A Childhood of Fear: The impact of genocide on Yazidi Children in Sinjar

On 3 August 2014, the armed group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) attacked the Yazidi community of Sinjar. At the time, Sinjar was home to the world’s largest population of Yazidis, with an estimated 400,000 living in the region. Within a few days of the attack, an estimated 2.5% of the population, approximately 10,000 people, were either killed or kidnapped. Throughout the attack ISIS perpetrated gross violations of human rights, child rights, including grave violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Yazidis. The United Nations (UN), the Iraq Parliament, and the Kurdistan Regional Government, have recognised the ISIS attack on the Yazidis as an act of genocide.

Children were disproportionately affected by the genocide: Half of all Yazidis executed were children; almost all (93%) of those who died on Mount Sinjar from injuries or lack of food and water were children, and children were much less likely to escape captivity than adults. Across the governorate, over 5 million Iraqis, including the Yazidi communities, were displaced by the ISIS attack; half of them children.

Yazidi children experienced and witnessed extreme acts of violence. It is well documented that they were used by ISIS as human shields, suicide bombers, and subjected to extreme acts of physical and emotional abuse, including torture, poisoning, and rape. Younger children were also made to watch the torture and rape of their family members. Yazidi boys were separated from their families and communities and forced to convert to Islam. They were sent to ISIS military camps or training schools to be indoctrinated into ISIS ideologies, and then forcibly recruited and used in battles against their own people. Yazidi girls were abducted, sold, and experienced extreme forms of sexual violence and exploitation. Although children accounted for a third of total abductees, they account for less than a fifth of those who have escaped.