A special session was held in the Swiss Federal Parliament to discuss a bill previously submitted by Fabian Molina, a Federal MP from the Swiss Socialist Party, and Sibel Arslan, an MP from the Greens. The session aimed to recognize the massacres carried out by ISIS against the Yazidis as genocide. Victims of the ISIS massacre and prominent members of the Yazidi community also attended the session.

Molina: the crimes of genocide have been documented  

Socialist Party Federal MP Fabian Molina recalled the massacres carried out by ISIS against the Yazidis in 2014, and said: "The horrific crimes committed by ISIS have been thoroughly documented and proven by the UN investigation team UNITAD and other investigative authorities. The international community has widely accepted, both politically and legally, that the crimes committed constitute genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide."

The Yazidis were targeted for annihilation

Molina said that ISIS's primary aim in its attacks was the complete annihilation of the Yazidi people. He added that, starting in 2014, ISIS systematically attacked Yazidi settlements in Iraq with the intention of destroying their culture and life. "In doing so, they killed and enslaved tens of thousands of Yazidis, particularly women. The Yazidi women, men, and children who were kidnapped were forced into labor under enslavement, subjected to sexual violence, and other atrocities. The accounts are so horrific that they defy human comprehension. For example, some victims were forced to eat human flesh. As demonstrated in UNITAD’s report, all these crimes were committed with the intent to annihilating the Yazidi people."

An important step in fighting impunity

Molina told the assembly that some Yazidis who survived the ISIS massacres were present in the parliament. He said: “As a commission, we support Switzerland’s long-standing international commitment to fighting impunity for the gravest crimes. Fighting impunity is a vital contribution to upholding the rule of law and preventing the gravest crimes. Given the threat of ISIS’s resurgence in Syria, this bill is even more significant. The proposed bill is consistent with Switzerland’s policy of neutrality. In this regard, the commission also reminds us that ISIS has been sanctioned as a terrorist organization by the United Nations and is not, as it claims, a state. In this spirit, I call on the parliament to approve the proposed bill.” 

Sibel Arslan: this atrocity must not go unpunished  

Green Party MP Sibel Arslan drew attention to the scale of the massacres committed by ISIS against the Yazidis, and said: "The United Nations has defined these crimes as genocide. Various states have recognized the massacre as genocide. Now we must help ensure that this atrocity does not go unpunished."

Vote results and bill approval 

Following the speeches, the bill was put to a vote in the parliament and was approved with 105 votes in favor, 62 votes against, and 27 abstentions. 

Decisions in the approved bill  

According to the adopted bill, Switzerland: 

- Strongly condemns the forced displacement, rape, systematic killings, and destruction of Yazidi places of worship carried out with genocidal intent against the Yazidis; 

- Recognizes the attacks launched by ISIS against the Yazidi religious minority in Iraq since 3 August 2014, as genocide; 

- Requests the Swiss Foreign Ministry to communicate this recognition to the international community through diplomatic channels; 

- Calls on the Federal Council to commit at the international level to addressing and remedying these crimes.