The Foreign Relations Committee of the Belgian Parliament unanimously adopted a bill to recognize the Yazidi Genocide.

The bill adopted by the Belgian Parliament “condemns and recognizes” the genocide committed against Yazidis by ISIS in Iraq and Syria starting in 2014.

The Belgian lawmakers also asked the government to “use all domestic and international legal means so that the crime of genocide committed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria does not go unpunished.”

The lawmakers demanded the government to “encourage and support the Belgian justice system to identify and prosecute possible Belgian perpetrators of crimes against the Yazidi community”.

RETURN AND RECONSTRUCTION

The bill called for Belgium to facilitate the return of Yazidis to their lands and reconstruction activities.

The bill was introduced by the Christian democratic Humanist Democratic Centre (cdH). Koen Metsu from the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) and seven other parties forming the coalition government endorsed the bill.

‘THIS CONCERNS ALL HUMANITY’

“The evidence was there. They were numerous and important. Starting from the summer of 2014, there was no doubt that the Islamic State (ISIS) was planning this genocide. Mass graves were discovered, forced conversions were revealed (...) It is a crime that concerns all of us as human beings,” Georges Dallemagne from the cdH party said.

Goerges Dallemagne and Koen Metsu had visited northern and eastern Syria at the end of last year.

CRIME LIST

The bill included a list of violations the Yazidis faced: “pogroms, systematic murder of men, sexual slavery of virgin women sold to commanders and soldiers, hostages who were later returned to their families in exchange for heavy ransoms, burial of women, men and children alive, drugging children, forced Islamization and enlisting.”