New York: Europe and the Arabs
The Head of the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by ISIS, Christian Richter, has affirmed his team's commitment to seeking justice for all Iraqis affected by atrocities committed by members of the group.

In a briefing he gave to the Security Council on the tenth report, which details the work of the team during the last period, Richer said that his team, which was established five years ago at the request of Iraq, continues to work tirelessly with Iraq to enhance accountability for international crimes committed by ISIS, and support the prosecution of the perpetrators of those crimes. crimes around the world. This is according to what was stated in the United Nations news bulletin, of which we received a copy at dawn today

The special advisor and head of the team - known as UNITAD - spoke about the team's involvement in working with communities affected by crimes committed by ISIS and the survivors of those crimes, in addition to tribal elders and clerics.

Richer also touched on the progress made in the team's investigations in assessing a number of cases, including ISIS's development and use of chemical weapons, crimes against children, crimes against Sunnis in Anbar Province, and attacks against Christians in Nineveh Province, in addition to continuing investigations into ISIS attacks against Yazidis and Shiites.

Pillars of success
The Special Adviser said that cooperation with the Iraqi authorities was essential to the success of the work of the team, adding that three pillars should be in place to ensure this success, which are "competent courts, reliable and admissible evidence before the courts, and the appropriate legal framework."

In order to achieve this goal, Richer explained, the UNITAD team is committed to supporting the Iraqi-led process "to adopt a legal framework that enables the crimes of ISIS to be held accountable as international crimes before the national courts of Iraq" so that the brutality of the attacks perpetrated by ISIS are treated as international crimes rather than Accountability based on affiliation with a terrorist organization only.

The Special Adviser indicated that cooperation with the Iraqi judiciary includes building the capacity of Iraqi judges, continuous and joint work in building cases, in addition to the huge digitization project, which has completed, to date, the digitization of eight million pages of documents related to ISIS in the possession of the Iraqi authorities as well as the authorities in the Kurdistan region.

Richer praised the success achieved so far, but also cautioned that UNITAD's work is not over, saying, "What we want to see are fair trials before specialized courts in Iraq with the effective participation of victims and survivors."

The Special Adviser touched on the work of UNITAD in terms of supporting efforts to promote accountability internationally, stressing that his team has become an indispensable member of the international network concerned with ending impunity for ISIS crimes.

Richer added that the team is currently working to provide investigation and trial support to 17 judicial authorities from different countries.