Press Releases

03/05/2020

International Women's Day

Protection for forgotten victims (Press Release)

"Solutions are needed, urgently, because the mothers and children are often separated against their will, and often without a chance of ever finding each other again later."

On the occasion of International Women's Day, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) wants to draw attention to a largely ignored aspect of violence against women: children born of rape in war and the consequences for the women and children affected.

"Rape as a weapon of war has been a topic of discussion since the conflicts in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia", explained Lina Stotz, one of the STP's experts on ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities. "However, the topic of children born of rape in war is largely ignored – while these children and their mothers are often exposed to massive discrimination." This is particularly true if the victims belong to minority groups, as in the case of the genocide crimes committed by the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) against the Yazidi community in northern Iraq (which began on August 3, 2014).

"Solutions are needed, urgently, because the mothers and children are often separated against their will, and often without a chance of ever finding each other again later," Stotz stated. This is why the STP, together with the Yazidi diaspora in Germany, has published a list of demands for the future of these children – published in the memorandum "Die Zukunft der Kinder des ‚IS‘ – Sieben Forderungen von und für die yezidische Gemeinde". Germany, home of the largest Yezidi diaspora, is called to action as well.

Yazidi women have been suffering from systematic enslavement and rape since 2014. Many of them had children as a result, fathered by "IS" fighters. According to a decree of the Yazidi High Council, the spiritual leadership of the Yazidi community, mothers are allowed to return to the community if they can free themselves from "IS" captivity – but not children conceived in captivity, because of Yazidi traditions. "Many see the children as a symbol of the suffering of the entire community, and they are considered Muslims," Stotz explained. "Some of mothers voluntarily separate from their children, for example because they are too traumatized, but other mothers are forced to choose between their community and their children by the High Council." It is estimated that hundreds of children are affected.