Criminal Tribunal to Deter Atrocities

Legal Protections for Threatened Minorities

[Lalish, Ezidikhan, Iraq. 5 May 2023] – The Government of Ezidikhan has announced its approval of the Nations International Criminal Tribunal (NICT) to address and deter genocidal act committed against indigenous nations of the world. The NICT will be complementary to indigenous nations’ and states’ criminal jurisdiction in accord with their sovereign and territorial integrity and consistent with the sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia and the sovereignty of the Nation of Ezidikhan.

The Nations International Criminal Tribunal Charter recognizes that all peoples share a common inheritance and that the international legal order recognizes that the nations of the world are all entitled to full recognition with dignity and political equality with states.

Addressing his cabinet, Prime Minister Barjis Soho Khalaf stated that “The Ezidikhan government is committed to upholding the purpose and principles of this Charter and the International Covenant on the Rights of Indigenous Nations. The NICT will ensure that nations or states try to repair any harm resulting from the commission of a crime through restorative justice rather than through punitive justice alone.”

The Ezidikhan Governing Council authorized the formation of a diplomatic panel headed by Yezidi Supreme Spiritual Council Mir Baba Salem Daoud in December 2022 to draft the NICT Charter. “The diplomatic panel will ensure that justice is achieved for the victims of atrocities. Impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes is no longer an option,” asserted the Prime Minister.

 The NICT will have jurisdiction over all crimes of concern to all peoples, including invasions, religious oppression, colonization, trauma, ethnic cleaning, economic destruction, forced removal of children, sexual violence against women, starvation and food insecurity, occupations and forced settlements, forced denial of sexual orientation, forced assimilation, uprooting, mass murders, forced demographic change, expulsions, exploitation, apartheid, slavery, torture, and physical, ecological, and cultural genocide, denial of sovereignty, and denial of self-determination of all nations.

Never before has so a comprehensive legal framework been codified that provides such wide-ranging legal protections for threatened minorities. As such, the Charter of the NICT stands as a landmark in the advance of justice to include provisions and protections for indigenous and tribal communities and nations.

Ezidikhan declares itself resolute in its commitment to achieve these ends for all peoples to ensure lasting respect for the enforcement of international accountability and justice. The NICT affirms the rights of nations to self-determination and self-government and control over their natural resources, not only to protect their people from abhorrent crimes and atrocities but also to prevent criminal offenses and punish criminal offenses against nations in accordance with the punishments set out in the Universal Declaration of Mother Earth and in the NICT Charter.

The Ezidikhan government also calls on all nations and states to exercise lawful jurisdiction over states or nations, persons, business organizations, government and non-government organizations, intergovernmental organizations, armed groups, and any other entities that may commit internationally recognized crimes. The NICT will ensure that international agreements and treaties between states’ governments and other legal instruments adopted to protect against and punish crimes carried out against peoples, assuring every nation of the world with due process, redress, or remedy for criminal acts.

The Ezidikhan government, following the mass slaughter and kidnapping of Yezidis in 2014 within Ezidikhan territory, is committed to ensuring comity between nations and states and the rights of nations to self-determination and self-government. The NICT will be an objective judicial forum that will hear cases of crimes committed against nations in North America, Central America, South America, Asia, Melanesia, Oceania, Africa, and Europe, including acts committed by states, organizations, militias, or nations. The NICT will provide nations of the world with access to justice and due process and will ensure that the perpetrators of these crimes are held accountable for their actions.

“The Ezidikhan government is proud to establish the Nations International Criminal Tribunal and is committed to working with other nations and states to ensure that justice is achieved for all victims of atrocities, and impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes is no longer entrenched,” declares Ezidikhan Justice Minister Nallein Sowilo. “The NICT will ensure that the international legal order will one day recognize every nation of the world and together with its customary laws. Every nation is fully entitled to political equality with freedom from inhumane or degrading treatment.”