The United Nations on Thursday called for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute the Islamic State group for committing genocide against the Yazidi community in Iraq and for committing war crimes against children.
As part of the investigation, a U.N. Human Rights Council team interviewed more than 100 Yazidi survivors and witnesses and found that the Islamic State conducted mass executions of the group and destroyed their homes. Men over the age of 14 were executed, according to the report, while women were treated as "spoils of war" and raped or sold as sex slaves, reported The Washington Times.
The U.N. also found that Iraqi government forces, along with affiliated militias, "may have committed some war crimes," including killings, torture and abductions, according to Reuters.
"Clearly international war crimes and crimes against humanity and possibly genocide appear to have been committed during this conflict. The genocide part relates particularly to the Yazidis," Hanny Megally, chief of the Asia, Pacific, Middle East and North Africa branch of the U.N. Human Rights Office, told a news briefing in Geneva, Reuters reported.
"We are very keen to ensure that even as the conflict continues that evidence is preserved, protected and collected because that will be important for future accountability."
Though U.N. investigators gave no exact figures, the Islamic State is estimated to have killed hundreds of Yazidis. Chief U.N. investigator Suki Nagra said some 3,000 women and children remain in Islamic State custody.
The report, examining incidents occurring between June 2014 and February 2015, found that 13 boys were sentenced to death for watching a football game. It also found that Islamic State militants conducted abortions on two Yazidi women because they "don't want more Yazidis to be born," reported The Washington Times.
Islamic State members may have used the chemical weapon chlorine gas against Iraqi soldiers, which is prohibited under international law.
U.N. investigators asked the Iraqi government to either join the Hague-based ICC in its prosecution or pursue the crimes under Iraqi domestic law.
The U.N concluded its report saying thta it "call[s] on the Security Council to consider referring the situation in Iraq to the International Criminal Court."
