Thread by @Free_Yezidi

International concern and pity for the welfare and condition of #ISIS #Daesh members held in detention, from the reputable and esteemed @hrw @KenRoth @lettatayler , may have international legal weight but is missing the bigger picture.

Thread.

https://twitter.com/lettatayler/status/1374350508702437383

It is admirable that crucial international rights organizations like @hrw and @amnesty work to improve adherence to justice, human rights, and the rule of law around the world. Rightly so and generally a force for good, as #Yezidi #Yazidi people know.

Those #ISIS #Daesh members, male and female, do in principle deserve fair trial, judicial processes, legal representation, and the robust legal system that most citizens enjoy in the West. That is ideal, and we #Yezidi #Yazidi would warmly welcome full trials of ISIS.

It would also meet international standards if the camps in #Syria #Rojava had the capacity to hold terrorists and also provide the proper housing and basic needs as is common in the West.

In non-war situations, holding individuals without trials and evidence is unacceptable, as everyone knows. Furthermore, without evidence, an individual can not be held in prison.

But @hrw fails to locate the situation of these #ISIS #Daesh members in the proper context. And this leads to a level of concern for members of a genocidal organization that in many cases eclipses the concern for their victims!

For example, @hrw @lettatayler notes the awful conditions of the camps holding #ISIS #Daesh members. No doubt. But there are millions of people in camps all throughout #Iraq and #Syria ! And most are displaced BECAUSE of ISIS! More than 200,000 #Yezidi #Yazidi for example.

With so many people facing dire humanitarian conditions, it becomes unfortunately a problem of priority and allocation of resources and support. @lettatayler notes the sorrow of ISIS members in Al Hol for 3 years. But Yezidis, victims of genocide, have been in camps 6+ years!

In a situation where millions of people require aid, and there is quite obviously not the political will, resources, or capacity by foreign or local governments to provide, then it is a question of allocation, not rights.

And so when the most reputable global human rights organizations @hrw @lettatayler call attention to living condition complaints from #ISIS #Daesh members, they must highlight that there are countless innocent people ALSO living in camps, because of ISIS, also deprived of rights

Often @hrw and various international analysts call for legal rights and fairness to the accused, like #ISIS, in good faith, with the idea of global presence of international norms. Ideally, that would be acceptable. Practically, intl legal norms do not exist in Syria or Iraq.

The other common refrain, especially from #Europe , is to bring #ISIS #Daesh members back home, to stand trial. But in reality, this means they will mostly just face a small or no sentence in Europe.

independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…

The fundamental problem is that international legal analysts come from a ‘highway system’ where there are speed limits and laws, and thus seek to (rightly) ensure such systems exist elsewhere. That is a benevolent impulse.

But in #Iraq and #Syria , there is not a proper system, there is not enforcement, and there are not generally agreed laws that function. In that case external analysts must PRIORITIZE which violations to focus upon. From the #Yezidi #Yazidi perspective, the quality of ->

-> #ISIS #Daesh housing, water, and daily welfare is last on the list. Not to say it doesn’t count, but surely victims of genocide should enjoy recovery before, not after, the perpetrators! With limited political will and aid resources, it truly is sometimes an allocation issue.

In ideal world, the local administration would establish intl recognized courts, process evidence, provide legal defense for #ISIS members, and those guilty would be convicted of their crimes. And also the 500,000 #Yezidi #Yazidi lives destroyed would enjoy restitution.

In reality, there has been basically no justice for the genocide and war crimes committed by #ISIS #Daesh . In a context absent of even the basic legal and civil rights, the complaints of genocidaires and their supporters ranks last on the list.

Finally, many in the detention camps are female or children. It is logical that children who did not commit crimes should not be punished. But female #ISIS #Daesh members exploit the false narrative that they are brides, wives, naive, victims, confused, groomed, scared...innocent

Our community knows that female #ISIS #Daesh members were the WORST. They beat and degraded #Yezidi #Yazidi , they recruited and financed terror, they brought resources and manpower to a mass-rape genocidal terror group. It was not an accident.

Example:

freeyezidi.org/wp-content/upl…

In sum, orgs like @hrw and @amnesty have a key role to play in promotion of global rights and the rule of law. But while we agree that those accused of genocide, slavery, and atrocities - or accomplices of those crimes - have rights, they don’t have more rights than survivors.

In a world where thousands or millions are IDPs in camps or refugees, all are traumatized, all lack rights or justice, and everyone is suffering, and resources and will are scarce, priority care must be for the attacked, not the attacker.