Twelve years have passed since the Sinjar tragedy. Yet for the families who still do not know whether their child, mother, father, sister or brother is alive, time has remained frozen on 3 August 2014.
The case of the missing and captive Yazidis remains an open wound on the body of the Yazidi community and the Kurdish nation. This wound will not be healed by anniversary ceremonies, messages of sympathy or political promises. It can only begin to heal when the fate of the abducted is established, the perpetrators of the genocide are prosecuted, security is restored to Sinjar, and displaced people are able to return in safety and dignity.
On 3 August 2014, the terrorist organisation ISIS launched its planned assault on Sinjar and the Yazidi-inhabited villages. Men and boys were killed en masse, women and girls were taken captive, children were separated from their families, and tens of thousands of people fled to Mount Sinjar to save their lives.
The people who should have been protected were abandoned at the most critical moments of the attack. The withdrawal of the forces responsible for protecting Sinjar opened the way for ISIS to enter the area and commit one of the gravest crimes of the modern era. The truth about this withdrawal, and the political and military responsibility of those who left the population defenceless, must not be concealed beneath political rivalries and interests.
What happened in Sinjar was not an ordinary military confrontation. With the aim of destroying the Yazidi community, ISIS killed men, captured women and subjected them to sexual slavery, separated children from their families, forcibly changed their religion and identity, destroyed their sacred sites, and attempted to eradicate the community’s social and cultural structure.
According to United Nations documentation and the judgments of a number of international and European courts, these crimes constitute a clear case of genocide. ISIS did not seek merely to occupy Sinjar. Its objective was to destroy a community and erase every trace of its presence from its historic homeland.
Despite the passage of twelve years, the human consequences of this genocide continue. According to official figures, the Office for the Rescue of Abducted Yazidis has so far helped rescue 3,595 people from ISIS, including 1,213 women, 339 men, 1,079 girls and 964 boys.
Every number in these statistics represents a human being who spent years in captivity, violence, fear and separation from their family. Release from captivity does not mean the end of suffering, as many survivors continue to live with the physical and psychological consequences of those crimes.
Meanwhile, the fate of 2,526 Yazidi Kurds remains unknown, including 1,215 women and 1,311 men. Their families do not know whether they remain in captivity, have been killed, are being held in camps or prisons under different identities, or have been transferred to other countries.
Behind every missing person’s name is a family that has lived between fear and hope for twelve years. Mothers are still waiting. Children have grown up without knowing their parents, and some families cannot even hold mourning ceremonies because they do not know whether their loved ones are alive or buried in one of Sinjar’s mass graves.
The continuation of this situation is not caused solely by security complexities. The absence of political will, weak cooperation between governments, the withholding of information, slow investigations and the failures of the responsible institutions have deepened the suffering of the families. Human rights organisations have also warned that some of the missing may still be held in camps and prisons in northern and eastern Syria or among families affiliated with ISIS.
Twelve years after the genocide, Sinjar continues to suffer from insecurity, fragmented administration, the presence of multiple armed forces, unemployment, destroyed homes, inadequate public services and insufficient reconstruction. A large part of the Yazidi population still lives far from their homes and homeland. Returning to an area without security, schools, hospitals, water, electricity, housing or employment opportunities cannot be considered a genuine and sustainable return.
In the view of the Independence Party of Kurdistan, the Yazidis are an indigenous and inseparable part of the Kurdish nation and one of Kurdistan’s most deeply rooted communities. This fact is fully compatible with respect for the Yazidi community’s religious identity, collective will and independent right to make its own decisions.
The Yazidis must not become the object of competition among political parties, states and armed groups. They must themselves decide matters concerning the security, administration and future of their homeland.
Sinjar must never again be left defenceless. The security of the region must not be used as an instrument for expanding the political and military influence of regional actors. Sustainable security can only be established when the people of Sinjar have the primary role in decision-making and forces trusted by the community assume responsibility for protecting the region.
While honouring the memory of the victims of the Yazidi genocide, the Independence Party of Kurdistan calls for the following measures:
First: The establishment of a specialised international mechanism to locate all missing and captive Yazidis, together with a unified information database linking the Iraqi regime, the Kurdistan Regional Government, the Autonomous Administration of Rojava, foreign governments and human rights organisations.
Second: The immediate inspection of camps, prisons, detention centres and ISIS-affiliated families in Iraq, Syria and other countries, in order to identify women and children who may be held under different names, languages, religions or identities.
Third: The continuation of the scientific and lawful exhumation of mass graves, the acceleration of DNA testing, the identification of victims’ remains and their return to their families.
Fourth: The prosecution of ISIS members and commanders for genocide, crimes against humanity, rape and sexual slavery, the forcible transfer of children and war crimes, rather than merely for membership in a terrorist organisation.
Fifth: The full implementation of the Yazidi Survivors Law and the provision of financial assistance, physical and psychological treatment, education, housing, employment opportunities and legal services for all survivors.
Sixth: The reconstruction of Sinjar with the direct participation of the local population, the restitution of properties and land, the provision of essential services and the prevention of any forced demographic change.
Seventh: The establishment of an elected, accountable local administration in Sinjar and the guarantee of decisive Yazidi participation in all decisions concerning security, reconstruction and the region’s political future.
Eighth: The formal recognition of the Yazidi genocide by all states and international institutions, and the inclusion of the facts of the Sinjar tragedy in educational programmes, human rights documents and genocide-prevention policies.
We call upon the international community not to allow the case of the missing Yazidis to become a forgotten file. The collapse of ISIS’s territorial rule did not mark the end of the crime. As long as thousands of families remain unaware of the fate of their loved ones, the consequences of the genocide remain alive.
No political agreement, diplomatic interest or partisan rivalry should take precedence over the right of families to know the truth and find the missing. This is a legal, humanitarian and moral responsibility.
On the twelfth anniversary of the Sinjar tragedy, we bow our heads in respect before the memory of the victims and the resilience of the survivors. We declare our support for all the families who have spent twelve years waiting for news of their loved ones.
We have not forgotten them, and we will not allow the truth of the Yazidi genocide to be buried beneath silence, political bargaining and the irresponsibility of governmental institutions.
Until the final captive returns, the fate of the final missing person is established, and justice is delivered for the final victim, the case of the Yazidi genocide will not be closed.
Independence Party of Kurdistan
12 Gelawêj 2726, Kurdish calendar
3 August 2026
