TREATMENT OF YAZIDI WOMEN AND MINORITIES BY ISIL

Early day motion 281, tabled 9 July 2015 by Ann Clwyd (Labour). Signed by 49 members.

That this House remains extremely concerned about the treatment of minorities in Iraq and parts of Syria by ISIL (also known as Daesh), and in particular the persecution of Yazidi women, who have been brutally targeted since August 2014 and who continue to be held in ISIL captivity in large numbers, as part of ISIL's ruthless attempts to eliminate non-Arab and non-Sunni Muslims in the area; is appalled by evidence given by formerly enslaved women and girls, including from a 17 year old girl who revealed how every day of her nine-month ordeal was like choosing between death and death; notes the Report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights which concludes that the acts committed by ISIL against the Yazidi minority might constitute genocide; also notes the traumatising effects of these abuses, which have caused some women and girls to commit suicide; calls on the Government and its international partners to increase humanitarian efforts to protect and assist Yazidi women, and minority communities more generally, in the region; and also calls on the Government to ensure that, in the light of the resolution passed by the UN General Assembly this year to commemorate 19 June as the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, that date will be marked by the UK in future years to remind the world of the plight of Yazidi women and girls and others who are suffering in a similar way.

Signatures by party: Scottish National Party 24, Labour 14, Labour/Co-operative 2, Plaid Cymru 2, Social Democratic and Labour Party 2, Conservative 1, DUP 1, Green 1, Independent 1, Liberal Democrat 1.