In the report presented during the 29th Human Rights Council Session in Geneva, Switzerland, the widespread and systematic human rights violations of the most serious kinds committed by the ISIL were amounted to genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

"The brutal nature and overall scale of abuses appears to be intended to reinforce the group’s absolute monopoly on political and social life. The result is that civilians who remain in ISIL-controlled areas live in a state of constant and almost unimaginable fear," said UN Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism in his report.

ISIL has targeted religious and ethnic groups in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic and has committed acts of violence against civilians because of their affiliation with them. These religious or ethnic communities have been forced to assimilate, flee or face death. In Iraq, violence against the Yezidis have been reported with men being separated from women and children, and brutally executed. Women and children are also extremely vulnerable to violence and discrimination.

Emmerson also added that States are under an obligation to take immediate measures to protect civilians from these acts of terrorism and violence and these non-State armed groups should be held accountable and prosecuted for these crimes.

ISIL is bound under international law, according to Emmerson, to respect core human rights obligations, such as the right to life, the absolute prohibition of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, the prohibition of slavery and the prohibition of enforced disappearance, as well as the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Adapted from the OHCHR

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