Human rights in Islamic State-controlled territory

It systematically committed torture, mass rapes, forced marriages,[16] extreme acts of ethnic cleansing, mass murder, genocide, robbery, extortion, smuggling, slavery, kidnappings, and the use of child soldiers; in its implementation of strict interpretations of Sharia law which were based on ancient eighth-century methods, they carried out public "punishments"[17] such as beheadings, crucifixions, beatings, mutilation and dismemberment, the stoning of both children and adults, and the live burning of people.

[18][19] A UN report released in 2014 stated that between 6 July and 10 September 2014, IS and allied insurgent groups launched violence in an "apparent systematic and widespread character" across Iraq.

[19] In November 2014, the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic said that the Islamic State was committing crimes against humanity and that it "seeks to subjugate civilians under its control and dominate every aspect of their lives through terror, indoctrination, and the provision of services to those who obey.

"[20] In October 2015, the UN Human Rights Council "strongly condemn[ed] the terrorist acts and violence committed against civilians by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh), al-Nusrah Front and other extremist groups, and their continued gross, systematic and widespread abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, and reaffirm[ed] that terrorism, including the actions of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh), cannot and should not be associated with any religion, nationality or civilization.

Human Rights Watch documented three apparent incidents in which captives were killed and at least ten public floggings by the Islamic Youth Shura Council, which joined IS in November.

It also documented the beheading of three Derna residents and dozens of seemingly politically motivated assassinations of judges, public officials, members of the security forces and others.

Sarah Leah Watson, Director of HRW Middle East and North Africa, said: "Commanders should understand that they may face domestic or international prosecution for the grave rights abuses their forces are committing.

It issued a special report in late 2014 describing how IS has "systematically targeted non-Arab and non-Sunni Muslim communities, killing or abducting hundreds, possibly thousands, and forcing more than 830,000 others to flee the areas it has captured since 10 June 2014".

[25][26] IS's crimes of murder, ethnic cleansing, enslavement and rape[27] against Shia,[28][29] Christian,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36] Yazidis[37][38] and various religious minorities within its territories were recognized as a genocide by the European Parliament and U.S. House of Representatives in 2014.

[41] In a briefing to the UN Security Council held on 10 May 2021, a UN investigative team stated that IS launched a genocide against Yazidis "as a religious group" during the Sinjar massacre, with the objective of eliminating them "physically and biologically".

In a special report released on 2 September 2014, the organization described how IS had "systematically targeted non-Arab and non-Sunni Muslim communities, killing or abducting hundreds, possibly thousands, of individuals and forcing more than 830,000 others to flee the areas it has captured since 10 June 2014".

[45] Christians living in areas under IS control face four options: converting to Islam, paying a religious levy called the jizya, leaving the caliphate, or death.

[58] Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of IS till his 2019 demise, further noted that Christians who do not agree with those terms must "leave the borders of the Islamic Caliphate" within a specified deadline.

According to reports from survivors interviewed by OHCHR, on 15 August, the entire male population of the Yazidi village of Khocho, up to 400 men, were rounded up and shot by IS, and up to 1,000 women and children were abducted.

UNESCO is working with Interpol, national customs authorities, museums, and major auction houses in attempts to prevent looted items from being sold.

[citation needed] "There were explosions that destroyed buildings dating back to the Assyrian era", said National Museum of Iraq director Qais Rashid, referring to the destruction of the shrine of Yunus.

An investigation led by the Human Rights Watch disclosed that Al-Hota gorge that was once a beautiful natural site in northeastern Syria is used by IS as a disposal ground for the bodies of people killed by them.

[134][135][136] After IS released photographs of its fighters shooting scores of young men, the UN declared that cold-blooded "executions" by militants in northern Iraq almost certainly amounted to war crimes.

[152] According to The Economist, the group also adopted certain practices seen in Saudi Arabia, including the establishment of religious police to root out "vice" and enforce attendance at daily prayers, the widespread use of capital punishment, and the destruction of Christian churches and non-Sunni mosques or their conversion to other uses.

"[161][162] Civil rights activist told ARA News that "ISIS militants prevent the people of Manbij and Jarablus from leaving their hometowns despite the fierce airstrikes by Russian warplanes".

[163] The use of human shields and executions of civilians who tried to flee continued in Iraq right through until the group lost is final major urban territory there after its defeat in the Battle for Mosul in July 2017.

[169] The sexual violence which was perpetrated by IS included its use of rape as a weapon of war;[170] instituting forced marriages to its fighters;[171] and trading women and girls as sex slaves.

[178][179][180] According to Martin Williams in The Citizen, some hard-line Salafists apparently regard extramarital sex with multiple partners as a legitimate form of holy war and it is "difficult to reconcile this with a religion where some adherents insist that women must be covered from head to toe, with only a narrow slit for the eyes".

[188] Shortly after the death of US hostage Kayla Mueller was confirmed on 10 February 2015,[189] several media outlets reported that the US intelligence community believed she may have been given as a wife to an IS fighter.

[197][198][199] According to The Wall Street Journal, IS appeals to apocalyptic beliefs and claims "justification by a Hadith that they interpret as portraying the revival of slavery as a precursor to the end of the world".

[197][201][202] According to Mona Siddiqui, IS's "narrative may well be wrapped up in the familiar language of jihad and 'fighting in the cause of Allah', but it amounts to little more than destruction of anything and anyone who doesn't agree with them"; she describes IS as reflecting a "lethal mix of violence and sexual power" and a "deeply flawed view of manhood".

[206][207] In response to this document Abbas Barzegar, a religion professor at Georgia State University, said Muslims around the world find IS's "alien interpretation of Islam grotesque and abhorrent".

Sajad Jiyad, a Research Fellow and Associate Member at the Iraqi Institute for Economic Reform, told the newspaper that many IS supporters and fighters had been in denial about the trafficking of kidnapped Yazidi women until a Dabiq article justifying the practice was published.

[211][212] The New York Times said in August 2015 that "[t]he systematic rape of women and girls from the Yazidi religious minority has become deeply enmeshed in the organization and the radical theology of the Islamic State in the year since the group announced it was reviving slavery as an institution.

[213] In 2016, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability said they had identified 34 senior IS members who were instrumental in the systematic sex slave trade and planned to prosecute them after the end of hostilities.