ISIS invaded vast areas of northern Iraq in 2014 and was accompanied by unimaginable heinous acts committed against Yazidis. Yazidis are an ethnic and religious indigenous component that has inhabited Iraq for centuries. The Sinjar massacre of 3 August 2014 and the crimes committed against Yazidis included the murder of their men and children, the subjection of Yazidi women and girls to sexual slavery and forced pregnancy, human trafficking, the recruitment of children, and the forced adoption of other religion. Atrocities against the Yazidis also included the destruction of their cultural and religious sites and the destruction of the spirit of the Yazidi people. Approximately 3000 women and girls are still missing, mass graves remain undiscovered, and perpetrators have not been prosecuted for genocide; Because of the lack of the appropriate legal framework for the trial.
Bearing in mind the definition of genocide in its legal sense as well as the emerging literature and documents demonstrating that Yazidin has been subjected to genocide under its legal definition, Genocide can also be defined as a phenomenon of mass destruction. While the term genocide has been widely used when referring to the atrocities committed by ISIS, the Yazidis themselves also use it to refer to the incidents of persecution they have been subjected to for decades.
