where they may reside”.

“UNITAD will stop at nothing to ensure that justice is served to the thousands of victims and survivors who are eagerly awaiting trial,” he said.

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