A/HRC/34/53/Add.1 period of internal displacement in Iraq is scarce, and that monitoring is complicated by the fact that many are thought to have been displaced multiple times. 13 B. Violations against minority women and girls 55. The Special Rapporteur met with numerous Yazidi women who had been kidnapped by ISIL when trying to escape from Sinjar, who provided harrowing testimonies. The women, including some very young women and children, described their capture and treatment by ISIL fighters. Some described being given to fighters who would subsequently sell them or offer them as “gifts” to other fighters. One described being raped and tortured before her escape. Some said that they were given drugs before being raped. “Everyone was trying to rape us,” stated one woman. Some described being coerced to convert to Islam with the promise that they would not be hurt. “They put guns at our heads and told us that they would take our children away”, stated one captured woman. 56. Women were bought and sold like slaves before being taken to other locations in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic. Their possessions, including telephones, were taken away from them. One woman stated: “They took our money, phones, gold and our daughters.” Some women embroidered their telephone numbers on scraps of cloth in case they had the opportunity to call family members. Others showed crude tattoos that they had made on their arms stating the names of their family members so that if they were killed their bodies could be identified. One 9-year-old girl was disguised as a boy by her mother to prevent her from being raped. “There is nothing left that they haven’t done to us,” stated one woman. Everyone called for greater support, including psychosocial support, to be provided urgently. 57. Some women described their escape via “smugglers” who were paid large sums to facilitate their freedom, while others found opportunities to slip away from their captives on their own. Yazidi women who had escaped or been released by ISIL shared stories of starvation, humiliation, rape and sexual slavery that are deeply shocking. Captured women and girls are now being sold back and released by ISIL after large sums are paid to mediators and smugglers. At least 3,200 Yazidi and other women and children are reportedly still being held by ISIL, 14 and everything possible must be done to secure their release. Community leaders stated that they lacked funds to buy their freedom and expressed concerns regarding proposed military campaigns and their impact on the women and children who remained captive. One Yazidi leader stated: “There has been no action to save our girls. Why has the international community decided not to help the Yazidi people?” 58. Women described the trauma of their experiences and complained that the Government had not provided psychosocial care. Asked about their future, they commonly said, “We want to go somewhere safe.” They expressed frustration that international visitors had come but that “nothing positive” had happened for them. One woman stated: “There is no work, nothing to live on. We were captives there, and we are captives here.” Some added that, despite their traumatic experiences, they lived outside internally displaced person camps and did not receive humanitarian assistance. The trauma experienced by families and communities whose loved ones were or remain captives must also be 13 14 See www.internal-displacement.org/middle-east-and-north-africa/iraq/2015/iraq-idps-caughtbetween-a-rock-and-a-hard-place-as-displacement-crisis-deepens. “‘They came to destroy’: ISIS crimes against the Yazidis”. Available from www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/IICISyria/Pages/Documentation.aspx. 15