New York: Europe and the Arabs
The head of the investigation team to enhance accountability for crimes committed by ISIS (UNITAD) stressed the need not to let survivors of the organization’s crimes down, emphasizing concern for their security and addressing the trauma they suffered. He also stressed the need to provide a safe and appropriate space for those who wish to share their stories and experiences but have not yet had the opportunity. According to what was stated in the United Nations daily news bulletin, a copy of which we received on Tuesday morning
The Security Council held a session yesterday, Monday, during which Special Adviser Christian Richter, head of the UNITAD team, presented his eleventh report on the team’s work, noting that the report includes important stages in the team’s work and comes at an important juncture for the team and its directions in the future.
The Special Adviser said that the team continues to carry out its basic tasks stipulated in Resolution 2379 related to investigating ISIS crimes.
He pointed out that the team has taken important steps to implement Resolution 2697 (2023), which extends the mandate of the team until the seventeenth of next September, and includes a set of additional tasks that require rearranging priorities with regard to the investigation.
One of these priorities, according to the UN official, is “to ensure that our investigations are concluded in a thoughtful and orderly manner, so that the range of useful outputs produced by the team can be effectively used to serve our objectives related to international criminal investigations and proceedings in Iraq and beyond.”
To this end, Christian Richter said that the team prepared a comprehensive report to evaluate the situation with the Iraqi judiciary regarding the development and use of chemical weapons by ISIS.
The report included extensive investigations, the result of three years of dedicated field work. He stressed that this report "is a milestone in our pioneering series of investigations examining how ISIS developed and deployed chemical weapons in Iraq, including against the Shiite Turkmen minority in the town of Taza Khurmatu."
Also, the day before yesterday, Sunday, the team published a comprehensive report that “highlights the shameful sexual violence and heinous acts committed by ISIS against Iraqi women and girls.”
Ongoing investigations
Despite the reallocation of resources and the intensification of investigative efforts since the extension of the team's mandate, the Special Adviser said that the UNITAD team will only be able to deliver preliminary findings on several lines of investigation, rather than final comprehensive reports, by next September.
The investigations include basic and complex investigations that the team will most likely not be able to complete within one year: the investigation into ISIS’s intention to commit genocide against Shiites, and UNITAD’s work related to those returning from Al-Hawl camp, a file that requires years of work inside and outside Iraq, according to the Special Adviser.
Strengthening evidence preservation processes
The Special Advisor said that the team currently possesses 39 terabytes of information, noting that additional evidence was obtained to supplement what the team possesses through close cooperation with the Iraqi judiciary in the fields of digital forensics, digitization and archiving, in addition to forensic data obtained through excavations in graves. Collective
He pointed out that the UNITAD team is strengthening evidence preservation and management processes in order to support what will be agreed upon in light of the upcoming Secretary-General’s report, and the roadmap that will be developed in consultation with the Government of Iraq.
He added that the UN team worked hand in hand with its Iraqi counterparts to support the Iraqi-led process in order to adopt a local legal framework to investigate and prosecute the international crimes of ISIS. He added:
"Through our distinguished cooperation with the Iraqi judiciary, we completed the first joint case file against members of ISIS in other countries, and it was shared with the concerned country, which helped stop a member of ISIS."
The Security Council and the Government of Iraq called for the need to ensure that the work of the UNITAD team is not terminated before completing its mission.