Amal Clooney on Sexual Violence in Conflict - Security Council Statement

Statement by Amal Clooney, International human rights lawyer, on Sexual Violence in Conflict during the 8514th Meeting of the Security Council.

Barrister Amal Clooney reminded Council Members that the crimes committed by ISIS against women and girls “are unlike anything we have witnessed in modem times.” She added, “ISIS controlled territory the size of the United Kingdom and ruled over eight million people. More than 40,000 foreign fighters from 110 countries are estimated to have joined ISIS’s ranks in Iraq and Syria. But the question of bringing them to justice has barely raised a whisper.”

Clooney gave the Council four options to dealing with crimes committed by ISIL, including a referral to the International Criminal Court, setting up a court through a treaty by like-minded states who believe in justice, setting up a court through the European Union, or a hybrid court set up between the UN and Iraq such as those done in the cases of Sierra Leone and Cambodia.

Clooney told the Security Council, “Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen: This is your Nuremberg moment. Your chance to stand on the right side of history. You owe it to Nadia, and to the thousands of women and girls who must watch ISIS members shave off their beards and go back to their normal lives, while they, the victims, never can.”