Ms Natia Navrouzov:

Ms Nasreen did a great job. I thank the Chairman, Deputies and Senators for the honour of addressing the committee today. I wish I could be there in person. I will keep my remarks short so there is room for questions and a discussion with members.

I want to start by giving a little more background about the Yazidi Survivors Network, as mentioned by Ms Nasreen This network brings together 15 Yazidi survivors in advocating for their rights. The starting point of the network was a draft Bill on reparation for Yazidi female survivors presented by the Iraqi President to the Parliament in March 2019. Although the name of the Bill was the Yazidi female survivors law, not a single survivor was involved in the drafting process. Even though the Bill was for them and was meant to address the harm they had suffered and are still suffering, none of them was consulted. The draft law was a good step in the right direction but it needs improvement.

To tackle these challenges, Yazda UK and Ireland brought together a group of survivors and provided them with capacity building on transitional justice, mainly on the topic of reparation. We explained to the survivors the obligations of the state in terms of reparation and, more importantly, their rights as victims. A core group of this network started to advocate for the improvement of the Bill and the Iraqi Parliament took some of its suggestions into consideration. The law was passed in March this year and by-laws are being drafted to ensure its implementation. The next step is to ensure survivors are also involved in the implementation phase, especially through a monitoring mechanism, which will need to be established.

After their experience with the Yazidi female survivors law, the survivors realised how strong their voices can be, as individuals but also as a group. The wish to establish a formal network came from them. Having strong voices of survivors is essential in a country where the process is often top-down. However, to ensure these strong voices remain and become louder, we must continue to develop the network. To pursue this important work, the survivors in the network are asking for simple things, some of which Ms Nasreen mentioned. They are asking for further capacity building, with English classes, Arabic classes, IT classes, public speaking and advocacy lessons. As Ms Nasreen mentioned, most of them are not able to go back to school because of the year's gap they had and because of being in ISIL captivity. They are asking for an office space where they can meet to discuss important topics related to their community and develop advocacy strategies together. They need funding for transportation costs, to be able to go from their camps to the office, and for mobile telephone chargers to enable them to speak to each other through WhatsApp groups and for general Internet use.

We have calculated that to fund such a campaign for the network for a year, approximately €370,000 will be necessary. It is a significant amount of money but the impact this network could have would be much greater. Yazda UK and Ireland would welcome the opportunity of a subsequent discussion with the Minister and his officials to explore the possibility of obtaining this funding. Just as the Irish National Teachers Organisation is helping to fund primary education for our community, we hope Ireland will be able to help fund survivor empowerment and capacity building.

I want to give another example showing why it is important to encourage and support strong victims' voices in Iraq. At the end of April this year, the government of the Kurdistan region of Iraq presented a new draft Bill to its Parliament. This draft law is about establishing a special tribunal in Kurdistan to prosecute ISIL suspects for international crimes. Currently, there is no legal framework in Iraq to prosecute ISIL members for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Only trials under antiterrorism laws are taking place. This draft law is a very good step in the right direction. Such a tribunal is needed to enable justice for survivors. Again, however, there is the same risk that the survivors are not being consulted, even though such a tribunal is meant to bring justice to them. Therefore, the survivors will need to proactively seek to be involved in the decision-making process. We can enable this by empowering them. Yazda UK and Ireland is advocating for consultation with survivors and civil society to take place in regard to the draft law.

We have already had initial discussions with the Yazidi Survivors Network on this Bill and one of the main comments from survivors was that the tribunal needs to have strong international involvement because of the local mistrust towards Iraqi institutions. To avoid history repeating itself and this tribunal facing the same challenges as the Iraqi High Tribunal, which prosecuted Saddam Hussein and his party, the international community, including Ireland, needs to be part of the process from the start, which is now. For example, Ireland can lead European Union countries in the discussion on the tribunal to ensure the voices of survivors are heard and that the tribunal has a strong foundation and legitimacy. I am happy to answer any questions related to the draft law during our discussion.

I would like to finish by saying that the fight against ISIL is not over. It needs to continue in courtrooms and we need to arm survivors to face their perpetrators. Survivors like Ms Nasreen have already taken a major step by sharing their story. Yazda UK and Ireland alone has collected more than 2,000 statements of survivors. We need now to take a step towards them and show them we care by empowering them and enabling accountability. The UN Security Council did this in 2017 by creating UNITAD and the international community needs to do so again by supporting the creation of a tribunal in which all the evidence gathered can be used.

ISIL is not only an Iraqi or Syrian issue but a global one. Initiatives such as the one in the Kurdistan region of Iraq need global support and survivors like Ms Nasreen need to see that international crimes receive an international response. I know that at the previous meeting of this committee, the issues affecting Yazidis were raised in members' discussion with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who was presenting before the committee. I very much welcome the points raised by a number of members on behalf of our community and their understanding of the challenges facing minority and ethnic groups in many parts of the world today. I also put on record my appreciation for the positive responses from the Minister, Deputy Coveney. I hope our delegation can provide further information and detail to assist the committee in any further deliberations. I thank members very much for their attention.