During chairing the symposium with Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, His Special Adviser and the Head of the UN investigation team, Mr. Christian Richer on strengthening accountability efforts for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the terrorists of Daaish, His Excellency, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr.  Naeem Abd Yaser Al-Aboudi confirmed that the investigation team established by Security Council Resolution No. 2379 (2017) to strengthen accountability efforts for Daaish crimes represents an important part of the process of documenting the crimes and genocides committed by Daaish in Iraq the destruction of archaeological, religious and cultural sites and  use of prohibited weapons, smuggling of wealth and other crimes from which Iraq is still suffering.

Dr. Al-Aboudi praised the efforts of the UN investigation team (UNITAD).

His Excellency reviewed that the Ministry and its faculty members specialized in criminal law and international law are ready to cooperate with the efforts made by the UN team in order to criminalize the perpetrators of these crimes and bring them to local and international courts to receive their punishment.

Dr. Al-Aboudi highlighted that the Ministry worked out of its national mission to restore life to educational institutions in the liberated Governorates after their reconstruction and holding conferences and workshops to address the psychological effects left by the crimes committed by the terrorist organization and to benefit from the expertise provided by the United Nations programs for the psychological and social rehabilitation of the regions.

For his part, Mr. Richer reviewed a presentation of the tasks of the investigation team on collecting evidence, information and documents related to the crimes committed by Daaish in Iraq, analyzing them and classifying them as war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

Mr. Richer highlighted that the UN team is working in partnership with Iraqi judicial and academic institutions in order to strengthen efforts to pursue the perpetrators of these horrific crimes and bring them to justice.

For his part, Ministry’s Deputy for Administrative Affairs, Dr. Adnan Ibrahim Abd said that coordination with the international team for accountability for Daaish crimes will enhance joint efforts in order to pass special legislation to look into Daaish crimes and to form special courts for those crimes.

For their part, faculty members, experts and researchers reviewed constructive interventions to enhance the work of the international team and develop an effective strategy to support these efforts and provide them with national academic expertise.

It is worth mentioning that the symposium was attended by the Ministry’s Deputy for Administrative Affairs, Dr. Adnan Ibrahim Abd, representatives of the Directorates,  head of support in the UNITAD team, Judge Qassim Sajit and a number of members of the International Team, as well as specialists from Iraqi universities.