Tenth report of the Special Adviser and Head of the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant

    Summary

The United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant is reporting for the tenth time to the Security Council, marking new key outcomes towards the fulfilment of its mandate in respect of accountability for core international crimes committed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as Da’esh).

Following previously reported investigative achievements, the Team successfully launched new lines of inquiry on the development and use of biological and chemical weapons, the destruction of cultural and religious heritage and the crimes committed against various communities of Iraq. The Team has started to be engaged in building criminal case files with its Iraqi counterparts – investigative judges, prosecutors and forensic and law enforcement experts – against Da’esh/ISIL perpetrators who escaped from Iraq and are residing in third States.

The Team, confident in the future adoption of a domestic legal framework to prosecute Da’esh/ISIL members for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, is aiming to work with the Iraqi judiciary on key evidence and leads that could support charges related to core international crimes.

The Team will continue to share its expertise and knowledge with relevant jurisdictions, within and beyond Iraq, to hold Da’esh/ISIL members accountable for such crimes.

The major evidence-digitization project led by the Team is continuously being implemented and UNITAD is assisting its counterparts in the digitization of records at several courts in Baghdad, Tikrit, Anbar, Ninawa, Kirkuk, Tazah Khurmatu and Erbil. This support includes the provision of training on the management of key evidence, as well as on the physical archiving of records.

The Team is highly dedicated to uninterruptedly providing its expertise, information, and equipment to Iraqi counterparts, in particular in the framework of its digitization project.