News   /   Iraq   /   News

Sexual violence in Iraq, Syria constitutes war crime: UN

The photo, taken on January 15, 2015, shows displaced Iraqi women from the Izadi community around their tents at a refugee camp set up on Mount Sinjar, Iraq. (Photo by AFP)

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) says acts of sexual violence committed against women in Iraq and Syria by foreign-backed militants constitute war crimes.

In a statement issued on Friday evening, the UNSC members said that rape and other forms of serious sexual violence in armed conflicts are grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.

They urged the international community to remain united in holding accountable those responsible for such crimes and said all parties to the armed conflicts in Iraq and Syria should take all feasible steps to protect civilians from such “abhorrent” acts.

The UNSC released the statement after being briefed by Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Bangura.

A displaced Iraqi girl from the Izadi community walks at a camp for internally displaced people in the city of Dohuk, in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, January 14, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

 

Takfiri Daesh militants have been accused of committing gross human rights violations in Syria and Iraq, including rape, summary executions, mass kidnappings, and massacres. Thousands of women and girls have been subjected to sexual violence by the Daesh terrorists in the two Arab countries.

Daesh also runs sex slave markets in areas under its control.

Earlier this month, the UN verified the authenticity of a price list the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group uses to trade the people it has captured as sex slaves.

“The girls get peddled like barrels of petrol,” Bangura said in an interview with Bloomberg, adding, “One girl can be sold and bought by five or six different men. Sometimes these fighters sell the girls back to their families for thousands of dollars of ransom.”


Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Press TV News Roku