MPs & human rights activists urge UN rights council to act against Iraq massacres

Urgent Appeal to UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay to Stop Genocide in Iraq Excellency, Faced with shocking reports of mass slaughter threatened by the Islamic State in Iraq (ISIS) against numerous minority groups, possibly amounting to genocide, we, an international coalition of parliamentarians, dissidents, and human rights activists, urge you—in the name of humanity—to call for and take immediate action to convene an emergency special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, to protect the right to life of these vulnerable populations who are now in very grave danger. As reported by the Washington Post, besieged Yazidis stranded on an isolated mountaintop are beginning to die of thirst. Ten of thousands of men, women and children fled their homes in northern Iraq, after Islamic State militants attacked the towns of Sinjar and Zunmar. “Children have died because of dehydration and lack of food,” Vian Dakheel, a Yazidi parliamentarian from Sinjar, said to the Iraqi parliament through tears. “My people are being slaughtered.” Consider the past month alone:

• Islamic State militants destroyed a half dozen of places of worship, including a 14th century mosque in Mosul. Desperate to save their holy sites, residents of one town formed a human chain around an 840-year-old minaret to save it from the Islamic State militants.
• The UN Special Rapporteur on minorities expressed grave concern for the safety of Christians, Shia, Shabaks, Turkmen, Yazidis and other minorities in Iraq facing persecution on the grounds of their religion and ethnicity.
• The Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons stressed that the ongoing conflict has already displaced some 1.2 million people, mostly minority members who have fled the northwest of Iraq.
• It is unconscionable for the world’s highest human rights body—which is pledged, under UNGA Resolution 60/251, to prevent human rights violations and respond promptly to human rights emergencies—to continue turning a blind eye to the massacre, abuse, and intimidation of Iraqi civilians.

Accordingly, we urge you to end the silence and take action to convene a UNHRC Special Session that will:

1. Mobilize world action to protect vulnerable populations in Iraq from mass killing, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other gross and systematic violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the right to life;
2. Establish an urgent, international and independent Fact Finding Mission to investigate the Islamic State for acts committed to destroy, in whole or in part, various national, ethnic, racial and religious groups in Iraq, constituting genocide as defined in the Genocide Convention, and to recommend urgent action to the UN Security Council, as well as to ensure individual accountability before the International Criminal Court; and
3. End the unacceptable protection gap of the past decade by reviving the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iraq which was terminated by the UNHRC without justification in 2004, thereby ensuring an early warning mechanism for the international community, with regular reporting to both the Council and the General Assembly.
4. We respectfully request that this joint NGO appeal be circulated among the 47 member states of the UNHRC, as well as among all observer states and other stake-holders.

Sincerely, Sir John Randall, Member of Parliament, UK Roger Godsiff, Member of Parliament, UK Irwin Cotler, Member of Parliament, Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Liberal Critic for Rights & Freedom and International Justice, Canada Michael Danby, Parliamentary Secretary to Leader of the Opposition, Member of Parliament, Australia Alan Griffin, Member of Parliament, Australia Tunne Kelam, Member of the European Parliament, Estonia Erik Meijer, Senator, The Netherlands Gert Weisskirchen, former Member of Parliament, Germany Matyas Eorsi, former Member of Parliament, Hungary Hillel C. Neuer, Executive Director, UN Watch, Switzerland Rev. John Pellowe, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Council of Christian Charities Ulrich Delius, Society for Threatened Peoples Ann Buwalda, Executive Director, Jubilee Campaign Francois Ullmann, President, Ingenieurs du Monde Basil Oezkaya, Main UN Representative, World Council of Arameans Adel Alfetory, Horiyat Group for Development and Human Rights Yang Jianli, President, Initiatives for China/Citizen Power for China Christina Fu, President, New Hope Foundation Regis Iglesias Ramirez, Movimiento Cristiano Liberación, Cuba John J. Suarez, International Secretary, Cuban Democratic Directorate Amardeo Sarma, GWUP – Wissenschaft und kritisches Denken Maria Giovanna Ruggieri, President, World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations

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