The Yazidi Memorial and Museum of Remembrance
Supporting Survivors of Sexual Slavery
Working with partners Nadia’s Initiative (NI), Un Ponte Per (UPP), and local stakeholder groups, the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (ICSC) is currently developing plans for a museum and memorial that recognizes the atrocities committed against the Yazidi people in Iraq since 2014 and shares the larger history of the Yazidi community.
Few, if any, religious communities have suffered more under the Islamic State (ISIS) than the Yazidis, a religious minority that have been brutalized by the terrorist group since 2014 in Sinjar, northern Iraq. Men were subject to mass-killings while women and children were sold into work or forced into sexual slavery. The United Nations formally ruled the gross atrocities against the Yazidi people since August 3rd, 2014, a genocide. Given that the Yazidi religion and traditions are orally transmitted and there is no written sacred book, the genocide and continued violence against Yazidis threatens to destroy all the intangible culture, history and religious traditions of this minority group.
The need to launch a multi-phase memorialization initiative marking the Yazidi genocide arose directly from within Yazidi civil society, starting with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nadia Murad, a leading advocate for survivors of genocide and sexual violence. The Yazidi Memorial and Museum of Remembrance will be designed and created to meet the expressed needs of the Yazidi people, in an inclusive, survivor-driven approach. After a planning roundtable in February 2019 and with the endorsement of the Iraqi Government, support for this initiative has expanded to international stakeholders who recognize the imperative to remember the Yazidi genocide as well as its potential to ensure that such acts are never repeated.
While focusing on the atrocities endured by all Yazidis, the project is one of several recent initiatives supported by ICSC that highlight experiences and stories of women during conflict – in this case, survivors of sexual slavery.
