Australia Must Stop Treating the Ezidi Genocide as a Simple Terrorism Case
Australia has recognised the ISIS genocide against the Ezidi people. Now it must prove that this recognition means something.
Recognition Is Not Enough
In 2018, Australia recognised that ISIS committed genocide against the Ezidi people.
That recognition mattered. But recognition alone does not bring justice.
ISIS crimes against Ezidis were not ordinary terrorism. Ezidi women and girls were enslaved, raped, sold, beaten, and forced to live under ISIS control. Ezidi children were taken from their families. Ezidi men were murdered. Ezidi identity and the Sharfadin faith were directly targeted.
This was genocide. It was crimes against humanity. It was slavery. It was sexual violence. It was war crimes.
If Australia recognises this genocide, then it must also investigate and prosecute these crimes under their real legal names. It is not enough to use only terrorism offences because they are easier or more familiar.
A terrorism case mainly asks whether a person supported or joined a terrorist organisation. A genocide case asks whether a person helped destroy a people. A crimes against humanity case asks whether a person took part in a system of slavery, rape, persecution, murder, and forced displacement.
For Ezidi survivors, this difference is not technical. It is personal. When genocide is treated only as terrorism, the victims disappear from the centre of the case.
Australia Should Learn From Germany
Germany has shown that ISIS crimes against Ezidis can be prosecuted properly. Sweden, the Netherlands and France are also following in Germany’s footsteps.
German courts have convicted ISIS members for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide-related offences involving Ezidi victims. This sends an important message: ISIS crimes against Ezidis must be named correctly.
Recent reports have raised serious allegations involving ISIS-linked Australians and the enslavement of Ezidi girls. These allegations must be proven in court. But they must also be investigated through the correct legal framework.
If any Australian citizen, resident, spouse, relative, or household member controlled, abused, encouraged, enabled, or benefited from the enslavement of Ezidis, then this should not be reduced to a lesser terrorism case.
It should be investigated as possible genocide, crimes against humanity, slavery, war crimes, and sexual violence.
Australia knows how to investigate war crimes when it chooses to. So the question is simple: why is there no stronger legal focus on ISIS crimes against Ezidis?
The Crime Must Be Named Correctly
The Ezidi genocide was not a small part of the ISIS story. It was one of ISIS’s central crimes.
Ezidis were targeted because they were Ezidi. Their families, identity, homeland, women, children, and Sharfadin faith were attacked because ISIS wanted to destroy them as a people.
Australia must stop treating the Ezidi genocide as something smaller than it was.
It was genocide. It was crimes against humanity. It was slavery. It was sexual violence. It was war crimes. It was an attempt to destroy an ancient people.
If Australia truly recognises the Ezidi genocide, then it must also prosecute ISIS-linked crimes against Ezidis under their real legal names.
Recognition without accountability is not justice. It is giving the victims a second injustice.