On Friday 21 September 2016, a young woman from the Yezidi minority was appointed UN Goodwill Ambassador. Nadia Murad Basee Taha was kidnapped from the Iraqi village of Kocho by IS and subjected to human trafficking.
The appointment, made by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), marks the first time that a survivor of abuse has been given the post. Lawyer and international human rights advocate Amal Clooney was by her side during the ceremony at the UN.
Nadia Murad will serve as Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking at UNODC. Back in August 2014, she saw militants belonging to the terrorist group IS shoot six of her brothers, her mother, and countless other Yazidis in cold blood. Two of her sisters were taken and used for human trafficking and parts of her remaining family have either been killed or in the hands of IS.
She was then subjected to gross abuse at the hands of these militants and was bought and sold several times. According to the UN’s investigators, IS is committing genocide against the Yezidis and subjecting them to the “most terrible atrocities”.
Through an interpreter, Nadia Murad says: “The Islamic State did not just come to kill our women and girls, but they took us as war booty. Items that could be exchanged. These crimes were not committed arbitrarily, there was an organized planned policy. The Islamic State came with a single goal: To destroy the Yazidi identity through rape, recruiting children for indoctrination and destroying our temples. All this can only be interpreted as an act of collective genocide against our collective identity, especially against Yezidi families.”
She will continue to raise awareness of the plight of the countless victims of human trafficking, especially refugees, women and children.
Source: http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2016/09/yazidi-trafficking-survivor-named-un-goodwill-ambassador/#.WGvVErGZdE4 – Desember 2016
Photo credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
