Documenting Yazidi Victims of ISIS


Principal Investigators:
Dr Valeria Cetorelli, Sareta Ashraph
Duration: September 2017– December 2017
Supported by: Gerald Gray, Institute for Redress & Recovery, Santa Clara University School of Law

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Sareta Ashraph

This documentation project employed rigorous demographic methods and individual-level data in order to identify every Yazidi victim of ISIS, with categories of victims defined according to the crime(s) suffered. The database that resulted from this documentation project has multiple short, medium and long-term uses. These include, for instance, a data pool which can assist in identification of remains in mass gravesites, and which provides reliable information for use in planning for and prioritisation of members of the Yazidi community, including provision of counselling, increased medical interventions, and gender-specific needs.

It was also an integral aspect of the methodological planning that this documentation project served to play a significant role in achieving justice for ISIS’s crimes against the Yazidi community of Sinjar in northern Iraq. The data grounds existing advocacy for accountability processes in national, regional and international courts and tribunals. Once courts or tribunals are seized of the cases, the documentation project’s data can provide reliable information of high probative value for use before various existing and future accountability processes.


Outputs


Research Team

Valeria Cetorelli

Valeria Cetorelli | Principal Investigator 

Valeria is Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre.

sereta-ashraph

Sareta Ashraph | Principal Investigator 

Sareta is Visiting Fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre.