Save the Children criticizes the international community for forgetting Yazidi minors in Iraq

Sep. 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Save the Children criticized the international community on Thursday for forgetting the Yazidi boys and girls who live in insecure environments in Iraqi Kurdistan and who have to remember the violence suffered at the hands of the Islamic State every day.

“Yazidi children continue to live in fear because of what they and their families experienced at the hands of the Islamic State, and what they experience in their daily lives now. They continue to be denied their fundamental rights as children,” said the acting director of Save the Children, Rizgar Aljaff.

Thus, he explained that “the urgent attention and support they need to help process their trauma and heal are still flagrantly lacking.” “Many children are still missing. If nothing changes, the impacts of the genocide on Yazidi children will only deepen with each passing day,” she added.

In a new investigation that has involved 117 minors –who have experienced the consequences of the child “genocide” in the region–, Save the Children echoes the needs of these minors, who continue to experience insecurity, as well as their education rights.

The minors have told the NGO that they are afraid of possible kidnappings, sexual violence, recruitment by armed groups, of being able to lose a member of their family or of being separated from their loved ones.

“Every day we see little boys and girls who carry weapons and work with the security forces, with armed groups, and they are still young. They are under 18 years old,” said Khalid, a boy between 7 and 10 years old whose real name was withheld for security reasons.

One of the great stumbling blocks faced by these minors is language barriers, as many of them have forgotten their native Kurmanji or were born in captivity and never learned it, making it difficult to connect with their families and reintegrate into their communities.

Likewise, Yazidi boys and girls suffer from post-traumatic stress disorders and depression and have reported that the available services do not cover their urgent needs in the face of the great dramas they experienced in their past.

Another obstacle is the lack of civil documentation, which prevents these minors from going to school, which denies their right to education. It must be remembered that many of these buildings were bombed or destroyed, so the lack of material is notable.

Many of them, not being registered, cannot access basic services such as health. Children born in captivity face even greater challenges, as a paternity test is required in Iraq for registration of unmarried parents. Otherwise, the child is registered as a Muslim, which makes him non-Yazidi both legally and culturally, further stigmatizing him.

For all these reasons, Save the Children has called on the international community to collaborate with the Government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government in offering minors what they need, especially so that they can go to school and receive medical treatment. .

Finally, he has called for “measures to ensure that Yazidi children receive justice and reparation for the serious violations, crimes against humanity and war crimes perpetrated against them.”