Inclusionary Justice for the Yazidi: A Social Justice Approach to the Inequalities Before, During, and After the Yazidi Genocide of 2014-2017 in Sinjar, Iraq

Sammanfattning

ISIS committed mass atrocities against the Yazidis (Kurdish: Êzîdîs) in Sinjar (Kurdish: Şingal), Iraq, in 2014-2017. Several international and regional observers have qualified the acts as genocide under international law. Yet the numerous social, cultural, and political preconditions of the genocide are not recognized in the 1948 Genocide Convention. To answer the line of question, Susan Opotow’s Social Justice Theory has been adopted along with conducting a critical discourse analysis on the Iraqi Penal Code (IPC), the Yazidi Survivors Law, and a Status of Sinjar Report 2023 from Nadia’s Initiative. This paper aims to critically examine the Yazidis’ exclusion from the scope of justice before, during and after the genocide. This approach challenges the narration that genocide is a solely criminal matter, where justice is reduced to criminal responsibility. Together, the legal texts and the report present a comprehensive picture of historical internal oppression, and broad needs according to Yazidis residing in Sinjar. The study suggests that the Genocide Convention, the IPC, and the Yazidi Survivors Law legitimizes an exclusionary justice. A social justice approach recognizes the root causes of the marginalization – and, crucially, the inclusion of Yazidis as a way to achieve justice.