Special Adviser Karim Khan QC Brief to the SC on his Fifth Report (As Delivered)

December 10^th, 2020 (As delivered)

Mr. President, distinguished delegates

I am honored to be able to address you this afternoon to present this fifth report of the activities of the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da'esh so called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

Today in fact marks three years since the government of Iraq was able to proclaim that the sacrifices and courage of the Iraqi people have prevailed, and that all territories in their county had been liberated from the shadow of Da’esh. And it is only appropriate that I begin today by recognizing the continued strength and resilience of all communities in Iraq, which have been and remain so critical both in delivering that victory and in taking the subsequent steps together with our team to deliver justice for the victims and survivors of Da’esh crimes.

Mr. President, distinguished delegates

Last month I was able to again personally witness the strength and the courage of these different communities, standing side by side with these families of victims at the awfully but accurately named “Grave of the Mothers”. That grave is in Solagh, in the north of Iraq, in Sinjar. That grave serves as an awful and sober reminder of the depth of horror that were inflicted by Da’esh upon innocent communities. That grave contained the remains of teenage children, and women executed after having been determined by Dae’sh to be past child-bearing age. In speaking with the sons and the daughters and the relatives and the loved ones whose remains layed in that grave, I was struck, as I was many times in my engagement with impacted communities in Iraq, by the painfully present legacy of trauma that ISIL has left in its wake. It is tangible and it remains today. Our work in these sites in the presence of those who have lost their family members at the hands of ISIL underlines very clearly both the continued urgency of our work and the need to ensure that our work is conducted in a manner sensitive to the experiences of that we seek to serve.

The psychosocial support provided on-site by UNITAD experts, and the holding of religious Yazidi ceremonies upon the commencement of the excavations reflect our attempt to ensure that those who have suffered from the crimes of Da’esh receive the bear minimum; the compassion, the understanding that they need as we work with them, with the council, with the Government of Iraq to hold the perpetrators to account. It is my personal commitment that as we continue our excavations in Zagroteya, Anbar, and Mosul early next year, our team will ensure that this work and indeed all of the investigative activities are guided by this critically important trauma informed approach.

Mr. President, distinguished delegates

The recommencement of the mass grave excavations one month ago provides an example of the way in which the team has developed innovative solutions and drawn upon its partnership with survivors, and Iraqi national counterparts, and with other actors in order to confront the unprecedented challenges caused by COVID that are experience by everybody in the world over the last 6 months.

New approaches have been required across every aspect of our work. The collection of testimonial evidence has continued following the development of the new protocols which have facilitated the conduct of remote interviews, we’ve developed a new online portal allowing for the submission of evidence directly to the team in a way that provides a secure, a safe and a user friendly platform through which we have been able to empower members of different communities in Iraq, in Australia and in Germany, to come forward with their accounts. I think that is quite a step change, and an important innovation.

Through collaboration with the Iraqi security services, we have been able to develop enhanced procedures for the movement of investigators in Iraq, ensuring that the most high priority field investigations can continue in full compliance with COVID19 travel restrictions. We’ve been completely complying, of course, with the Iraqi procedures and rules at this difficult moment.

In parallel to this, we have partnered with leading technology companies in order to bring cutting-edge analytical tools to our work. Significantly this is reducing the time needed for large scale data processing. Particularly important, for the crimes of Da’esh and the massive data sets that have been left in their wake collected by way of battlefield evidence, collected by the Government of Iraq and by other partners.

Through a recent initiative with the Microsoft corporation, the Team has strengthened its ability to utilize cognitive services, utilizing facial recognition, facial detection, machine translation, automatic detection and labeling of videos with graphic content. Drawing on these innovations, I can confirm to the council the progress has continued in our key line of investigation.

As reflected in my report, the continued momentum generated allows us to now envisage finalization of the first thematic case-briefs in the first half of next year. Even address our investigations into crimes committed against the Yazidi community in Sinjar, and also the massacre of unarmed air cadets and other personnel in Tikrit air academy.

And in parallel with that, the team has continued to expand its lines of investigation that six dedicated investigation units, now in place, including three units that have been established in significant part due to the generous financial contributions by the United States of America and the United Kingdome. And as a result, the investigations in relations to crimes against the Christian community, the Kaka’i, the Shabak, Sunni, Turkmen, and the Shi’a communities is progressing rapidly. This diversification represents a realisation of an undertaking that I gave to the council at the very outset of my work that we will ensure that there is no hierarchy of victim in our approach to the implementation of this mandate. Every human life matters regardless of religion, tribe, ethnicity. Every life stolen, robed, mutilated by Da’esh was precious, and this investigative team is focused on ensuring those crimes are properly investigated.

It is self-evident that all communities in Iraq suffered at the hands of ISIL. And every effort must be made to include them in our investigations to hold Da’esh to account.

Faced with this unprecedented challenge by COVID19, we have also further strengthened our cooperation with the Iraqi authorities and those also in the Kurdistan region. And it would be remiss of me not to take the opportunity to express my sincere thanks to the National Coordinating Committee of the Government of Iraq for the excellent support they have provided during this extraordinary period. And that cooperation from Baghdad has also been replicated from the cooperation and assistance from the KRG.

As far as Baghdad is concerned, we have recently met with the government, and the National Coordinating Committee, and reached out to the International Committee of Missing Persons, and established a national mass graves excavation strategy. For the first time, this strategy provides a unified coherent framework, guiding the action relating to all Da’esh activity, all Da’esh mass graves in Iraq. And these excavations are now aligned with the criminal investigative priorities of UNITAD. And the Team is being supported and supporting the Government of Iraq in the deployment of advanced technological tools and evidence collected practices to ensure our sites are addressed, opened up, and evidence collected according with international standards.

The utmost priority is also been given to ensuring the prompt return of the remains to the families of victims. And this has now been confirmed to take place on the 31^st of January of next year. That will be a somber occasion of course, this will be the first bodies that have been identified in Kojo in Sinjar. They will be returned, God willing, to burial in accordance with the Yazidi religious and cultural practices.

A major evidence digitization project is now underway, aimed at making the vast documentary archives held by Iraq fully accessible for use by us for the first time. Over 18 Iraqi authorities have now engaged in this project completing initial evidence assessment surveys and confirming various challenges that they have in terms of evidence collection, storage, and processing. This initial work has underlined a significant scale of the evidentiary material that will ultimately be collected, stored, and made available in criminal trials by intent of this initiative.

Through our recent engagement with one counter-terrorism court in northern Iraq, just one, the Team has identified tens of thousands of pieces of evidentiary material including a wide range of ISIL internal records of potential relevance to ongoing cases against identified perpetrators.

Your excellency

During my recent meeting with His Excellency the Prime Minister of Iraq, we recognized that it is through a unified approach that we can come together, we can ensure that evidence of ISIL crimes in Iraq is fully utilized in domestic trials to hold those responsible to account.

This collaborative approach has also been reflected in my recent meetings with the President and Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government and I am grateful for their continued support.

As reflected in the report, this commitment to delivering meaningful accountability for ISIl crimes has extended to reach actions taken by the Iraqi authorities with respect to a legal basis for the prosecution of ISIL members in Iraq. And I have been really encouraged in recent months by the efforts made by the Council of Representatives to take forward a legislation that would allow these Da’esh members, based upon evidence, to be prosecuted for the international crime of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

If the law is passed, it will be a significant step forward in responding to the constant calls of survivors that the prosecutions must reflect the true nature and gravity of the crimes inflicted upon them by ISIL. And I am further encouraged that such legislation contemplates a modality through which UNITAD may support such prosecutions in a manner consistent with our terms of reference.

This initiative should, hopefully, be welcomed by all member states seeking to promote accountability for ISIL crimes.

Mr. President, distinguished delegates

In the last six months our cooperation with the Iraqi judiciary have entered a new phase. Agreements have been reached on new projects through which the Team will provide training support to the Iraqi authorities, building case-files for the prosecution of ISIL members in Iraq, prosecution for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. So this work is taking place in advance of the law is enacted, so that if a law is enacted there will not be further lag before accountability can take place. And I am pleased to note that already initial case-files have been identified with the Iraqi judiciary in relation to crimes of sexual slavery committed by ISIL, and also in relation to a high member of ISIL that is presently in Iraqi detention.

I wish to emphasize that this arrangement for the provision of meaningful support by UNITAD to Iraqi investigative judges represents in my view an important moment in the implementation of our mandate. Allied with potential adoption of legislation in Iraq, aligned with the international prosecution of international crimes, perhaps for the first time again to see a clear path to the fulfillment of the promise made by this council to the survivors and impacted communities three years or so ago in resolution 2379.

I have reflected previously to this council that commitment is not made good solely through the collection and preservation of evidence, important though that is. Our commitment, our collective responsibility will only be satisfied when this evidence is presented in court and survivors of ISIL crimes are able to see their abusers held accountable in fair trials in accordance with the rule of law.

To this end, I can confirm to the council that I have continued to engage with the Government of Iraq with a view to establish modalities for the sharing of evidence with competent Iraqi authorities in accordance with the terms of reference. And in parallel we have also re-enforced our engagement with national authorities in other jurisdictions through which the provision of support in ongoing domestic proceedings can be made.

In the last six months, this spirit of partnership in the face of adversity has also extended to our engagement in other parts of the Iraqi society. It has been difficult for everybody. Our cooperation with None Governmental Organisations in particular have been strengthened through the establishment and initial meetings of a UNITAD NGO dialogue forum. We had our first meeting in June, other meetings in October, thematic round-tables and our first plenary in December.

The creation of this platform represents the fulfillment of a priority that I set at the outset to ensure that all parts of the Iraqi society, and in particular NGOs connected to communities in Iraq, representatives of people of Iraq benefit from a dedicated space in which they can openly engage with our team. These entities have already served as crucial partners to the implementation of our mandate through their role in facilitating engagement with impacted communities, by supporting and empowering survivors, and forward to us with their accounts. I am delighted that now we have a forum in which we can benefit from the expertise and unique perspective of these organisations.

Some of them, in fact, have very special skills particularly psychosocial skills that we are trying to harness to make sure that investigations are conducted in the best possible way, and really safeguarding the interests, the dignity and wellbeing of those that we interact with.

In addition to our partnerships with the Iraqi civil society, I have continue to be profoundly appreciative to the religious leadership of Iraq for their constant and unswerving support for this mandate. In July, building on the adoption of the landmark interfaith statement on the survivors and victims of ISIL earlier this year, I was delighted to host a meeting jointly with His Excellency Adama Dieng, then the Special Adviser of the Office of Genocide Prevention and Responsibility to Protect. And this was held in conjunction with the internationally well-known organisation, Religions for Peace. And at this, in addition to a whole monopoly of different religious leaders across the world, I was delighted to see that the leaders of the Shi’a, Sunni, Yazidi, Christian, and Kaka’ faiths were all present.

As reflected in the interfaith statement itself, this collective support of faith leaders across Iraq for our work represents a crucial repudiation of any claim at all of Da’esh to spiritual legitimacy is being repudiated collectively. It is by divorcing their criminal actions from any religious basis or any justification that we can inoculate future generations in Iraqi and globally from attempts to radicalize the most vulnerable members of society. In this spirit, I’m delighted that the Government of Iraq have invited His Holiness Pope Francis will visit Iraq next year.

Mr. President, distinguished delegates

Two years on from the arrival of the Team to Baghdad, the progress made in our investigative work, allied with the crucial partnerships we have developed with our Iraqi counterparts, allows us to begin to consider what the ultimate fulfillment of our mandate will look like.

As reflected in my report, with a view to establish a comprehensive framework for the next steps of our work, we enhanced our investigations strategy to ensure the effective delivery of its three mutually supported pillars. Through the production of thematic case-briefs outlining the constitute element of crimes substantiated by our investigations, by the finalization of individual case-files tying Da’esh members to particular crimes with all the evidence the domestic courts will need, and thirdly by the provision of targeted support to ongoing proceedings. I believe that in the coming year, we will significantly strengthen the basis upon which Iraqi authorities and those of other states can take forward domestic proceedings in relation to members of Da’esh most responsible for their crimes.

Whilst the challenges of the last six months have been unprecedented, the Team therefore looks forward to the coming year with renewed hope that the legitimate demands for justice for survivors will be met. Unique partnerships underpinning this mandate that of independent investigations, close collaboration with the Iraqi authorities, of international standards adapted to domestic context is working.

As always, I am grateful for the support of SRSG [Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaertand] and the support of UNAMI. But this innovative model for criminal accountability developed by the council three years ago now provides an opportunity to investigate and start a paradigm shift in the investigation and prosecution of Da’esh crimes. In seeking to support this moment, the Team will continue to rely upon your unanimous support.

Thank you so much