Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Thursday, March 23, 2017

Official Report 901KB pdf

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Justice for Yazidi People

The next item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S5M-04130, in the name of Ben Macpherson, on justice for Yazidi people. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.

Motion debated,

That the Parliament is mindful that genocide is a crime under international law and the law of all civilised nations; is further mindful that the UN has identified genocide as an odious scourge, which has inflicted great losses on humanity and from which people must be liberated; reiterates Scotland’s commitment to human dignity, human rights and equality, to celebrating cultural, religious, linguistic and ethnic diversity, and to promoting tolerance and upholding fundamental freedoms for all people; recognises and condemns the genocide perpetrated against the Yazidi people by Daesh; acknowledges the great human suffering and loss that have been inflicted by bigotry, brutality and religious intolerance; further acknowledges and condemns the crimes perpetrated by Daesh against Muslims, Christians, Arabs, Kurds and all of the religious and ethnic communities of Iraq and Syria; welcomes the actions of the US Congress, the European Parliament, the French Senate, the UN and others in formally recognising the genocide; draws attention to the unopposed motion agreed by the UK Parliament on 20 April 2016; notes the calls from people in Edinburgh Northern and Leith and across the country for the UK Government to take immediate and resolute action in support of international efforts to prevent further atrocities, and to meet its international obligation to provide refuge to those at risk of persecution, and further notes the calls on the UK Government to request that the UN Security Council refer the genocide committed against the Yazidi people to the International Criminal Court.

12:49  

Today we stand united against terrorism and in solidarity with all those who are affected by such extremism and crimes against humanity. I want to thank the Presiding Officer for allowing time for a debate on the genocide of the Yazidi people and for recognising that the issue is a matter of real importance to us all, as internationalists and as human beings.

I recently visited a remarkable organisation called MCFB—Multi-Cultural Family Base—in my constituency. During the visit, I heard about work that it is doing to support Syrian refugees, some of whom are from the Yazidi community, who are making Edinburgh their home. In one conversation, a support worker from the organisation spoke about a Yazidi child who is now living in this city and who, before fleeing Syria, witnessed his family being shot and killed in front of him. He is a child. No one should have to witness such horror and brutality—least of all a child. The story was not only understandably upsetting; it also reminded me why the Yazidi genocide is so important to us all. It is not only because of our common humanity, but because there are survivors of that genocide living with us here in Scotland.

Genocide is an odious scourge that has inflicted great losses on humanity and is one of the most heinous crimes under international law and the law of civilised nations. Make no mistake—the issue that is before us today is genocide, as defined under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It is genocide that is being committed against the Yazidi community by fascists in the form of Daesh.

The atrocious violence began in August 2014, when Daesh overran the town of Sinjar in northern Iraq. It is estimated that since then approximately 10,000 Yazidis have been murdered, with as many as 40,000 currently seeking refuge. Yazidi community leaders in Iraq have, horrifyingly, reported the discovery of mass graves containing thousands of bodies.

What makes this issue even more appalling is that Daesh is carrying out a campaign to erase the identity of the Yazidis, who follow a unique and ancient faith that is detested by Daesh. As well as acts of murder, Daesh is, in pursuing its barbaric and horrific determination to ethnically cleanse the region of the Yazidis, forcibly running a conversion campaign, with Yazidi males being forced to change their religion and Yazidi females being treated as sex slaves. It is reported that as many as 7,000 Yazidi women have been captured as sex slaves. Rape has been used as a weapon of war before, but the scale and the nature of the recent and current violence against the Yazidis is gruesomely unprecedented.

Among the 7,000 women who have been captured by Daesh was 21-year-old Nadia Murad. After successfully escaping Daesh’s camps, she has courageously spoken out about the suffering and torture that have been and are being endured by her and her fellow Yazidis. As a human rights activist, Nobel peace prize nominee and UN goodwill ambassador, Nadia Murad has campaigned bravely and effectively for the Yazidi cause. Survivors like Nadia Murad have spoken out about how Daesh has imposed the institutional practice of slavery within its so-called caliphate, and how it grotesquely encourages systematic rape and sexual enslavement of non-Muslim women. Young Yazidi women are treated as commodities and are, heinously, distributed among Daesh militants.

As I mentioned earlier, Yazidi children have also suffered at the hands of Daesh. Yazda is an non-governmental organisation in the United States and here in the United Kingdom that is responding to the needs of the Yazidi community. It has reported that Yazidi male children aged between 5 and 15 years old are separated from their families by Daesh and transferred forcibly to locations in Iraq and Syria to receive religious and military indoctrination and become so-called cubs of the caliphate. The boys are not only taught how to use guns and rockets; they are also forcibly and twistedly shown violent graphics to manipulate them to be violent and hateful towards their own community.

In response to all that brutality, as a people who are strongly committed to human dignity, human rights and equality, and as a country that celebrates cultural, religious, linguistic and ethnic diversity, we in Scotland must condemn those atrocious acts that have caused extreme human suffering among the Yazidi men, women and children. We must call on those with power to confront the bigotry, brutality and religious intolerance of Daesh.

I welcome the efforts of Iraq, Greece, Turkey, Canada, Germany and Britain to provide refuge to Yazidis. However, it should be noted that there are still thousands of Yazidis in Daesh captivity, who are suffering unthinkable grief and torture as we speak. Although I commend the actions of the US Congress, the European Parliament, the French Senate, the United Nations and the UK Parliament in formally recognising the Yazidi genocide, I call on the UK Government and others to take immediate and resolute action to support international efforts to prevent further atrocities against the Yazidi people, and to meet international obligations to provide greater refuge to those who are at risk of persecution.

I also call on the UK Government to request that the UN Security Council refer the genocide that is being committed against the Yazidi people to the International Criminal Court, which Nadia Murad and her lawyer Amal Clooney have been courageously pressing for in recent weeks and months. I call on the international community to order an investigation into the genocide, to begin to gather evidence to document Daesh’s crimes against humanity, to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court and to seek justice for the Yazidi people.

Genocide is something that should be consigned to the history books. Until it is, we must not turn a blind eye when we see it in our world. The crimes that Daesh has committed against the Yazidis must be confronted, and the pain and suffering that innocent Yazidis have endured, and are still enduring today, must be addressed. Let us play our part, by sending a strong and united message from the Parliament to the international community, that Scotland stands firmly in solidarity with, and in support of, the Yazidi community. Let us also send another important message to Daesh: that its crimes will not go unpunished and that it is the will of this Parliament that that terrorist fascist organisation be brought to justice at the International Criminal Court. Let us do what we can to stand up for the Yazidi people and to protect and support our fellow human beings.

I call Alexander Anderson. I am sorry—I seem to want to change your name, Mr Stewart. You must remind me of someone in my past, or something. I call Alexander Stewart, to be followed by Kenneth Gibson.

12:57  

As I have said before, Presiding Officer, I answer to many things. I will try to give you something to remind you, in the future, that I am a Stewart.

I congratulate Ben Macpherson on highlighting the issue of the crimes that are being committed against the Yazidi people and on securing the debate. It is important that we have the opportunity to have the debate. The plight of the Yazidi people is, without question, difficult for some of us to comprehend. It is as though we are going back to a darker time in our history. We are living in 2017, but the atrocities that we are hearing about are so hideous that they are incomprehensible for individuals living today.

So-called Islamic State has enslaved and killed thousands of Yazidi people, and is forcing people into horrific situations. More than 400,000 Yazidi people have fled and become refugees in camps in Iraq, Greece, Syria and Turkey. The crimes that are being perpetrated by Daesh go beyond the atrocities of rape and murder; it has set out to destroy an ancient culture and to erase that culture from every part of the globe. Ministers in the United Kingdom Government, including the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Tobias Ellwood, have made it clear that they believe that genocide has taken place. That must be taken to the authorities and used.

I commend what Ben Macpherson is trying to achieve.

The United Kingdom is committed to supporting efforts to gather evidence that the law has been broken and that individuals have been subjected to horrific situations, and to ensure that such evidence can be put before a court of law. The UN has to design a system for us to do that.

Forced sexual enslavement by the so-called Islamic State is a horrific situation for Yazidi women to find themselves in—it is modern slavery. We are well aware that there is a significant problem with slavery in other parts of the globe. We even have indications of it happening here in the United Kingdom. All Governments have to embrace taking on board and addressing that situation. The UK Government is committed to combating modern slavery—the Prime Minister has committed £33.5 million to a programme to tackle the root cause of it.

The vast majority of international communities are opposed to Daesh and to every part of its ethos and what it is trying to achieve. Although it has failed to create a state, it has continued to terrorise people throughout the middle east and to attack innocent civilians across the globe. Last September, in collaboration with his counterparts in Belgium and Iraq, the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, launched a global campaign to hold Daesh to account for its crimes. That has to happen, so Governments around the world have to unite. The UK Government is working with its international partner agencies to bring plans on that to fruition. I look forward to seeing the plans that Governments and Parliaments around the world are proposing.

The crimes that are being perpetrated by IS against the Yazidi people are abhorrent: everybody in the chamber utterly condemns IS. The United Kingdom is working constructively with international partners to fulfil our moral obligation to ensure that the current suffering is combated. We should do all that we can to ensure that that happens.

13:02  

I thank my colleague Ben Macpherson for lodging the motion and for securing debating time on this matter, the importance and poignancy of which should strike a note with anyone who holds justice dear—especially given the appalling events in London of less than 24 hours ago.

Genocide is universally acknowledged as one of the most abhorrent acts; it is rightly considered to be the crime above all crimes, and history has taught us that it must never be ignored. It is therefore vital that the genocide that is being perpetrated against the defenceless Yazidi people by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is recognised and condemned as such at international level.

The peaceful Yazidis have previously suffered persecution, but never has a policy of outright extermination and assimilation been launched against them with such violence. The abhorrent and unprovoked display of violence that began in August 2014 with ISIL occupation of the predominantly Yazidi-inhabited town of Sinjar resulted in the unnecessary deaths of thousands, in what the UN has described as

“the largest mass kidnapping this century.”

By the end of August 2014, 1,600 to 1,800—or more—Yazidis had been murdered, executed or had died from starvation while fleeing. The number has risen steadily with every new report that has been published, and by August last year at least 72 mass graves containing up to 1,000 victims of mass slaughter had been discovered, exposed as ISIL’s caliphate retreated before advancing Iraqi forces.

Along with the forced conversion of Yazidi males, ISIL detained between 5,000 and 7,000 Yazidi women as slaves or forced brides. The sexual slavery that has taken place since ISIL’s unprovoked attack is appalling. Many slave markets still exist in the diminishing territories under ISIL’s control, generating millions of dollars for its illegitimate terrorist state. Sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war in the most barbaric way.

Decisions made by the US Congress, the European Parliament, the French Senate and the UN, among other organisations, to formally recognise the horrors as genocide have shown that we are making some progress towards justice for the Yazidi people. The House of Commons also defied the UK Government to vote 278 to nil in favour of declaring the attacks an act of genocide, calling on ministers to refer the atrocities to the UN. Despite that progress, the United Nations has estimated that, in the third year following the events, 3,200 women and children are still held captive in horrific circumstances. The international community should therefore continue to work collaboratively to offer what protection and aid it can to the Yazidi people.

In a display of solidarity that I hope will be mirrored in many societies, including our own, Germany opened its doors last year to more than 1,000 Yazidi women and children who had managed to escape ISIL. Many witnesses and victims have called for the UK Government’s current resettlement programme, which aims to admit 20,000 vulnerable people who are fleeing conflict in Syria, to be extended to Yazidis

In October 2016, two Yazidi women who survived and escaped sexual enslavement by ISIL were awarded the European Union’s prestigious Sakharov human rights prize. As Ben Macpherson pointed out, Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar have inspirationally spoken out about the horrors that they faced at the hands of the militant group, thereby raising awareness and giving a voice to the voiceless. Yazda is an NGO that supports the Yazidi community in Iraq. It recognised that as a cause for celebration, but respectfully added:

“Yazda sincerely hopes that ... the international community will turn more attention to the thousands of Yazidi women and children still in captivity, the thousands of Yazidi men whose whereabouts remain unknown to their families, and to the hundreds of thousands of Yazidis who remain displaced in Iraq and elsewhere and are unable to return to their homelands and begin rebuilding their lives.”

Scotland is undoubtedly committed to upholding human dignity, human rights and fundamental equality. Our country welcomes and celebrates diversity in all its forms. In the face of despicable brutality, promoting tolerance and acknowledging the unimaginable human suffering and loss that can be inflicted by bigotry, brutality and religious intolerance have never been more significant.

ISIL has made it clear that it intends to destroy the Yazidis completely through killings, forced conversions and rapes. Organisations and Governments across the globe increasingly recognise that genocide is being committed against the Yazidis. Victims such as Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar want the chance to face their abusers in court, and they deserve nothing less.

There is no doubt that the UK Government should request that the UN Security Council refer the genocide to the International Criminal Court in order to ensure adequate punishment for those who have committed such barbarities. Resolute and immediate action to prevent repeats of the events must be taken; there is no valid excuse for ignorance or failing to act.

13:07  

I, too, thank Ben Macpherson for bringing this debate to the Parliament.

The day after Daesh-inspired murder came to Westminster bridge and New Palace Yard, our thoughts go to all the victims of those murders and their families around the world.

Daesh is an organisation that is dedicated to killing all who stand in its way. Its objective is to create a state that is built on violence. It falsely claims a connection with Islam and Sharia law; in reality, it represents only the rule of brutal and angry men who are at war with us all. It has made or inspired attacks in more than 30 countries around the world and murdered more than 2,000 people in the past three years alone. Many thousands more have died where Daesh has deployed military force in Syria and Iraq.

The Yazidi population of Sinjar in Iraq has been assailed by a campaign of annihilation that has rightly been designated as genocide and a crime against humanity. The murder of men and boys by the thousands, the enslavement and rape of like numbers of women and girls, the stealing of children and the destruction of villages have all been intended to eliminate the Yazidis as a people.

That attempted genocide, like the atrocities against Christians, Shia Muslims and ethnic minorities throughout the region, shows that self-styled Islamic State does not represent the true Islamic faith in any way. Far from creating a caliphate of the faithful, it would create a hell on earth. We should commend the courage and determination of the Yazidi people, wherever they have taken refuge, and help them to reclaim their homes.

History tells us that genocide does not just happen out of the blue and that Daesh is only the latest vehicle for murderous hatred in Iraq. The regime of Saddam Hussein turned an ancient cradle of civilisation into a prison state that was run by men who killed with impunity, sent out their agents to murder opponents around the world and brought genocidal violence to a land of many faiths and many cultures.

Saddam Hussein’s war on Iran cost a million Muslim lives. As that war ended, his regime visited genocidal violence on the Kurdish population of northern Iraq. At Halabja on 16 March 1988, it used mustard gas, cyanide and sarin to kill 5,000 defenceless civilians and injure 10,000 more. The chief culprit that day was Ali Hassan Abd al-Majid, cousin to Saddam Hussein and better known as Chemical Ali. Like his cousin, he was tried and eventually executed for his crimes, but many of the culprits of Halabja and the wider Anfal campaign against the Kurds remain unpunished. At least 100 former officers in Saddam’s army are now to be found in the ranks of Daesh, doing to Sinjar today what they did to Halabja 29 years ago. Because such men were not brought to justice then, they are free to commit their crimes again. This time, they must be pursued with vigour and punished for what they have done. Those whose actions or reckless inaction have allowed those crimes to happen must also be held to account.

Right now, the current elected Government of Iraq has to give a lead in securing justice for all its citizens. Two weeks ago, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, who was referred to by Ben Macpherson, spoke on behalf of Yazidi women at the United Nations in New York. She called on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to send the letter that the Security Council needs to trigger an investigation of the crimes of Daesh in Iraq. We should give our support to that call today—I hope that the minister can do so in closing the debate—so that justice can begin to be done for the Yazidis and all those who have suffered murderous violence in that country in the past 50 years.

13:11  

As colleagues have done, I thank Ben Macpherson for bringing the atrocities that have been inflicted on the Yazidi people to the attention of the Scottish Parliament and for allowing us to raise them today.

As colleagues may be aware, I convene the Parliament’s cross-party group on Kurdistan, and the Yazidis are of course an ethnically Kurdish people who, until the genocide, resided largely in Iraqi Kurdistan. They have endured a long history of oppression due to their ethnicity and their unique faith, as Mr Macpherson mentioned. However, the events of 2014 and the on-going atrocities have marked what is perhaps the darkest period in the recent history of the Yazidi people.

In August 2014, when Daesh made sweeping advances across Iraq and Syria, it came quickly to Sinjar, the home of many Yazidi people. Hundreds of thousands fled the city; many of them were already refugees from the fighting elsewhere, including most of the Yazidi population. As Kurds have done many times in their history, they fled to the mountains for safety. Those who stayed and fought could not hold back the barbarians who swept through the city and began massacring the residents.

Forty thousand of those who fled, largely children and the elderly who could not escape quickly enough, were cut off and surrounded on Mount Sinjar. Those stuck on the mountain had little to no water, were surrounded by monsters intent on their slaughter and had no means of escape. Some who had previously been captured and raped by Daesh were so traumatised by the thought of that happening again that they threw themselves from the cliffs rather than be taken.

The now prevailing narrative is that, at that point, the international community woke up and, led by US, UK and Iraqi forces, began dropping emergency aid on to the mountain and evacuating as many people as they could by helicopter, all under fire from the Daesh positions below. That is true, but it ignores the reason why Daesh never made it to the top of the mountain to continue the massacre: it was the Kurds who rescued their Yazidi cousins. The Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, has been locked in a conflict with the Turkish state for decades, but that debate and its history are for another time. Despite being nothing more than infantry equipped with light weapons, the PKK forces raced across northern Iraq and did what others were not doing: they put themselves between Daesh and 40,000 people on that mountain. PKK fighters—men and women—joined by YPG Kurdish forces from northern Syria moved in tractors and other vehicles and evacuated between 20,000 and 30,000 people from Mount Sinjar into Kurdish-controlled northern Syria before repatriating them back into Iraq once it was safe.

I do not say that to detract from the efforts of the Iraqi Peshmerga, US and UK helicopter crews who risked their lives flying emergency aid in and refugees out, but their story has already been well told. The striking footage of helicopter crews dragging refugees on board while firing back at Daesh positions was played out by media outlets across the globe. However, the stories of the volunteers on the ground were not. Kurdish forces—the PKK and the YPG, who were later joined by Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga—not only rescued those stranded on the mountain but took back Sinjar and drove Daesh out at great cost, and they continue to fight to regain their homes.

In northern Syria, where the Kurds have built a democratic, feminist, multi-ethnic and multicultural society, many Yazidis have joined the self-defence forces that have been set up for them and received training. To this day, they take part in the struggle to rid their region of the scourge of Daesh.

I say that not to glorify war—war is horrific and tragic, and this conflict in particular has shocked us all with its brutality—but to highlight the defiance of the Yazidi people. They are victims of genocide who have joined with other Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Turkmen, Muslims, Christians and others, not just to defeat hatred but to build in its place a society that is based on values of equality, tolerance and democracy. I am sure that all members have nothing but admiration for that.

Before I call Ms Maguire, we have another three speakers, which will take us over our allotted time. I am minded to accept a motion under rule 8.14.3 to extend the debate by up to 30 minutes.

Motion moved,

That, under Rule 8.14.3, the debate be extended by up to 30 minutes.—[Ben Macpherson]

Motion agreed to.

13:15  

I am deeply grateful to my colleague Ben Macpherson for bringing this hugely important and urgent topic to our Scottish Parliament.

The horrifying and systematic murder and torture of the Yazidi people at the hands of Isis have been recognised as genocide by institutions and countries across the world, from the United Nations and the European Union to the USA, the UK and France. I am proud that Scotland will today add its voice to the international cry of condemnation of the genocide that is being perpetrated by Isis against the Yazidi people, and that we join the ranks of nations and institutions that are standing up for justice and human rights.

Just a few weeks ago, we marked international women’s day with a debate in the chamber. We reflected on how far we have come and how far we still have to go. When I read about the plight of Yazidi women and girls in particular, I was forcefully reminded of the scale of the battle that still faces us when it comes to protecting the rights and safety of women across the world.

In pursuit of its abhorrent and deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing, Isis has separated hundreds of young women and girls—some as young as 12—from their families. They have been sold, given as gifts or forced to marry Isis fighters and supporters. Many have been subjected to torture, rape and sexual violence, and forced into sexual slavery. A pamphlet that IS produced for its supporters has the following to say about “unbelieving” women, such as Yazidi women and girls, who have been captured:

“If she is a virgin, he [her master] can have intercourse with her immediately after taking possession of her. However, if she isn’t, her uterus must be purified [first] … It is permissible to buy, sell, or give as a gift female captives and slaves, for they are merely property, which can be disposed of ... It is permissible to have intercourse with the female slave who hasn’t reached puberty if she is fit for intercourse; however if she is not fit for intercourse, then it is enough to enjoy her without intercourse”.

It is difficult to say or hear those words; the horror of the reality of them is even more unthinkable.

Many of us will have seen the video of Iraqi Yazidi MP, Vian Dakhil, breaking down into heart-wrenching tears in her Parliament as she pleaded with her Parliament and the international community, “Save us! Save us!” Every day, members of all parties will hear upsetting and difficult stories from our constituents about the challenges and hardships that they have in their lives, but I cannot even begin to comprehend having to come to the chamber and beg my colleagues to help me to protect the people I represent in Ayrshire from rape, torture and slaughter.

Isis is committing war crimes, it is committing crimes against humanity and it is perpetrating genocide—not only that, but it is boasting about doing so. We cannot stand by and allow this to continue. It must stop. The UK Government can request that the UN Security Council refer the genocide committed against the Yazidi people to the International Criminal Court. I hope that it listens to the calls of the Scottish Parliament and the UK Parliament, and acts. The genocide must stop and justice must be achieved.

13:20  

Ruth Maguire’s speech was very moving and thought provoking, and I thank her for sharing that information, some of which I did not know.

I thank Ben Macpherson for bringing the debate to the chamber.

The Yazidi people have been made the unfortunate subjects of oppression for centuries. In the modern day, although many have now fled to Australia, Canada and Germany, Iraq is the one place where a sizeable community still exists against the odds, and the Yazidi people remain under constant threat from Islamic State’s campaign of murder, repression and violence.

I am in absolute agreement that we need to do our utmost to prevent the constant threat that the Yazidi people now face from Daesh fighters, and I agree—as did my UK party colleagues last May—that the actions of Daesh equate to genocide. That is why I support the motion.

The international community is united in seeking to defeat Daesh. As a result, we have seen thousands of people being freed from its rule, but despite those small successes, the threat remains. Although Daesh has failed to create a state, it has not yet been defeated as a terrorist organisation.

As we have heard, more than 3,200 Yazidi women and children are still held by ISIS. Females are being sexually enslaved and Yazidi boys are being indoctrinated, trained and used in hostilities. Thousands of Yazidi men and boys remain missing. We owe it to those people to take action.

It was a Conservative member, Fiona Bruce MP, who lodged a motion on the issue at Westminster last April. She said:

“The supporters of the motion are here to insist that there is overwhelming evidence that the atrocities of Daesh in Syria and Iraq should be recognised for the genocide they are and considered as such by the UN Security Council and the International Criminal Court. It will support similar resolutions of other leading international and legislative bodies.”—[Official Report, House of Commons, 20 April 2016; Vol 608, c 957.]

That is why I was pleased to see the Foreign Minister, alongside his counterparts from Belgium and Iraq, launching a global campaign last year to hold Daesh to account for those horrendous crimes.

The British Government is working with its international partners, particularly the Government of Iraq, to bring forward a proposal at the UN to put the campaign into action, and good progress is being made across the United Nations on designing a system whereby evidence can be collected to bring Daesh to justice. As a backdrop to that, the UK Government is also providing our country’s largest-ever response to a single humanitarian crisis. It has now pledged a total of more than £2.3 billion to alleviate immediate humanitarian suffering through the provision of food, medical care and relief items to more than a million people who have been affected.

I again thank Ben Macpherson for bringing this very important issue to the chamber, and I reiterate my support for ensuring that we do our utmost to prevent further atrocities.

13:23  

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate. I thank the members who have spoken for their powerful speeches and for showing a degree of knowledge and passion about a subject that is worthy of this place’s consideration. I hope that people outside the chamber will take the opportunity to read the speeches and to learn about what is happening to the Yazidi people.

I particularly congratulate Ben Macpherson on securing the debate and on his powerful speech. I appreciate the fact that he has brought into the public domain the suffering of the Yazidi people, a suffering of which many of us have all too hazy a knowledge. We can recall incidents and we can remember seeing something on the television, but as the cameras move on, so do we. We live in a world of 24-hour news but, sadly, we do not live in a world of 24-hour attention. Too often, atrocities across the world are picked up, so we pay attention, but then we move on. We know that it is important for us to shine a light on such atrocities if justice is to be secured.

At this time, when we have seen the horror of a terror attack in London, we are particularly mindful of the consequences of terror and hatred across our communities, but when we discuss genocide it is important that we look at the pattern of behaviour and the bigger picture that brings genocide upon a people. With such horrendous atrocities, it is hard to fathom the scale of people’s suffering or the motives of those who commit genocide. What is it that leads people to create such suffering as they step beyond their own humanity? We see in Daesh people who have left their humanity behind. They destroy the physical evidence of civilisation, just as they seek to destroy peoples and faiths and those who they believe have no place in their society.

Of course, the big lesson of genocide is that it is not a single event. It does not start with massacre or mass graves; it starts with the simple steps of othering people—of talking about differences, labelling people and dehumanising them. It is a process that moves on from preparing for genocide to conducting it and then, critically, denying that it is happening. I am privileged to be a member of the board of Remembering Srebrenica Scotland, a campaign that has been created to insist that genocide, and the steps to it, be understood, as well as the lengths to which those who commit genocide will go to deny their own crimes.

In Bosnia, the mass graves do not simply represent slaughter. They also represent the desire of those who commit genocide to hide their crimes. Forensic scientists, some of whom are wonderful people from our own communities in Scotland, have established piece by piece that that genocide took place. Later this year, there will be another opportunity to mark the evidence and the experience of the people of Srebrenica and of Bosnia. Their desire is to speak of genocide so that we understand it, wherever it is experienced or expressed. This year, the theme for the memorial is breaking the silence on gender and genocide. We know that in Bosnia, as with the Yazidi people, a terrible slaughter was visited upon the men and boys, but the women of Srebrenica, as in so many genocides, also see themselves as victims of war, because rape and sexual violence have become weapons of war, as has been so powerfully and tellingly described by my colleagues in other parties. That is how genocide operates. The steps towards it lead to the utter dehumanising of men and women, and for women sexual violence becomes a horrific norm in their lives.

I have two final points to make. We live in a fragile world, and when I think of the things that the new President Trump has said, the one that has scared me most is his comment that he wants to reduce the amount of funding that the United States gives to the United Nations. At this time more than any, we need our international institutions to be strong and to take on those who would commit violence, atrocities and genocide against vulnerable people such as the Yazidis, whose plight we have heard about today.

My second point is about the need for our vigilance in understanding where the small steps can take us. I have a message from a Bosnian refugee, who said that we should welcome refugees who bring with them not only their suffering, but an understanding of how violence and hatred can destroy communities and how states can collapse in the face of genocide. They know where hatred can take us, and we need their wisdom now.

I thank Ben Macpherson for bringing this important debate to Parliament. We stand in solidarity with the Yazidi people, and in our determination to do what we can to call out the violence and hatred that lead to the genocide that has too often damaged and destroyed people in our communities across this world.

13:29  

As others have done, I begin by thanking Ben Macpherson for securing this important debate on justice for the Yazidi people. Of course, we take part in the debate on a day when we remember all victims of terror and seek to build the understanding that we need to overcome that terror.

I want to put on record the Scottish Government’s condemnation of the crimes that have been perpetrated against the Yazidi people—a condemnation that has been voiced by members today and which is clearly the view of this Parliament. Ours is a Government and a Parliament that stand in solidarity with the Yazidi people. Indeed, ours is a nation that recognises its duty to stand in defence of human rights, equality, human dignity and minority communities around the world.

Let me go further. As members have so eloquently reminded us in this debate, the Yazidi people have been victims of the most appalling crimes against humanity. Daesh is a monstrous criminal enterprise. It has perpetrated a long list of atrocities, war crimes and human rights abuses. No one has been safe. Kurds and Arabs, Muslims and Christians, civilians, the young and the old—all have suffered. In addition, of course, David Haines and Alan Henning were murdered because they sought to bring humanitarian aid to those in need.

However, in its campaign of hatred against the Yazidi people, Daesh has gone even further and has exceeded even its own record of brutality. It has committed the ultimate and unforgivable crime. In its fanatical desire to impose a corrupt and twisted interpretation of one of the world’s great religious traditions, it has sought to destroy an entire minority culture, an entire faith and an entire people.

What the Yazidi people have suffered merits condemnation in the strongest possible terms, and today’s debate has demonstrated that the Scottish Parliament is in no doubt about the matter. Daesh has committed, and is continuing to commit, genocide against the Yazidi people and against other religious and ethnic minorities. As we have heard, there is robust and unequivocal evidence that Yazidi men, women and children have been the victims of a campaign of murder, rape, abduction, sexual slavery, brutality and terror at the hands of Daesh in Iraq and Syria. The UN has confirmed that 5,000 Yazidi men have been executed and that thousands of men and boys are still missing. More than 3,500 Yazidi women have been kidnapped by Daesh, and there have been multiple reports of sexual violence against women in detention and women living in Daesh-controlled areas.

According to a UN report:

“The attacks on the Yazidis, which continue until the present day, are committed pursuant to an explicit ideological policy of the terrorist group, whose radical religious interpretation does not permit the existence of Yazidism within the territory it controls.”

As Daesh continues to swallow up Yazidi territory, the Yazidis have been forced to convert, face execution or flee. According to some estimates, 70,000 people, or about 15 per cent of the Yazidi population in Iraq, have fled the country, with many seeking asylum in Europe. The Yazidis themselves are in no doubt about what is happening, with one saying:

“Our entire religion is being wiped off the face of the earth.”

This is a matter that needs urgently to be taken to the UN Security Council before one of Iraq’s oldest religious and cultural communities is exterminated. I believe that that is the overwhelming view of members in this chamber. It is also, as Annie Wells noted, the view that was expressed by the House of Commons in April last year. I have to say that, like Mr Macpherson, I am disappointed that the UK Government remains reluctant to promote action at UN level to ensure that the genocide that is being committed against the Yazidi people is referred to the International Criminal Court. That reluctance does not sit comfortably with the responsibility that we all have to lead on human rights and human dignity and to act in defence of them.

As we regularly and rightly say, Scotland is an outward-looking and welcoming nation. The Scottish Parliament has spoken out previously and today against actions that amount to, and are, genocide. We speak out lest we forget the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust. We speak out because the world must act to prevent the repetition of the horrors that were visited upon Cambodia, Rwanda, Srebrenica, Halabja and Darfur. We also speak out because we know that such crimes continue to be committed not just in Iraq and Syria but in South Sudan, where personal greed, the thirst for power and a poisonous cocktail of political rivalry and ethnic violence have created a new humanitarian disaster.

I recognise that the minister wants to address wider issues. However, on the Yazidis in Iraq, does he accept that the critical next step towards enforcement action by the United Nations is for the Iraqi Government to take? Will he join the call that I made that the Iraqi Government should now take that step and send a letter to the Security Council?

Yes, the Iraqi Government bears responsibility in that area as well. We should all seek to ensure that the crimes in question come before the UN and international courts.

We speak out about humanitarian disasters that are, in many cases, caused directly by genocide. We cannot afford to pay mere lip service to the idea of human rights, equality and human dignity. We must live by the principles of tolerance, dignity and respect and must never be complacent about prejudice, discrimination and hatred.

The debate has been an opportunity to make a public statement of solidarity with the Yazidi people and other oppressed peoples and communities around the world. As a nation, we have a responsibility to be a good global citizen and to protect the world’s most vulnerable people. The debate has made it clear that the Scottish Parliament recognises and condemns the genocide perpetrated against the Yazidi people. We have united across party-political lines to do so. In doing so, we also join the United Nations and other Parliaments—Westminster, the US Congress, the French Senate and the European Parliament—in expressing our condemnation and solidarity.

13:37 Meeting suspended.  

14:30 On resuming—